Listen to Wynton Marsalis Narrate a Jazzy "Twas the Night Before Christmas" in 1989

Did you know that Paste owns the world’s largest collection of live music recordings? It’s true! And what’s even crazier, it’s all free—hundreds of thousands of exclusive songs, concerts and videos that you can listen to and watch right here at Paste.com, from Louis Armstrong to The Who to U2 to Wilco. Every day, we’ll dig through the archive for the coolest recording we can find from that date in history. Search and enjoy!

On Dec. 21, 1989, two years after he co-founded the jazz program at New York’s Lincoln Center that he directs to this day, Wynton Marsalis performed the first of a two-show Christmas program at Alice Tully Hall called “A Classical Jazz Christmas.” Combining traditional carols and seasonal songs, Marsalis and his sextet fronted the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra for a set that included “Let It Snow, Let It Snow, Let It Snow,” “We Three Kings” and Tchaikovsky’s “Nutcracker Suite.”

Listen in as the trumpeter, then 28 years old, narrates an eight-minute rendition of “Twas the Night Before Christmas.” And while you’re here, take a peek inside our huge vault of exclusive jazz recordings going back 60 years.

Listen to Wynton Marsalis Narrate a Jazzy “Twas the Night Before Christmas” in 1989

The 28-year-old trumpeter has just launched the first jazz program at NYC's Lincoln Center.