Turning in a joy-infused holiday romp, the Ransom Notes offer a tasty treat with You're a Mean One, Mr. Grinch.

Kelly Schaschl replaces booming bass Thurl Arthur Ravenscroft for this classic, and her voice is just as easily adored and admired. In any version of this iconic hit, the lead is responsible for carrying the entire character-driven impact, and Schaschl's biting, brassy voice leans right into the tension notes to make the whole piece pop off the score. She's the leading lady you want sassing off to the green guy. 

Schaschl and the rest of the Ransom Notes were given great material to work with, courtesy of arranger Wonyoung Jang who also provides the personality-infused percussion and a splash of vocal horn, too. The arrangement opens sparsely and ominously like we're in for a cinematic thriller before absolutely exploding into a swingy jazz fantasyland. Keeping with the pandemic style of 2020, all parts were recorded on their own and brought together with audio and visual production work from Jared Pollard and Ashley Wu. To this note, while you can enjoy You're a Mean One, Mr. Grinch via many different platforms, you should definitely watch the Ransom Notes perform their song on YouTube. 

What I enjoy about these virtually performed submissions from across houses: you can hear individual notes crescendo and decrescendo because no one has compressed them into one main volume line, and you can hear how strong each musician is to bring their parts to life without the company of their group. Oh, so delightful to hear the musicality the Ransom Notes deliver and watch them flex their creative muscles, too. Here's one to queue up tonight while wrapping the last holiday gifts.