When I was in college, I somehow acquired a CD of instrumental Christmas music by the Jack Dorsey Big Band. Some of them are rather daring arrangements, like the “Silent Night” done as a marimba-based Latin number. One of my favorites has always been the version of “I’ll Be Home for Christmas.” It’s a big band arrangement, so there are no words and the horns can infuse a lot more elaborate lines than words would allow. So it was a challenge turning that recording into a barbershop arrangement, which is, by definition, all words. I had to add a few extra lyrics to capture the riffs that make the Jack Dorsey version special, and of course, it’s not a carbon copy of that arrangement. But my own quartet New Groove debuted it for Christmas 2025 and it was a hit. Hopefully it will be for you, too.
