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Artist:
Kenny G
Kenny G currently owns the smooth-jazz soprano sax with his popular, mainstream arrangements and compositions. And on his first holiday album, despite occasionally predictable charts and phrasing, the saxman delivers a thoughtful and moving collection of songs, spirituals, and hymns, with his trademark sound wedded to several ensemble and orchestral arrangements. The G-man stretches out in "Sleigh Ride" and "Santa Claus Is Coming to Town", but these are balanced by more serious pieces such as the lovely, original "Eternal Light ( A Chanukah Song)" and "Ave Maria". There's a genuine humbleness and inspired reverence in the playing here--as in, Kenny G really means it, man....
 Simply breathtaking, 2000-04-25
This cd is amazing - I bought it from my husband and I only wish I had known I could have got it so simply from Amazon - I trailed around town for four hours under severe stress with two children under the age of 3!. However, my husband has since lost his gift as I have claimed it and listend to it every night. The music is so haunting, especially Eternal Light and the final track of Auld Lang Syne where some of the accompanying historical moments brought tears to my eyes.In a word - BUY!
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List Price: £14.99
Our Price: £4.06
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Artist:
Various Artists
The first six tracks of Making Spirits Bright could have been subtitled "A Twist of Christmas", for they bear the indelible stamp of guitarist and producer Lee Ritenour and his A Twist of Marley album. In fact, his Brazilian take on "Silent Night", with singer Al Jarreau, sounds like an arrangement worked straight out of Ritenour's A Twist of Jobim sessions. Even with guitarists Joyce Cooling and Marc Antoine, his presence is noticeable. The other half of the album finds most of the artists doing their own thing, the best of which is the funky groove saxophonist Richard Elliot and keyboardist Jeff Lorber lay under "God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen". Like a...
 In love with Diana Krall music? Ask her to sing you Jingle.., 2001-12-04
Have you ever bought a CD for one song only? If so, do it once again. Diana Krall singing Jingle Bells is what you always expected for Christmas. Charming and hot, entertaining and cosy. As a bonus you'll get 11 other tracks you can put on your CD player for all the time you'll spend at home. It's Christmas, but not pop nor plastic. Just bright.
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List Price: £12.99
Our Price: £5.21
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Artist:
Vince Guaraldi Trio
Recognizing that the holiday season really begins at Halloween (and, in some quarters, doesn't end until the Super Bowl), Vince Guaraldi and his record company have wisely assembled the hummable themes from various Charlie Brown TV specials. What we have here is the album's ability to communicate the playful irony and loopy, lovable characters that people Charles Schultz's "Peanuts" comic strip every week. Though only one actual Christmas tune is included--"Christmas Time Is Here," in both the vocal and instrumental versions--kids from ages 1 to 92 will still appreciate the "Great Pumpkin Waltz," the "Thanksgiving Theme," oddities such as "Heartburn Waltz" and "Joe Cool,"...
Perfectly Lovely Christmas Album, 2010-01-06
This album has been a delight to listen to over Christmas. Vince Guaraldi is an excellent jazz musician and you will enjoy this album with its sentiment and cheer!
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List Price: £9.99
Our Price: £6.46
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Artist:
Various Artists
Hey its real Christmas Jazz, 2010-02-03
I love this - it was exactly what I wanted. Christmassy but with excellent music and some variations on the usual classic songs.
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List Price: £4.99
Our Price: £1.88
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Artist:
Brian Setzer
Fun at Christmas, 2010-01-20
If you like big band swing then this is fun and perfect at christmas time. Plenty for everyone with classics such as Winter Wonderland and Baby It's Cold Outside. This comes with a dvd of a live performance that includes all the named tracks and a few Stray Cat classics such as Rumble In Brighton and Rock This Town as well. DVD also includes some extra behind the scenes footage which to me finishes the whole package off nicely. Would recommend.
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List Price: £13.99
Our Price: £9.99
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Artist:
Frank Sinatra,
Dean Martin,
Sammy Davis Jr
Just as irony is being pronounced dead, along comes the boozy holiday compilation Christmas with the Rat Pack, suggesting that rumours of its demise may be premature. Given the culture's simmering lounge mania, this collection (with its cheesy homage/rip-off Oceans 11 art direction) may be belated--but hey, punctuality was never these swingin' cats' bag, Jack. The novelty of having three of the 20th century's most notorious sinners belt, whoop and sing the praises of sleigh bells, roasting chestnuts and the virgin birth would be enough to recommend this dizzy 21-track delight, but there's actually some rewarding pop archaeology here as well. Two of the b...
Smooth Christmas, 2008-10-24
In a vote for the best Christmas album, it's a toss up for me between this and Phil Spector's.
The voices of Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin are perfect for Christmas songs. They sound all warm and homely, and you can almost imagine them standing in front of a log fire singing these.
Plus, the banter between Frank, Dean and Sammy is pretty entertaining and makes the songs stand out from the usual Christmas standards.
If you get it, you'll bring it out every year and it will put a smile on your face!
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List Price: £13.99
Our Price: £7.99
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Artist:
Various Artists
A perfect martini-and-mistletoe combo, Christmas Cocktails will gaily seduce you with its bevy of nostalgic and occasionally campy holiday fare. Vocal vixens Peggy Lee, Julie London (her "I'd Like You for Christmas" will melt the ice cubes in your fridge), Kay Starr and Nancy Wilson join forces with perennial crooners such as Lou Rawls, Dean Martin and the immortal Nat "King" Cole, along with a handful of instrumental big-band numbers and odd, at times cheese-ball-shaped jazz organ pieces from Jimmy McGriff and the flammable Eddie Dundstedter, among others. But the essential item that makes plunking down your pelts for this very chi-chi set is none other than Billy May's ...
If santa was a pin-up..., 2000-12-06
Generally very COOL mix of funky, jazzy, bossa-nova-ish, X-mas songs. Makes for a great excuse to jump around and shake your stuff - go on burn those mince pies!!!!
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List Price: £8.99
Our Price: £4.33
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Artist:
Fourplay
Here's some soft jazz for that fireside glow at Christmas. Fourplay is pianist and arranger Bob James with guitarist Larry Carlton, drummer Harvey Mason, and bassist Nathan East (who handles limited vocal chores, as well). Carlton is the tastiest of the foursome (check his blues-tinged work on "Amazing Grace"), never overplaying or indulging his knowing chops. Snowbound's strong group effort shines as the band weaves in and out of each other's lines on "Hark! The Herald Angels Sing" or as the rhythm section casts mellow, funky grooves in the path of the title track, under occasional trumpet and sax fills. The quartet delivers one other original piece, James's "The ...
A very enjoyable Christmas album, 2009-06-17
This was the second album with Larry Carlton on guitar in place of Lee Ritenour and it's mostly jolly good, not to mention considerably better in the sound stakes than its immediate predecessor Fourplay 4, particularly in the bass, the only exceptions being a couple of vocal tracks that have to be edited out. The rest of the gang are still here, namely Uncle Bob James (keyboards), Nathan East (bass) and Harvey Mason (drums).
It's a mixture of traditional and more modern festive numbers, all impeccably arranged and played of course at Remidi Studios in NYC and Mountain Studios in Montreux, Switzerland, with just one track written by Bob James. Maybe it was actually snowing when they recorded it, which wouldn't have been the case had they done it in sunny California, as so many Christmas albums by jazz ensembles seem to be.
If you like Christmas albums with a mildly jazzy feel, then this should fit the bill very nicely and can be warmly recommended. If not, then there are several other fine Fourplay albums from which to choose, my personal favourites being Elixir and Yes! Please.
These guys may not be household names in popular music circles, but their talents are almost peerless, so listen and enjoy on those cold December evenings as Christmas Day approaches. I still do every year and I always enjoy it.
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List Price: £14.99
Our Price: £3.49
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Artist:
Nancy Wilson
Has Nancy Wilson ever made a public move in her four-decade career that wasn't tasteful? Aside from a couple of small-print notices, purchasers of A Nancy Wilson Christmas would never know that Wilson intends to donate her royalties from her first full-length Christmas disc to the Pittsburgh-based Manchester Craftsmen's Guild, an arts and education centre for lower-income residents. Wilson moves here between quietly felt moods with astute shifts in arrangement size; her trio, the Dizzy Gillespie alumni orchestra, and a chamber group are among the varied settings. As a choice for a houseful of family on Christmas Eve, this could hardly be better. A seemingly unpromi...
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List Price: £6.99
Our Price: £6.79
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Artist:
Various Artists
Breath of fresh air!, 2010-01-10
I LOVE this! It's so refreshingly different. I was wading through the Christmas CD search on Amazon, looking for something different to the usual volume of banal cliched and well-worn droning that gets reeled out every year (you know, supermarket music from September onwards).
Forget the word 'Jazz'. Because I hate jazz. I don't do jazz. What I do like is taking the old favourites and stirring them up in a kind of fat boy slim way until you get something a lot more modern, funky and stylish than the same old tat.
I took a risk with this, and it paid off.
I just wish there were enough originals in the first place for a fresh one of these CDs to be produced every year!
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List Price: £27.99
Our Price: £7.48
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