What is claimed to be the world’s first AI-generated Christmas jazz album is set for release on 14 November. At a time when so much jazz sounds reiterative, this is, perhaps, timely. The Christmas album, like Christmas itself, is full of clichés and going one step further, this one is a simulation of a set of clichés.
Its creator, stage name Human Curated, real name Sam Mateus, describes the album, AI Christmas Jazz, as “groundbreaking” and refers to his “innovative musical journey”. Listening to a single from the album, Christmas Kiss By The Fire, there’s nothing stylistically groundbreaking, but a rather convincing set of big-band tropes with, apparently, entirely synthesised vocals. The voice sounds more and more synthetic with closer listening, but while electronic manipulation of vocals in pop has been been around for decades and vocal synthesis goes back to at least the Vocoder employed by Herbie Hancock, technical ground is perhaps being broken here.
Back on the stylistic front, HC says “The infectious energy and contemporary sensibilities ensure the music feels vibrant and relevant for today’s audiences.” In fact, the single, the only example available today, sounds like the 1950s at the latest, with little evidence of the contemporary.
Human Curated says he was prompted to start the project through disappointment at the “limited selection of existing swing-style Christmas music”. It sounds as if he hasn’t seen either the back-catalogue or the annual crop of new Christmas releases that assails the JJ inbox. What may be interesting is that he says he has “harnessed the power of artificial intelligence to craft an album that captures the true spirit of the season with an irresistible jazzy vibe”. The question is, to what degree can AI create a jazz work – or any other piece of art – from a minimal instruction such as “AI, create a jazz-styled Christmas album”?
Human Curated says the music was created “with attention to both musicality and lyrical depth”, implying some human input. He adds that “It features a rich sound that pays homage to the classic swing era while infusing it with modern AI composition and production techniques.” AI production – mixing, mastering and so on – might not be a surprise, but composition?
I asked Human Curated how much of the musical content he input and how much was AI-created but received no definitive answer. I asked him if he directed the composition or arrangement at all or just told the algorithm to “write a big band Christmas tune with lyric and vocal” and what, if any, musical parameters he entered into the composing software.
He replied: “No, I did not just tell the algorithm to write me a song. I used AI in several composition stages, mostly in harmony and vocal performance.”
So it seems the piece wasn’t entirely AI generated. I was trying to establish if AI will yet do everything for someone with no musical knowledge or skill. It seems not. HC concluded: “There are AI song generators that can make a simple song with one kind of input. Teenagers love it. One click and there you have it: a given song about whatever you want. If you are selective, this may not work for you and it may take dozens of generations until you start liking what you hear.
“The second alternative is to leverage AI in different moments of music production: melodic composition, vocal production, harmonic possibilities. You try different possibilities. Also, I used AI masterization of the tracks. It is not the best, it does not substitute a sound engineer, but it does the job.”
So, absent confirmation that nothing involving human hand on key, string or baton appears in HC’s album, perhaps AI will not yet do the “creating”. It seems we’ll have to make do, for now, with musicians and composers reordering the familiar.
