Spotlight on New Music

I get a lot of requests via e-mail to feature new songs, videos, EPs, etc, and honestly I can't keep up with them, so I'm very grateful for the other blogs that do such a great job highlighting the new releases each year.  But there are a few that I'd like to draw your attention to, so today's post will list out several that I think deserve your attention.  (Whoa - this turned out to be a long post...)

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Jane Sheldon - "One for Mrs. Claus"

One of my fave new singles this year - "One for Mrs. Claus" by Jane Sheldon.  Light, bouncy, a little bit country, and surely Christmassy.

Soundcloud link

Youtube video (featuring Teri Hatcher):

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Sofia Talvik - "Poem at Year's End"

What would Christmas be without a new song by the lovely Sofia Talvik?  I hope we never know...  Here for your listening pleasure (and free download) is "Poem at Year's End" from Miss Sofia.

Sofia Talvik link

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Phil and the Osophers - "Another Christmas with Phil and the Osophers"

Here's a 4-song EP by Phil and the Osophers - all original, all very original. Catchy, a little quirky perhaps, a little snappy, more than a little tromboney.  Love it!

Soundcloud link

Phil and the Osophers have quite a catalog of Christmas tunes - check out their Youtube playlist - marvelous!  Youtube link
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Darren Fiorino "Early December"  Bandcamp link

Darren and family have been long-time readers of Merry & Bright, and Darren is now starting a career in music as a singer/songwriter.  Check out his single "Early December" b/w "Auld Lang Syne" on Bandcamp

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Jack Mosbacher "Christmas in California" EP

In throwback crooner style, Jack Mosbacher serves up an EP of four classic songs, solo piano versions of "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas" and "I'll Be Home for Christmas", and adding light jazzy instrumentals for "It's Beginning to Look a Lot LIke CHristmas" and "White Christmas".  Jack does the classics well!

"Christmas in California" Soundcloud link
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Linnea Ellis - "Warmest Winter"

Solo Debut from new artist Linnea Ellis - "Warmest Winter".  Mmmm.... this is dreamy....

Listen on Soundcloud

Linnea Ellis on Facebook

Promo video:

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"Stars" - Various Artists

The folks at wyaiwia (Where You Are Is Where It's At) bring this 9-song album of original new seasonal songs.

"Stars" Bandcamp link

Featured video from the album "Christmas Tree (Burn Burn Burn)" by Catenary Wires

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Randi Fay "Joy Whispered"

Here's the video for "Joy Whispered", by new artist Randi Fay.  I'd call it orchestral adult-contemporary pop Christmas.  I'd also call it a quite beautiful new song!  Available to stream on Spotify, 

Youtube link

All the Randi Fay links:

https://www.facebook.com/randifaymusic/
https://www.instagram.com/randifaymusic/
https://twitter.com/randifaymusic
https://www.randifay.com/

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Stephen Winston "Winter Breath Warms the Heart"  

Colorado native Stephen Winston has released a piano-driven new single "Winter Breath Warms the Heart" - check it out here on Bandcamp.  A song for lovers of Winter (like me), it stirs up all those good feelings of a cold snowy night.

Stephen Winston website 

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Josie Dunn - "Cold in December"

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Dan Berk - "Hanging Like the Mistletoe"

Long Island based singer Dan Berk, proudly having a million monthly listeners on Spotify, brings us "Hanging Like the Mistletoe", produced by Michael Camargo (guitarist for Michael Buble).  Nice!

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Green Monkey Records - three new albums

The good folks at Green Monkey Records have three new releases for 2018.  I haven't had time to preview them all <sad face>, but Green Monkey consistently produces some very fine Christmas music.  Definitely worth your time.

"(I'm a) Lonely Little Christmas Tree" - Tom Dyer & the True Olympians - Bandcamp link
"A Green Monkey Christmas For Martians Up On Mars" - Bandcamp link
"Tom & Kat's Excellent Christmas Adventure" - Bandcamp link

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And that's it!  I hope you find some chestnuts in all this new music.  Enjoy!

Harp and Holly

Well hi there - it's been a few days, especially smack dab in the heart of the Christmas season.  All is well in these parts, Der Bingle has just been kinda swamped with stuff, including a tri-evening of Christmas outings here in Kansas City - Crown Center/Union Station, Winterfest at Worlds of Fun, and the Christmas Festival with the Kansas City Symphony.  But, I'm back, and hope to get several posts out over the next few days and get caught up a bit.

Tonight I have another share for you - Luis Bordon "A New Christmas Spirit - Holiday for Harp and Holly".  Luis Bordon was a quite popular Paraguayan harpist/songwriter who began his career in the 1950's and performed for the rest of his life.

"A New Christmas Spirit" will be a wonderful addition to your downloaded Christmas collection.  It features 13 songs, some familiar, some perhaps not.  One in particular is new to me, and I'm sorta hoping someone with more background in South American culture can comment and give some info about it.  The song is "En Un Burrito Orejon".  Apparently, according to Google Translate, it is literally about a burrito.  Some of the translated lyrics are:

Do not cry anymore, my life

Christmas is coming,

San José and Maria will bring

a burrito orejón

nougat loaded,

San Jose and Maria will come

and on a donkey

they will pass through here.

Do not cry anymore, my little girl

I'm kneading the bread,

marzipan with honey,

and the faithful humita,

Warm is in the pan.

They will come in a burrito

Bethlehem road.

Beloved all beloved,

beloved of the child God.

Around here they will come

and they will kiss you

when Christmas arrives

Now, Mr. Bordon's version is instrumental only, but "En Un Burrito Orejon" must be a popular Christmas song in South American culture. 

This is a nice album, well performed, snappy and happy.  I will say that this is one where there are a few little audio glitches, so I am planning to re-master it next year and re-share, with better audio.  But, I wanted to share it out this year anyway, audio hiccups and all.

And, as you can see from the image, the cover was in pretty rough shape.  A risk of the vintage vinyl trade, and a consequence of a blogger with no meaningful Photoshop skills.  So, disclaimers aside, please enjoy Luis Bordon, harpist, and "A New Christmas Spirit - Holiday for Harp and Holly"

download link

Buon Natale!

Tonight's share is a very nice album from the 4 Corners of the World label (Four Corners Records), "Buon Natale Christmas in Italy" featuring songs performed by Sergio Franchi, The Radar Quartet, Achille Togliani and the Comet Quartet, and others.  This is a splendid album to add some international flavor to your Christmas music this season (for more, head over to friend Ernie's place where he's practically on a around-the-world musical voyage).  

The songs here are bright and performed with a holiday flair, Italian style.  "Jingle Bells" is a gondola-load of fun, and "Frosty L'omini De Neve" is a hoot.  You'll find other familiar melodies, and some that will be new to you (unless you're a native of Italy, of course).   I'll leave most of the exploration to you as you play through the album i.e. no spoilers.  I think you'll enjoy it more that way.  (Although, "Bianco Natale" you can probably guess...)  :-)

So, please enjoy "Buon Natale Christmas in Italy"

download link

Christmas Album of the Year?

With all the great new-music Christmas blogs out there, it's hard for a new Christmas release to slip by, especially a near great, nay, a great one.  When you suddenly discover one, though, it's akin to being whomped in the face with a herring by the Grand Champion of the Fish-Slapping Dance, or as they say in Finland "Tanssikuningas peitteli kasvot silakalla".  So, imagine my utter shock at discovering "Having a Marfy Xmas!!!" by Mrs. Helen Marf on the tympani and her enclave of musicians.  Amazing doesn't begin to describe this masterpiece of seasonal songs.

Mrs. Helen Marf, legendary tympani player for Quilt Records in the 1960's, was approached by Quilt Records president Clancy Snarrup in 1966 about making a Christmas record, as a followup to her previous tympanic masterpieces released on the Quilt label.  Soon after, and following three strenuous days of recording, "Having a Marfy Xmas!!!" was born.  Where has this album been all these years?  Finally, it is now available for Christmas music lovers everywhere.

It's fudging amazing, I'll tell you, fudging amazing.  It's tympani-led music to soothe the babes and quiet the barnyard beasts.  Or, as the French say:

Cette musique tympanique apaisera tous

les bébés en pleurs et fera taire les

animaux de la ferme.

The album opener, "Deck the Halls" is an exercise in precision and jazzy interpretation.  Drummer Golly Awkward keeps the beat as if he is a human manifestation of a Swiss watch, unerring in exactitude and the demands of Mrs. Helen Marf's arrangement.   Hempal Goozer III plays a cautious Hammond Organ, and Hubert Grackfellow an intensly restrained tubular bells.  Heaven!

"We Wish You a Marfy Christmas" introduces 1) Mrs, Helen Marf's joviality with the play-on-words song title, and 2) Larry Trimpletskzyk-Klamph on bongos, along with Maria Losa shakin' the sleigh bells.  You'll be craving a heaping serving of figgy pudding before the song ends!

Oh my - track 3 - "The First Noel", performed on solo tympani by Mrs. Helen Marf.  Only through the rhythmic explorations of unaccompanied tympani can the new depths of meaning be found in this classic olde Christmas carol, or as the Portuguese say "O solo do tympani acrescenta profundidade e significado à música natalina."  The solo ends far too soon for this Christmas-music lover.

On "Silent Night", guest vibraphonist Tina "The Ghost" Freena joins the cadre, and Hammond organist Hempal Goozer III is featured, but following Mr. Goozer's turn in the spotlight Mrs. Marf returns, driving the classic melody with reckless abandon and wild yet tamed tympani rolls, commanding attention yet paying respectful homage to Franz Gruber, or as the Germans say "eine Hommage an Franz Gruber".

"God Rest Ye, Marfy Gentlemen" - could this be an uncredited arrangement by the great Henry Mancini?  Whaaaat?

The true highlight of the album is "Jingle Bells".  Mrs. Helen Marf unleashed her inner tympanic Kraken in this performance.  You think, yes you do, that she is sticking strictly to the rhythm as written, when Whoa!  there's an eighth note pause and a slight syncopation.  OMG!  There's an extra tympani beat with what is probably a staccato, probably not an ultra-staccato, mallet.  The strokes and rolls drive the song, once again accompanied by Mr. Awkward and Ms. Losa.  Mrs. Helen Marf plays with untold virtuosity and confidence.  And, right at the 3:00 minute mark of the song, it sounds like Mrs. Marf is late on a beat.  But, to me, this is just another example of her sheer brilliance.  It sounds like a late beat, striking not on the quarter or the eighth or the sixteenth, but in that nether region that lies outside the rhythm.  Oh, it's purposeful, my friends.  It COMMANDS your attention, lest it has wandered.  It brings you back for the denoument of "Jingle Bells".  It's a journey to jazz and back, all in a single note, or as the Bulgarians say "Falshivata propusnata belezhka e sŭshtnostta na muzikalnata nirvana".

Now, I'm not one to make musical recommendations, not being an actual musician and all that, but I've listened to my fair share of Christmas music (and probably yours too). And, y'know, if Mrs. Helen Marf decides to get the band back together for one more Christmas album, or even a single, I think she should give Professor Z.Z. d'Bingle a call. Known as the Theremin Jedi of the Plains, Prof. d'Bingle's theremin mastery might give the next Marf tune that little extra push for Grammy to take notice.

Now for the good news - you too can share in the works of Mrs. Helen Marf. An unreleased version of "Bring a Torch, Jeanette" is on Soundcloud - here's the link: Bring a Torch.

And, you too can own your own copy of "Having a Marfy Xmas!!!" You can buy a download on Bandcamp here: Marfy Xmas!!! You can even buy copies for your friends, which I think you should do.

And hey - here's the official promo video for "Having a Marfy Xmas!!!"  Youtube link  You know you have to go watch.

It's reported that Kansas City musician Jason Beers has some connection to this album....

The album is real, the review is for fun. Thanks Franny and Jason...

Birchwood Pops Orchestra "Silent Night"

Tonight's share comes from a clean-out of my wife's Second Grade classroom that she undertook last year. After having been in the same classroom for well over twenty years, it was time for a purge, and she brought home a few records that had made their way, somehow, into the room.

"Silent Night", by the Birchwood Pops Orchestra on the Pickwick label, was a very pleasant surprise.  It has a 1980 date on the album, but to me it sounds of an earlier time.  It's a very pleasant background Christmas music album, well performed, arranged to be very true to the essence of the classic carols, but still original enough to be interesting and ear catching. 

It's a short album - 9 tracks and about 24 minutes.  I like the song selection, with a few A-listers - "Silent Night", "White Christmas", "The Christmas Songs - but it also includes several still well-known but not as frequently recorded songs, such as "Toyland", "The Coventry Carol", and "The Bells of St. Mary's".

This is a really enjoyable album, arranged to really showcase the brass instruments.  I think you'll like it.  Oh, and please forgive the "Henton" written in black marker in the over - that was the telltale mark of belonging in my wife's classroom :-) 

Enjoy "Silent Night" by the Birchwood Pops Orchestra

download link

1940 Christmas Poems

At a local used bookstore this summer, where I had thankfully done some inventory research before going and created a list of books I wanted to see, because man, the bookstore was jam-packed and I needed to jsut turn over the list to the proprietor to have any shot at finding them, I picked up this little gem of a book, titled "1940 Christmas Poems".  It was published locally in Kansas City as a result of a poetry contest co-sponsored by the Kansas City Star newspaper and WDAF, a local radio station in 1940, now also a television station.  I've included the first few pages explaining the origins of the book, and also a few of the poems.

What is striking to me is the artwork on the endpapers.  In the upper left is a military wife, home for Christmas, by the tree with presents abound, missing her husband.  In the lower right, her husband, fighting in the war, praying to be able to someday return to his home.  In the middle, a stark image of warplanes.  It's a very moving illustration.  And, although it's hard to see in the picture, the cover is embossed with the same picture, sans planes.  One could place a paper on the cover and shade with a pencil to reproduce the picture.  Love it.

The book contains a collection of the poems submitted for the contest.  KC readers - I didn't recognize any of the names of the poets.  I wouldn't expect to know anyone from 1940, but I thought perhaps that there would be a recognizable local name, maybe a Kemper, a Rockhill, a Bodine, or another family name from local media, but there are none that I could identify.

Here are the introductory sections and a few sample poems.  If I can safely scan a few more poems I may add them in later.  Enjoy this piece of Christmas history from Kansas City.

I also found a vintage copy of "Miracle on 34th St." at the bookstore that day.  'Twas a good day of book shopping...

What's the name of the reindeer leading Santa's sleigh?

No, What is pulling second.

I'm not asking you who's pulling second. 

Who is leading the sleigh.

That's what I'm trying to find out!  Who has the red nose?

Yes.

Ok - enough of that feeble attempt to add a Christmas spin to the classic Abbott & Costello routine.  Why, you may ask? (He's in Center... no, no, no...)  Well, tonight's share is a Christmas radio broadcast from Bud & Lou, performed on December 12, 1946.  Side A of the album, titled "Christmas Stocking" from the Holiday label, contains the radio broadcast, and side B has, of course, "Who's On First" along with "Costello's Farm".

A few words about "Who's On First".  It's freakin' genius comedy.  You probably knew that already, but the genius really comes out after you've heard many different versions of it.  I have several A&C records, all with some version of "Who's On First", and it's just slightly different each time.  Of course the basics and the structure and flow are the same, but there are little, teeny idiosyncrasies, mainly led by Lou, because you never really know where exactly he's going next, that give each version it's own identity.  And frankly, listening to Bud keep up without ever losing a beat is amazing.  Go hit the internet and listen to several different versions and you'll see what I mean.

Another thing about Who's On First is that no one else can really do it.  I have this album by The Links (actually it's my daughters but she won't take it)(I call them the Will Ferrell Trio)(We thought it was the Kinks - boy were we surprised)(It's signed - it's harder to find The Links records unsigned than signed ones) and it has a version of Who's On First.  It's well-rehearsed, well-paced, performed with energy, delivered clearly, and it's awful.  It doesn't have a trace of Lou's manic energy and the spontaneity of A&C, even after they'd done the bit a million times.  Compare and contrast, my students.

One last thing - I had (he's passed now) a "step"-brother, raised by but never adopted by my father, whose name was Bud Abbott.  Seriously.  Eugene was his given name, but he was known as Bud.  Bud was 40 years older than me, and we never lived in the same home, and having Bud Abbott as a brother confused the heck out of me as a child once I discovered Abbott & Costello.

So, anyhoo - there's a lot of extraneous information packed in here tonight, so I'll stop and let you enjoy "Christmas Stocking" by Abbott & Costello.  Final word - there are a few scratches/skips that I could not repair during the transfer process.  My apologies, but that's part of the vinyl game....

download link