arrange • compose • conduct
Posts about Christmas-related topics
This time of year, I hear a solid percentage of people say “I hate Christmas music.” That is a defensible opinion, though I wish they’d say, “it’s not for me.” But there’s more to it, I realized–because if you’re listening to Christmas music in a different way than I am, […]
Wishing you a day filled with music. Including this, which for me exemplifies Christmasy music. Gene’s writing is complex, original, beautiful, and always compelling. But more than that, in this case, is the heartfelt delivery of this piece. You feel it when they sing it. Right down to the spoken […]
The three ideas I most closely associate with Christmas Eve are Family, Singing, and Anticipation. Family, because you’re hopefully with the people you love–blood family or adopted family. Singing, because caroling in general and Silent Night in particular feel particularly connected to Christmas Eve. Anticipation is overwhelming, especially for children, […]
What is the best Christmas album and why is it Ella Wishes You A Swinging Christmas? It has the perfect selection of classic American Christmas songs. Ella sings flawlessly. (It’s my favorite period of her recording – around the same time she was recording the Songbook series, her classic Ella […]
My family is wishing you peace and connection this holiday season. We made this little music video together just for you! Wishing you all a Happy Holidays! We’ve built a lot of skills this year in our house – singing, juggling, audio & video engineering. And we decided to put […]
Our family usually counts down the time between Thanksgiving and Christmas not with days, but with concerts. Twenty in these three weeks of school isn’t out of the ordinary. Of course, there won’t be anything close to that this year. What’s to come of a December without concerts? Well, probably […]
I’m not sure any album says Christmas to me more than The Manhattan Transfer’s A Christmas Album. I got it in 1992 when it was brand new and I was brand new to vocal jazz. I listened to it obsessively every December, long before I was exposed to many of my […]
As in past years, I devoted an hour of my weekly two-hour rehearsal this week to a guided listening. For an hour, we listen to different interpretations of the same Christmas classic. It enables us to focus on tone, interpretation, creativity, and any number of other factors. Here are 2014 […]
A reader asked me what I most often listen to when I deprofessionalize my Christmas listening. Here are 20 of my most likely go-to Christmas albums. (You can check out a shorter Christmas playlist here.) Solo Singing The Christmas Song (Nat “King” Cole) A Merry Christmas With Bing Crosby and the Andrews […]
Every December I like to take an hour of rehearsal and do a guided listening with my students. An hour is half of our weekly time together, which should give you an idea of how important I consider this activity. Christmas songs are great for guided listening because of their ubiquity – we […]