Jazz pianist George Burton’s non-corny ‘Yule Log’ is the Christmas album for ‘deep depression and drinking’

Growing up in Philadelphia, jazz pianist George Burton celebrated a different kind of holiday from most of his peers.

Instead of elves and reindeer, the family Christmas focused on the season’s more spiritual aspects. Splitting his time between his family’s home in Mount Airy and his grandmother’s house near 18th and Lehigh, he frequented the church where his father served as organist and his mother played gospel violin.

“Growing up, there wasn’t really a Santa Claus vibe for me,” recalled Burton, who brings his annual “Yule Log” holiday concert to the Community Education Center on Friday. “Obviously, I’ve heard all the ‘Jingle Bells’ and ‘Winter Wonderlands,’ but I was more interested in covering the parts of the holiday season that had a deeper meaning for people.”

When he staged his first Yule Log holiday show in 2013, Burton was determined not to engage with other jazz Christmas projects in “battling to see who’s the corniest.” Instead, he looked back to the “reason for the season” instilled by his family.

“It started out very happy and friendly,” Burton said about the concert, as he spoke last month from his home in Brooklyn. “And then over time it became a very emotional thing.”

Over the last 10 years, the concert has only become deeper, unexpectedly evolving from a year-end lark to a more profound exploration of the season.

At Friday’s 10th anniversary show, Burton will have a little something extra to celebrate; he has just released the project as an album for the first time.

The Yule Log isn’t your typical Christmas album; instead it is unusual song choices and Burton’s eccentric twists on the few more-familiar carols. Reflecting on the repertoire, Burton conceded that the Yuletide revelry shares space with his more somber take on the holidays.

“I’m not sure if my music would fit on a Christmas party mix,” he said with a laugh. “Mine is for deep depression and drinking.”

I asked him to walk me through the track list.

Burton discovered this traditional Catalan carol via a recording by the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. The title translates to, “Smoke, Smoke, Smoke,” a smoldering image that Burton stressed to the band and vocalist Nancy Harms. “The idea is smoke coming out of a chimney, so I really wanted to capture that burning firepower,” the pianist said of the blistering opener.

These two sacred songs were both penned by the undersung Alfred Burt, best known for “Caroling, Caroling.” Only one of Burt’s carols was performed outside the family home before his death in 1954.

“Some Children See Him” explores the varied depictions of Jesus, which Burton interprets as “all the different ways that people in different cultures see their faith.” Operatic mezzo-soprano Aryssa Leigh Burrs brings a liturgical solemnity to “Jesu Parvule,” on which Burton sought to convey “that Shostakovich intensity.”

Burton characterizes his arrangement as “nerdy” due to its challenging shifts in tempo. Taking his cue from the song’s “ridiculous phrasing,” Burton shifts the time through a “quasi-Latin” section to a swinging solo section.

Burton couldn’t mess with the time signature on this classic, where a reference in the lyrics to its “three-quarter time” is more recognizable than the actual title. Calling it “one of my favorite tunes,” he largely left it alone, reveling in its lovely melody. “I did change some things harmonically to make it a little bit less predictable,” he confessed.

Employing tense, vibrato-free string lines and a pulsing bass line, Burton sought a “disquieting” mood for this song of spiritual yearning. He included the tune to represent a less-celebrated aspect of the season, as churchgoers take the opportunity to repent the year’s sins.

It’s perhaps the album’s most familiar carol. Burton zooms in on the Biblical story to find something more personal and universal behind the lore of the three wise men. “I always look at those three individuals,” he explained. “I think of them in terms of those people you meet at very young age that become influences on your life.”

A Charlie Brown Christmas has been a holiday tradition for generations now, and its central song evokes a snow-covered “White Christmas” mood, at least as well as the Irving Berlin standard. “You can’t do that song in the same way that it was originally done and think you’re doing anything, because it was so great the first time,” Burton said. His version filigrees the lovely melody with fluttering strings tracing snowflake patterns.

Burton referenced the inebriated debauchery of New York’s divisive SantaCon bar crawl in describing his “drunk, drunk, drunk” rendition of this New Year’s Eve anthem. “Have you ever heard that song being sung sober?” he asked. “I told the band to go for the most loose, drunken sound that we could make while being sober. After all, it’s a time of year when people drink to their sorrows and drink for happiness.”

George Burton’s “The Yule Log,” 7 p.m. Friday at the Community Education Center, 3500 Lancaster Ave., Philadelphia, is part of the Second Friday & More program series. Information: instagram.com/p/CzkUjRlsCak/