Music reviews. CD reviews. Critically hip!

Every year there seems to be a plethora of new Christmas CDs. Why, I don't know. There are only a handful I can think of that are worth listening to more than once --- Dwight Yoakam's, Fats Domino's, Phil Spector's of course, and a treasured Ace compilation from years and years ago --- but that's it. You can see why. It's tough to do. You've got to stay true to your musical vision and stay in what has been established as the spirit of the season. The test is whether you can play the thing in July without embarrassment, notwithstanding the appropriateness.

Well, we can add to the list of great ones the release of A CHRISTMAS CELEBRATION OF HOPE by the venerable master himself, B.B. King, which is not only an instantly classic Christmas CD but also quite possibly the best work the man has done in years. King, whose health is not the best, sounds positively revitalized here, offering up his trademark- yet-always-new guitar solos on such tracks as "Lonesome Christmas" and "Back Door Santa." On the latter, particularly, when King shouts out "I ain't like old St. Nick/he don't come but once a year" with a sly tinge to his voice, there's little doubt that he could still, after all those years and all those miles, get the job done. On the slower tracks, like "Christmas in Heaven" and "Please Come Home for Christmas" he is perhaps a bit more restrained, but appropriately so. In fact, King's vocal on "Please Come Home For Christmas" makes the song all his own, turning it into a personal statement of loss and yearning. You just know that there is someone he is singing this bad boy for. On the other hand, King sounds like he's about to burst through the speakers on "Merry Christmas, Baby, " his voice and his playing so full of exuberance that there is no doubt that his favorite Christmas present is the person he is singing to.

There are a couple of the done-to-death Christmas classics on here, too. King's take on them will make you forget you ever heard them before. I'm serious. This guy has been playing for a long time, and yet, he is still capable of amazing and surprising. He wisely eschews singing on "I'll Be Home For Christmas," and "Auld Lang Syne," choosing instead to trade off guitar solos with keyboard man James Sells Toney on the B3, and in the process walks right in and makes these songs so much his own that he ought to ask for publishing rights. And let's talk about Toney for a minute. This guy isn't getting his due. He is absolutely great. If he's overshadowed by King, here ---and who wouldn't be? --- there is no doubt that Toney can go and do any damn thing he wants. His solo work on "Please Come Home For Christmas" all by itself makes it worth putting this track on repeat. He sounds like the consummate sideman --- he is restrained where he needs to be, and makes the head guy sound good, but when he lets loose, man, everyone else better know what they're doing or he'll leave them in the dust.

Check out his piano solo on "Christmas Comes But Once a Year." When he busts out of the second verse there is simply no holding him back. And let's not forget Stanley Jackson, whose classic trumpet solo on "Bringing In a Brand New Year" is too short, but to the point. In a short note on the back of the CD booklet, King writes that it has been his long time dream to do a Christmas CD. A CHRISTMAS CELEBRATION OF HOPE is the sound of a master --- a legend, an institution --- doing what he wants the way he wants it. The result is a classic for all seasons. You'll play this bad boy all year long.