Mads Tolling Cool Yule

Old and New World traditions meld in Cool Yule, a studio album release by two-time Grammy Award-Winning Violinist Mads Tolling. In the spirit of Yule, Mads shares the Christmas celebrations of his youth in Copenhagen, Denmark blending the authentic customs and sounds of the Nordic countries with the joy and spirit of American jazz. Joining him on his Christmas journey are his Mads Men: pianist Colin Hogan, bassist Gary Brown, and drummer Eric Garland.

"Cool Yule" gives a special nod to Denmark's beloved fairy-tale writer Hans Christian Andersen with "Let it Go" from Frozen, which is based on The Snow Queen. The album includes a salute to Julemanden (Santa Claus), Nordic Yuletide traditional classics and jazz renditions of your favorite American holiday songs, including "Santa Baby," "Santa Claus is Coming to Town," "My Favorite Things" and "The Christmas Song." Also featured are "The Gnome's Attic" from Denmark and the Icelandic "The Christmas Cat." Danish TV-personality and vocalist, Sonny Fredie-Pedersen brings "Cool" to the classic Louis Armstrong title-track.

Mads Tolling is a Danish-American violinist and composer living in the SF Bay Area. He is the 2016 winner of DownBeat Critics Poll Rising Star Award for the violin and SF Classical Voice 2023 Best Jazz Instrumentalist. Mads is a former longtime member of bassist Stanley Clarke's Band and the Turtle Island Quartet, and he currently tours and appears on three albums with Bob Weir & Wolf Bros. He leads his own group, Mads Tolling & The Mads Men, with several international tours. He has been featured on NPR's Morning Edition and in the Washington Post, and he has performed with Chick Corea, Kenny Barron, Ramsey Lewis, Paquito D'Rivera and Leo Kottke.

With Cool Yule, the listener gets a firsthand glimpse into A Nordic Christmas, and tying it all together are thoughtful and melodic arrangements that put even well-known holiday songs into a new light.