Mobile’s holiday season is filled with long-running traditions, from the annual lighting of the city’s Christmas tree in Mardi Gras Park to the twinkling lights of Bellingrath Gardens and the antebellum charm of “Christmas at Oakleigh.” This year, one of downtown Mobile’s most beloved seasonal shows reaches a milestone of its own: “A Charlie Brown Jazz Christmas” returns to the Saenger Theatre for its 10th anniversary performance on Saturday, Dec. 8, with doors opening at 6 p.m.
For a decade, the concert has become something of a rite of passage for local music lovers looking to kick off the holidays. Each December, keyboardist Chris Spies, drummer John Milham and bassist Chris Severin transform into the Joe Cool Trio, taking the Saenger stage to perform their own arrangement of Vince Guaraldi’s beloved soundtrack to the 1965 animated television special “A Charlie Brown Christmas.”
Tickets for this year’s show are $20 for general admission and $40 for VIP seating, with $10 tickets available for children under 10. Tickets are available through Ticketmaster, and the Saenger Theatre is located at 6 S. Joachim St. in downtown Mobile.
The trio’s combined musicianship has long been the heart of the show, and organizers say this year’s anniversary performance will be no exception, featuring a lineup of holiday-inspired music and several special guest performers as a gift to the city.
Looking back on how far the show has come, drummer John Milham said the anniversary brings on a “surreal” feeling. The concert’s first performance took place in Murphy High School’s 400-seat auditorium, back when Milham, Spies and the rest of the show’s organizers handled everything themselves, including designing tickets and posters for three separate performances held in Mobile, Fairhope and Laurel, Mississippi. This year’s shows are limited to Mobile on Dec. 8 and Laurel on Dec. 7.
“We had no sponsors,” Milham said of those early years. “It was us just trying to push everything we could to make it happen and make it work. There was a lot of uncertainty and a lot of excitement. There was definitely a big learning curve getting all the pieces put together.”
Milham said the team behind the show has never stopped refining it. After every performance, organizers regroup to talk through what worked and what needs to change for the next year, from the show’s length and format to how it’s marketed.
“Every year, we say, ‘Well, we need to do these things differently,’” Milham explained. “Every year, we learn what things work and what things don’t. We always find different things that we need to change.”
That process has paid off in the growth of the show’s production team. What began as a small, self-run effort now includes organizers Noell Broughton, Johnny Gwin, Stacy Wellborn and Cheryl Shifflet, along with professional live sound engineers Albert Robinson and Josh Murray and lighting engineers Will Isherwood and Dustin Rudzynski, who bring a full visual production to each performance.
The concert has also grown into a charitable event. Proceeds from “A Charlie Brown Jazz Christmas” benefit Delta Dogs, and the show now draws support from a long list of local sponsors, including the Jake Peavy Foundation, Gulf Distributing, Cooper Restaurants, Moore Law Firm, The Fairhope Store, Callaghan’s Irish Social Club, Mobile Bay Coin, Bay Gourmet Catering, Heroes Sports Bar, Hayley’s, The Garage, The OK Bike Shop, Rogers & Willard, Ashland Gallery and Cortlandt’s Pizza.
“We could not pull off something at the Saenger on the level that we’re doing it without the sponsors,” Milham said.
Over the years, the show has also built a reputation for bringing in notable guest musicians who either sit in with the Joe Cool Trio or perform sets of their own. Milham said the guest lineup each year is shaped by friendships and collaborations he and Spies have built throughout their careers. Past guests have included Molly Thomas, Ryan Balthrop, Rebecca Roubion, Rick Hirsch, Corky Hughes, Andy MacDonald, John Keuler and Eric Erdman, along with out-of-town acts such as The Invisible Czars, vocalist Eileina Dennis, trumpeter Leon “Kid Chocolate” Brown and saxophonist Clarence Johnson.
For the 10th anniversary show, the Joe Cool Trio plans to give Mobile a funkier take on the holidays. The second set will welcome vocalist Kim Dawson, whose soul-inspired vocals Spies first encountered during his time with the funk and soul band Matador! Soul Sounds. That set will also feature saxophonist Christopher Spies, Chris Spies’ son, who will be fresh off a tour with blues guitarist Samantha Fish. Milham described the set as a funky blend of traditional Christmas music and soul in the spirit of Aretha Franklin and Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings.
The show has also become a family tradition for Milham personally. His son and nephew have each taken a turn playing the Peanuts character Woodstock, his son has read Linus’ famous Nativity monologue from the original television special, his niece has played Snoopy, and his daughter Ana has sung a Christmas song in the show since she was three years old.
Milham said the reaction from longtime fans is what keeps the tradition going strong after a decade.
“It’s an amazing feeling,” he said. “Every year, somebody tells me how much they look forward to it, or how their four-year-old asks when’s the Charlie Brown Christmas concert. There’s so many people who look forward to it and come to it every year. It’s great. On one side, it’s an adult jazz concert. On the other side, there’s enough elements to this music that it caters to all ages. The biggest compliment I get is that it’s the show that puts them in the Christmas spirit. You can’t ask for anything more than that.”