Thanks, Lucian. I really appreciate your support throughout the year. Trying to do my part to bring some positive energy out there. And, please keep doing the great work that you're doing - we need it!
This is a delightful Christmas playlist, Robert. I'm not usually a fan of Christmas music because what I hear in stores is so hackneyed. But I have really enjoyed your selections today as well as your beautifully written prose. What especially comes across in this edition is how much you love this music. This list goes a long way to putting the rest of us in the Christmas spirit. Thank you!
"My favourite piece of Christmas music I discovered this year came early in the season, the day of the news of Quincy Jones’ passing. Someone posted the music video of the ‘Hallelujah’ chorus from Handel’s Messiah: A Soulful Celebration. Shown conducting a chorus of at least 40 voices was Jones. The choir was comprised of a litany of the luminaries of Black music, including Patti Austin, Gladys Knight, Chaka Khan, Johnny Mathis, Joe Sample and Al Jarreau (and that’s just for starters!).'
This wasn't Q's first go round with Handel. When he scored the film "Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice" in 1969, a clever up-tempo version of the chorus was used under the main title credits.
I should have remembered that! Thanks for the reminder - 'Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice' is a tremendous picture - the sole time Elliott Gould has been nominated for an Oscar!
I definitely lean into the nostalgia when it comes to Christmas music with some of the old classics from the 50s to the 70s tending to be my favorites.
I have such fond memories of being a kid in the mid-70s, sitting in the living room next to the freshly decorated tree and listening to my dad’s copy of the 1961 “Holiday Sing Along With Mitch”. My sister and I would have the printed song sheets (my folks didn’t need them) and we’d sing along to some of the holiday classics as a family.
In the digital age I was a big collector of Christmas CDs and my favorites tended to be the compilations like the 2-CD Time Life Treasury of Christmas, Billboard Greatest Christmas Hits, the Ultra Lounge Christmas Cocktails series and what has become my favorite collection, 1999’s “A Jazz Noel” from Windham Hill Records.
The great thing about the streaming age is that I can pull together my favorite tracks from Christmas compilations and individual albums that I might enjoy in their entirety from artists like Eartha Kitt, Frank Sinatra, Ella & Louis
A couple other Christmas albums I enjoy:
• Winter Poems by Stephan Moccio (2020)
• Christmas By Candlelight by Denis Solee and The Jeff Steinberg Jazz Ensemble (2003)
It’s been a joy reading you this year, Robert. Wishing you and yours a safe and happy holiday season.
Each year, I build a robust Christmas playlist on Spotify and the backbone is the vintage sounds of the great pop singers, Percy Faith, Ray Conniff and good ol' Mitch too among many other things. Thank you for the recommendations and for the very kind words.
My best wishes for the Christmas season and for the New Year.
A lovely write-up of music that I don't often pay attention to. I appreciate the way you put this: "It’s about how it connects the present day with the past, linking today’s celebrations with those when one was younger with those of parents, grandparents, aunts and uncles and the like when they were younger."
A wonderful and valuable service to the season and your readers. This is why I subscribe, and others should, too!
Thanks, Lucian. I really appreciate your support throughout the year. Trying to do my part to bring some positive energy out there. And, please keep doing the great work that you're doing - we need it!
This is a delightful Christmas playlist, Robert. I'm not usually a fan of Christmas music because what I hear in stores is so hackneyed. But I have really enjoyed your selections today as well as your beautifully written prose. What especially comes across in this edition is how much you love this music. This list goes a long way to putting the rest of us in the Christmas spirit. Thank you!
Thank you, Andrew, for this very kind comment. I'm grateful you liked piece.
"My favourite piece of Christmas music I discovered this year came early in the season, the day of the news of Quincy Jones’ passing. Someone posted the music video of the ‘Hallelujah’ chorus from Handel’s Messiah: A Soulful Celebration. Shown conducting a chorus of at least 40 voices was Jones. The choir was comprised of a litany of the luminaries of Black music, including Patti Austin, Gladys Knight, Chaka Khan, Johnny Mathis, Joe Sample and Al Jarreau (and that’s just for starters!).'
This wasn't Q's first go round with Handel. When he scored the film "Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice" in 1969, a clever up-tempo version of the chorus was used under the main title credits.
I should have remembered that! Thanks for the reminder - 'Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice' is a tremendous picture - the sole time Elliott Gould has been nominated for an Oscar!
"(Everybody’s Waiting for) The Man with the Bag" - LOOOVE this! 🤩 Thanks for introducing me to this gem of a (Christmas) song
You're welcome, Stygi!
This is beautiful, Robert, thank you!
I definitely lean into the nostalgia when it comes to Christmas music with some of the old classics from the 50s to the 70s tending to be my favorites.
I have such fond memories of being a kid in the mid-70s, sitting in the living room next to the freshly decorated tree and listening to my dad’s copy of the 1961 “Holiday Sing Along With Mitch”. My sister and I would have the printed song sheets (my folks didn’t need them) and we’d sing along to some of the holiday classics as a family.
In the digital age I was a big collector of Christmas CDs and my favorites tended to be the compilations like the 2-CD Time Life Treasury of Christmas, Billboard Greatest Christmas Hits, the Ultra Lounge Christmas Cocktails series and what has become my favorite collection, 1999’s “A Jazz Noel” from Windham Hill Records.
The great thing about the streaming age is that I can pull together my favorite tracks from Christmas compilations and individual albums that I might enjoy in their entirety from artists like Eartha Kitt, Frank Sinatra, Ella & Louis
A couple other Christmas albums I enjoy:
• Winter Poems by Stephan Moccio (2020)
• Christmas By Candlelight by Denis Solee and The Jeff Steinberg Jazz Ensemble (2003)
It’s been a joy reading you this year, Robert. Wishing you and yours a safe and happy holiday season.
Each year, I build a robust Christmas playlist on Spotify and the backbone is the vintage sounds of the great pop singers, Percy Faith, Ray Conniff and good ol' Mitch too among many other things. Thank you for the recommendations and for the very kind words.
My best wishes for the Christmas season and for the New Year.
Are your playlists public? Are you able to share a link?
Yup! Here is a link to my main one for this year: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/6IaC7OKQ5AfDnP0Pb0q8PW?si=pvt6NPW1RFScWc7FsVPuLg&pi=L6oj9yEUQvS_a
A lovely write-up of music that I don't often pay attention to. I appreciate the way you put this: "It’s about how it connects the present day with the past, linking today’s celebrations with those when one was younger with those of parents, grandparents, aunts and uncles and the like when they were younger."
Thanks, Nick - appreciate the kind words.