A Royal Kickoff to the Season

Hello everyone!  I hope all my readers had a happy and safe Thanksgiving holiday.  And now that we're "officially" into the Christmas season, I have my first Christmas music share of the season for you.

Kicking things off this year is a terrific recording by Guy Lombardo and his Royal Canadians.  My record is a 1973 release of "Jingle Bells" by MCA, although it appears to be a re-release.  At any rate, it's a terrific collection of 12 songs by Mr. Lombardo and his orchestra.  Featured vocalists include Kenny Gardner and the Lombardo Trio, Richard Geary, Tony Craig, and, on "Winter Wonderland", the Andrews Sisters!

The arrangements are superb, making this a very enjoyable and nostalgic record.  A highlight is "Christmas Chopsticks", track 6, which closes out Side 1 of the record.

Please enjoy "Jingle Bells" by Guy Lombardo and his Royal Canadians.

Update:  Sorry folks - This file has been tagged as non-downloadable by the host, so I have to remove the link.  Guy, we hardly knew ye.

<download link removed>

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Good morning and Happy Thanksgiving to everyone!  I'm just about to start my personal annual tradition of morning coffee and reading Truman Capote's "A Christmas Memory", a story I love more than any other.

Everyone please have a safe and happy holiday.

Album Review: Two from Ken Elkinson

Ken Elkinson is an artist from Venice, CA via Cedar Grove, New Jersey and the greater New York area.  Ken has released two Christmas albums, "Generations of Yuletide" in 2008 and "Christmas Ambient" in 2012.

"Generations" is an album featuring solo piano interpretations of 16 Christmas songs, blending traditional carols such as "O Come, O Come, Emmanuel" and "Greensleeves" with contemporary songs, including "The Little Drummer Boy" and "I'll Be Home For Christmas".

"Christmas Ambient" is, as you astute readers have already surmised, a collection of Christmas songs performed in the ambient music genre.  The 16 tracks include traditional favorites ("Deck the Halls", "Away In A Manger", "O Come All Ye Faithful"), beautiful holiday songs that may not get the "A-list" play ("Bring A Torch Jeannette Isabella"), and a few songs new to me, such as "The Truth Sent From Above".

Now, I don't know much about the ambient music genre (perhaps the King of Jingaling will comment here for us).  What I have discovered while listening to "Christmas Ambient" is that the music is, first of all, very pleasant, soothing, and beautiful.  Secondly, the music is masterfully crafted, subtly layering sounds together to create the flowing theme and foundation of each song, then gently adding the melody, ultimately creating a listening experience that you absorb rather than hear.  Ken's work is, to me, the ambient music novice, very pleasant and surprisingly complex.

"Generations of Yuletide", Ken's earlier Christmas release, is a quite enjoyable work.  Ken's talents as both a pianist and arranger/interpreter are evident.  For a quiet evening of Christmas music and a glass of wine with a loved one, "Generations" is perfect.

A couple other things about Ken.  First he is a prolific (and generous) musician.  Visit his website to learn more about his album releases through the years, including "Music for Commuting" a 60 track CD set of soothing music, for those who commute through snarling and crazy traffic.  Information about "Music for Commuting" and all of Ken's other releases is on his web store page.

Second, Ken is hilarious.  His wit is apparent in the liner notes in "Generations".  And, dig these highlights from his "Case History":

8/28/72 - Ken Elkinson is born in Cedar Grove, New Jersey.  His grandmother comments that he has long fingers and predicts that he will play piano.

3/39/97 - Ken debuts Midnight Conversation during a release party jam-packed with crazed fans.  The event is compared to the Beatles arrival at J.F.K.

11/1/00 - [Ken] declares himself the David Hasselhoff of solo piano when Reverly reaches the Top 20 in airplay on over 70 radio stations, including several in Germany.

4/1/04 - Due to Ken's meteoric rise to fame, a bitter east coast/west coast new age war breaks out between himself and John Tesh.

Finally, here's the best part:  a sampler collection of Ken's music.  Ken has allowed me to provide to you a few songs from his two albums.  So, here is a link to a ZIP file containing four tracks from "Generations" and five from "Christmas Ambient".  I hope you like them, and if you do, visit Ken's website or other online retailers and pick up the whole collection.

Update:  Well folks - even though the artist gave me permission to share this sample collection, Mediafire has tagged it as copyright material and is preventing downloads.  So, please visit Ken's website below to check out his music.

Ken Elkinson Collection   (sample no longer downloadable)

More information about Ken Elkinson and his music:

Ken Elkinson Website

Christmas Ambient on Amazon

Generations of Yuletide on Amazon

Music for Commuting

Ready, Set....

It's been a good week or so for Der Bingle's preparation of the Christmas sharity.  Unlike last year, the artwork processing was very smooth.  I think the scanner is new since last year (although I'm not sure about that).  I have a new laptop which runs *much* faster, and the latest versions of audio and image processing software.  So, everything I have for sharing is ripped, cleaned, scanned, stitched, zipped, and uploaded.  Hmmmm....  kind of sounds like what happened to Scarecrow and Tin Woodman once they reached the Emerald City.

Anyway, I'll be kicking off the sharity season after Thanksgiving.  I have some things this year that I think you all will really enjoy.  Some of the records were pretty clean and pristine, and others were a little rough.  So, a few of the audio tracks have some noise that I couldn't get cleaned out.  We'll just call those a true vinyl simulation experience :-)

I also have some more reviews to do, of CDs I've purchased and others submitted to me by the artists.  So I'll be intermixing those posts in with the shares.  And I'll probably share a few other holiday thoughts and posts along the way.

Today, I and the youngest Bingles put up most of the Christmas lights.  We're about 80% done, and will get the rest up next weekend.  The season is here!

One last thing - another holiday bucket list item is checked off for me.  I got to see Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band perform "Santa Claus is Coming To Town" live last night, here in Kansas City.  An awesome performance....

Stay tuned!

Christmas Mixes from Dinsdale Kringle

Our friend Dinsdale Kringle over at Santas Working Overtime has created some pretty awesome Christmas music mixes on 8tracks.com.  Here's a link to one of his posts on SWO:

Sister Winter Mix

From the SWO page you'll be linked to 8tracks.com, where you can see all of Dinsdale's mixes.

I jumped on to the app store on my iPhone, downloaded the 8tracks radio app, and am now enjoying Dinsdale's "Oh God No, It's Christmas" mix.  Like I said earlier, pretty awesome.  Between this and the Live 365 app to stay connected to Sounds of Christmas, I'll have plenty of Christmas tunes available next week on my quick business trip to Denver.

Check out these great mixes from friend Dinsdale Kringle!

Santas Working Overtime

Awesome!

Good morning all.  This is just a quick post to point you to an exciting announcement from Jillaine. Please visit her site to see the great news!

Jillaine's Exciting News

Jillaine: Jazzy Christmas To You!

Merry and Bright readers who stay in touch through the off-season know that I'm a big fan of Jillaine, the immensely talented, beautiful, and young jazz songstress hailing from Utah by way of Iowa. Earlier this year, I contacted Jillaine and asked about purchasing her Christmas CD and having her sign it (Der Bingle loves signed books and CDs). Jillaine responded by sending me her entire CD catalog, signed as promised! I listened to her first two albums and fell in love with her voice and style, and reviewed the records in the blog (here and here).

I saved Jillaine's Christmas CD until the season, so it would be like a little treat for myself. You know – not unwrapping until the season and all. Well, the season arrived, I unwrapped “Jazzy Christmas To You!”, and it is, indeed, a Christmas treat from Jillaine.

 

 

Folks, I'm telling you, Jillaine has as distinctive a voice and style as I've heard in a long time. I had been totally blown away the first time I have heard an artist only three times – Oscar Peterson, Madeleine Peyroux, and Sophie Madeleine. Jillaine is number four.

“Jazzy Christmas To You!” is an amazing addition to Jillaine's recordings. Her voice is perfectly suited to Christmas music, and her interpretations of Christmas standards are fresh, unique, and, above all, fun!

“Deck the Halls” opens the album. In my opinion, “Deck the Halls” can be a tough song to make memorable. I've heard many competent but ultimately unexciting versions by artists major and minor. Jillaine breathes life into “Deck the Halls” in a completely original fashion, full of energy, full of holiday spirit. It's a perfect way to kick off the record (and, this song will open Der Bingle's 2012 Christmas Comp for family and friends).

There is only one rule for artists who record “Jingle Bells” - have fun with it. Bing had fun. Barenaked Ladies had a whole lotta fun with their version. Jillaine gives us a version of “Jingle Bells” loaded with fun and energy. It's short, sweet, and spirited.

The best song on the album may be “What Child Is This?”. Jillaine performs this with a soulful, spiritual power that is beyond comparison. Her love for the music, the message, and the meaning of Christmas exudes from this performance. I literally shed a tear the first time I listened to it.

There are 15 songs on the album, all of them strong, all of them beautiful.  Jillaine's musicians, Craig Adler on piano and guitar, James Archibald on bass, and Ryan Flores on drums blend and complement Jillaine's vocals.  Craig's piano work is especially superb, not simply accompanying Jillaine but instead combining and partnering, as great musical performances should.

What could be better?

I'll tell you what – a follow-up album this year! Jillaine has released “Jazzy Christmas To You II”, which I'm expecting to arrive in the mail any day now. No waiting around to open it – nosiree :-)

Hey Jillaine – how about a “Jazzy Christmas To You III” next year? Please?

Jillaine Music website

Jazzy Christmas To You on Amazon

And, once again, thanks to my friend Stubby for introducing me to Jillaine's music.