James Tormé, son of Velvet Fog, carries on his family name with Christmas cheer

When you were raised under a Velvet Fog, you feel music in your bones.

James Tormé, son of crooner Mel Tormé, carries on his family’s legacy with pride and purpose. The youngest child of the singer and songwriter known as the Velvet Fog has carved out a successful jazz singing career of his own, touring across the United States and Europe regularly. He brings his rich history and distinctive sound to perform the Modesto Symphony Orchestra’s annual Holiday Pops! show Dec. 2-3 at Gallo Center for the Arts.

“I think I was about 10 years old when I began to feel a very strong, entirely organic sense of destiny about music and more specifically singing. I somehow began to know in my bones that my professional contribution to this world would probably take a musical form,” James Tormé said in an interview from Las Vegas while visiting family. “I had the great inspiration of being raised by my father. He encouraged me enormously, impressing musical styles and concepts on me from a very young age. He knew in is own heart I had the circuitry to carry off a similar type of career.”

The Modesto Symphony show also will be a celebration of the perennial holiday favorite “The Christmas Song,” which is more commonly known by its famous opening line: “Chestnuts roasting on an open fire.” The song was co-written by Mel Tormé and recorded by Nat King Cole in 1946. James Tormé has recorded his own version of the song, which he will perform in Modesto, as well as the story behind its creation. He said it is one way he helps carry on the legacy of his father, who died in 1999 at age 73.

Tormé said he wants to bring some of his own past Christmas experiences to the Modesto show. The concert will be led by Modesto Symphony Associate Conductor Ryan Murray and feature Modesto Symphony Chorus.

“I grew up having some of the most beautiful, wonderful Christmases. My sister Daisy and I were educated in England. We were going back and forth to school in the U.K. and come back to visit dad in Beverly Hills. He always made those Christmases absolutely beautiful,” Tormé said. “So I try to re-create a little bit of that magic in my shows.”

The 43-year-old singer began his own recording career in 2008 and recently completed work his second album, which will be released next year. His Modesto performance will include familiar songs with special, seldom-heard lyrics. They include additional verses to Sammy Cahn’s “The Christmas Waltz,” as well as alternate lyrics Tormé’s father wrote for classics such as “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas” and a holiday theme to Johnny Mercer’s “Glow Worm.”

The show will feature the Modesto Symphony Chorus performing a three-song tribute to the Christmas carols of Alfred Burt, which were a favorite of Tormé’s father. The singer is bringing his three-piece trio with him to perform along with the orchestra. Christmas shows have been a staple on his tours for the past several years, and he has performed them with everyone from the BBC Concert Orchestra to the Buffalo Philharmonic.

While Tormé honors his father with his performances, his shows aren’t mere tribute acts. Instead, he said he brings his father’s love of jazz together with his own more modern sensibilities to create his own style.

“I definitely enjoy having my own identity. But I don’t honestly worry about that. I’ve never been known as someone’s son too much. I’ve been lucky that I’ve been recognized in my own right,” he said. “I have a lot to be proud of in terms of my family heritage. So I try to be a living, breathing celebration of the kind of music my father and his contemporaries were doing, but do it with modern embellishments to keep it alive.”

This story was originally published November 23, 2016 at 9:23 AM with the headline "James Tormé, son of Velvet Fog, carries on his family name with Christmas cheer."