Mindi's been around for awhile as a jazz and session saxophonist and she's played on late night TV, plus she had an appearance on "American Idol" in which Steven Tyler yelled out to the contestant she was accompanying, "Forget you, who's your sax player?" In recent years she swung into the blues scene when she formed her current backup band, and for 2018 she put out this Christmas album, which you'll find is nicely energetic all the way through, from the stomping title tune through to some imaginative takes on "Run Run Rudolph" and "Merry Christmas Baby," eschewing the typical arrangements you hear on those songs. She revived an original from a 2003 single, "I Can't Wait For Christmas," though I'm guessing this version is a re-recording, and other originals include the title tune, the ballad "The Best Part of Christmas" and the updated field holler "Christmas Fool," written and sung by Mindi's bandmate Randy Jacobs. She also lets her saxophone carry "The Christmas Song (Chestnuts)," sings a swingy "Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree," and performs a typical arrangement of "Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)." This gives Eric Clapton's blues Christmas a run for its money this season. Completists will note she was co-billed on a Peter White Christmas album from the mid 2000s, though that was more of a smooth jazz excursion.
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