YULE LOVE IT AGAIN
Odom follows up smash Christmas album
Leslie Odom Jr. is giving fans an early Christmas present.
The Tony-winning “Hamilton” star is unwrapping on Friday “The Christmas Album,” a 10-song project featuring a mix of seasonal classics and original music from the smooth-singing Odom, whose first holiday album, 2016’s “Simply Christmas,” was a huge hit.
“Believe it or not, the thing that I hear about the most after ‘Hamilton’ is my first Christmas album,” Odom, who played Aaron Burr in the Broadway blockbuster, told the Daily News.
“A large part of our audience really made that album a part of their yearly holiday tradition,” said Odom, 39. “All these years later, I’ve grown as an artist, we’ve grown in our resources, so we wanted to deliver them an album with the same artistic soul, but hopefully better production.”
With the new album, Odom put his own twist on Yuletide staples such as “Little Drummer Boy,” “O Holy Night” and “Last Christmas,” while introducing new songs like “Snow” and “Heaven & Earth.”
“I’m focused on coming from a real place,” Odom explained. “It’s not hard to go cheesy around Christmas. ... People won’t judge you too harshly on it, but I’m trying to make holiday fare that is not disposable. Music that you can pull out every year and make a part of your holiday tradition. Something that is going to sound good, hopefully, 20 years from now as your family grows.”
Odom made it a point to include music on the album that isn’t only about Christmas.
Featured on the album are Cynthia Erivo, who lent her vocals to “Winter Song,” and Odom’s wife, Nicolette Robinson, who sang with him on the Hanukkah song “Ma’oz Tzur.” “I felt like I was setting a table for my fans around the holidays, and I wanted to ex
pand that table a little bit,” Odom said. “Not everybody celebrates Christmas, so I got to include a song like ‘Ma’oz Tzur’ with Nicolette because I wanted to make the party bigger.”
The new album isn’t Odom’s only release this holiday season. He portrays superstar singer Sam Cooke in the movie “One Night in Miami,” which opens in theaters Dec. 25 before coming to Amazon Prime Video on Jan. 15.
Odom said his first Christmas album is what inspired director Regina King to consider him for the film, which centers on a night of celebration between Cooke, Muhammad Ali, Malcolm X and Jim Brown.
Although Odom didn’t initially see himself in the role of Cooke, he followed King’s vision.
“I didn’t see it in me, but if Regina did, I just trusted her. I worked harder than I’ve ever worked on anything before,” Odom said.
“I really am proud of the effort, because I know how hard we were all working to do justice to these men.”
Odom is in the midst of a busy stretch that also saw him team up with Sia to release a remix of his song “Cold,” which appears on his 2019 album “Mr.”
“She called me after she heard the album and said she would jump on a remix of that song if I wanted her to,” Odom recalled. “I said, ‘ Of course I want you to.’ ... You work with somebody like Sia and she can’t help but make you better. It’s probably, in the pop space, the thing that I’ve put out that I’m most proud of.”
Odom, who started as a singer before breaking into Broadway, movies and TV, says a defining moment in his journey was the Christmas when he was 10 and received a karaoke machine as a gift.
“[Writer] Malcolm Gladwell talks about the 10,000 hours. That’s how long it takes to become an expert at anything,” Odom said. “I may not have put in all 10,000 on that karaoke machine, but it got me started. Definitely a good 2,000 or 3,000 of those hours were spent from that Christmas Day on, just working on my craft.”