Holiday Music Thread

[Ojai Sam]

Bing Crosby - The Crosby Christmas Sessions (Collectors Choice 2010)

Ho ho ho hum, another Crosby Christmas album, right? Nope. This CD was put together by Katherine Crosby and the Bingaholics at International Club Crosby (of which I am a card carrying member). It consists entirely of rare and unheard performances from radio shows, uncollected singles and lost albums. Der Bingle is paired up with Ella Fitzgerald, Peggy Lee and Frank Sinatra, not to mention David Bowie ("The Little Drummer Boy" beautifully remastered for the first time direct from the original 2" videotape).

Sadly, this album is out of print but it's well worth your effort to track down.

on the Sam-O-Meter.

 

[Zeeba Neighba]

Diana Krall - Christmas Songs (2005)

A chill, jazzy affair from Mrs. Costello

 

[Zeeba Neighba]

Oscar Peterson - An Oscar Peterson Christmas (1995)

A post-stroke Oscar, but that brings him down to mere human levels - nice jazzy set for the holidays, as Allmusic says "no risk taking" but sometimes that's OK for holiday music

 

[Unsomnambulist]

Melvins - Eggnog (1991)

 

[Ojai Sam]

Mrs. Ojai and I have been enjoying Pandora's "Traditional Christmas" station. We paired an old iPad we have lying around to a new Fugoo Style-S Bluetooth speaker and just let it run all day. It's a collaborative/competitive effort with each of us registering thumbs up or thumbs down.

Hey, what happened to Gayla Peevey?!

 

[Zeeba Neighba]

Trio West Plays Holiday Songs (2006)

Nice jazz piano trio Christmas album giving these well-trod standards a hard bop treatment. Good stuff. I especially liked the Afro-Cubano version of "God Rest Ye Merry Gentleman" - muy bueno!

 

[Nickyboy]

I'll put it here, because it is a holiday piece. I am not religious, but this piece is absolutely gorgeous on a musical level. The lingering reverb in this Spanish church is aaaaaaaamaaazingly wonderful.

 

[Ojai Sam]

So who were those chipmunks, anyway?

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/n...RHj1ejRLQaqvt5RQyirV-W7Q2WpILChR6MRSrM_W5u-pc

 

[axolotl]

So who were those chipmunks, anyway?

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/n...RHj1ejRLQaqvt5RQyirV-W7Q2WpILChR6MRSrM_W5u-pc

Bagdasarian, a frustrated actor (Alfred Hitchcock put him at the piano in Rear Window) and sometime songwriter (he co-wrote the catchy 1951 tune "Come on-a My House," made popular by Rosemary Clooney) who was then in his 40s, experimented with a reel-to-reel tape recorder to re-create the sound technique that MGM had used to produce The Wizard of Oz's Munchkin voices 20 years earlier. In short, the process involves recording a voice at half-speed and playing it back at normal speed, which raises the pitch (the trick: a laboriously slow delivery of the lyrics).

These Eligibles harbor no regrets. "I didn't seek any celebrity," says Hicklin, now retired in Palm Springs. "I just wanted to do the best job I could in all of my work. I have fantastic memories from that period. I mean, one day I was working at Capitol Records and Frank Sinatra walked into the studio and approached me. He came up to me with some sheet music and said, 'Kid, how does this go?' Sinatra didn't read music. I had to sing it for him. He thanked me and left. How do you top that? I walked among kings."

And Chipmunks.

 

[Zeeba Neighba]

Now: Peter Tchaikovsky - The Nutcracker - Complete (St. Louis Orchestra/Leonard Slatkin)

 

[axolotl]

B. B. King ~ A Christmas Celebration of Hope (2001)

 

[axolotl]

Stephen Siktberg ~ Christmas Guitar (1990)



https://www.discogs.com/Stephen-Siktberg-Christmas-Guitar/release/11066182

 

[axolotl]

Therese Schroeder-Sheker ~In Dulci Jubilo (1991)



You could do a lot worse than listening to this CD, like... not listening to this CD. The ambiance surrounding her voice is transmogrifying, or something like that.

I would think that Worm and Nick (or Bramthorpe, or Patty de Foie Gras) would possibly like it.

 

[Worm]

Therese Schroeder-Sheker ~In Dulci Jubilo (1991)



You could do a lot worse than listening to this CD, like... not listening to this CD. The ambiance surrounding her voice is transmogrifying, or something like that.

I would think that Worm and Nick (or Bramthorpe, or Patty de Foie Gras) would possibly like it.

Ima listen then.

ETA: I listened and like this. I especially like their Ave Maria

 

[axolotl]

Ima listen then.

ETA: I listened and like this. I especially like their Ave Maria

The reco below is not specifically for the holidays, but check out her album Rosa Mystica. I am gobsmacked by how good it is.

There is one song on there in which you can audibly hear the wind outside the studio, which I believe is a church in Colorado. It adds a beautiful but eerie texture underlying the harp and voice.

 

[Nickyboy]

A brief snippet of Christmas music. The double echo is stunningly gorgeous here.

 

[Nickyboy]

Some Christmas music you might not have heard yet: https://ihrtn.net/listening-room-christmas-2018-edition/

 

[Zeeba Neighba]

Well, 1955 will have to wait - only 16 more days until Christmas

Today I've been spinning Lou Rawls, Nat King Cole, and now Vince Guaraldi - Cool Yule

 

[axolotl]

Al DiMeola ~ Winter Nights (1999)

 

[Zeeba Neighba]

Al DiMeola ~ Winter Nights (1999)

This! Thanks @axolotl - haven't heard before