jazz2love

Album:  Christmastime in Rio Artists:  Romero Lubambo and Pamela Driggs Label:  Sunnyside Records Website:  https://www.romerolubambo.com Ringing in the holiday season, vocalist Pamela Driggs and her husband, guitarist Romero Lubambo, present Christmastime in Rio to audiences.  The 12-track holiday special is a selection of ambient, fireside melodies that will enliven spirits and elicit good cheer.  Joining the couple is their daughter Luisa on vocals in addition to Peter Martin on piano, Vitor Gonçalves on accordion, Joe Locke on vibraphone, Itaiguara Brandão on bass, and Rafael Barata on drums. Lubambo's breezy guitar strokes illuminating "Christmas Love Song" encircle Driggs's vocals in whispery flutters like sparkles radiating from tinsel on a tree.  Driggs cradles the lyrics with a perceptive regard for family ties, emblematic of a nightingale.  Her phrasing displays a sentimentality with warm timbres that are magnetic.  She expresses a...

Album:  All Is Merry And Bright Artist:  Donald Vega Label:  Imagery Records Website:  www.donaldvega.com Pianist and composer Donald Vega applies his distinctive artistic brush strokes to classic Yuletide tunes on his 2024 release All Is Merry and Bright from Imagery Records.  Produced by multi Grammy winner engineer and producer Jim Anderson, Vega is joined by Pete Van Nostrand on drums and Clovis Nicolas on bass.  The trio coalesce classic motifs with a flare for magnetic and innovative phrasing. Vega's poignant keyboard punctuations are scattered across tracks like "Hark! The Herald Angels Sing" and "O Come, O Come Emmanuel," sprinkling the tunes with sparks of buoyancy and impromptu impressions.  The bubbly facets enhance the Yuletide experience. The solace emanating from Vega's keys along "O Little Town of Bethlehem" is inviting with warm aesthetics that are universally pleasing.  His rendition of "God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen" exud...

Album:  Welcome Winter Artist:  Bryan Lubeck Label:  Vineyard Music Productions Website:  www.bryanlubeck.com Welcome Winter , the latest offering from guitarist Bryan Lubeck is an acoustic assemblage of holiday classics with the title track being an original score composed by him and highlighting his Spanish guitar stylizing. The cozy atmospherics nestle the listener in fireside-imbued warmth, tinted in an amalgam of silky guitar chords and contemporary grooves.  Lubeck redefines each track with reflective musings in his chord patterns and Latin flavored intonations to a pristine finish. His interpretation of "The Christmas Song" is fashioned with breathy woodwind-textured swirls and candlelit guitar riffs, coruscating ethereal terrain.  The jangling beats of "Jingle Bells" stoke the festive flames of his bubbly guitar verses, riffing off the melodic motifs and honing twinkling improvisations.  Lubeck has a penchant to make his notes twinkle and flare...

Album:  Hollywood Christmas Artist:  Richard Williams Label:  Self-Released Website:  https://www.richardmusic.com/   https://www.facebook.com/RichardWillliamsMusic/ Composer and multi-instrumentalist Richard Williams rings in the holiday season with his latest release Hollywood Christmas , a 22-track recording comprised of classic Christmas singalong tunes using a palette of big band, swing jazz and orchestral ambiences.  In the vane of Gene Autry, Frank Sinatra, Michael Bublé, and The Carpenters, Williams revisits traditional holiday music and celebrates its perennial luster. Partly driven by his Mormon faith, Williams exercises his arranging chops by putting his own touch-ups on a handful of well-known and beloved Christmas-themed songs.  Williams sets the cheerful tone of the album with the opening number, “It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year.” The song features the sauve voicing of Alex Stiles, a young vocalist whose style and vocal quality i...

Album:  7 Shades of Snow Artist:  June Bisantz Label:  Arabesque Records Label Website: arabesquerecords.com Artist Website: junebisantz.com Bisantz’s current release on the Arabesque label is a collection of rare and tranquil sounding holiday/winter songs written by Arnold Miller and Connie Pearce for American vocalist June Christy in 1961.  Bisantz's recording 7 Shades of Snow combines swing jazz with ballroom-glinted rhythms like torchlight waltzes and intimate trots.  Featuring bassist Jon Burr and his jazz sextet backing Bisantz, the recording began in the winter of 2020 at the height of pandemic restrictions.  This project was conceived, arranged, and recorded remotely in seven separate studios with musicians who had never met prior. Digital technology combined with the talent of Jon Burr and his jazz sextet made the album a reality in spite of widespread lockdowns. A recurring theme is the pensive embers often customized by the soft glisten of Mike ...

Artist: Carolyn Lee Jones CD Title: Christmas Time Is Here Label: Catn’round Sound Website: www.carolynleejones.com Merging swing, bossa nova, blues, and smooth jazz, vocalist Carolyn Lee Jones adds these rich flavors into a selection of Christmas tunes on her latest release Christmas Time Is Here from her label Catn’round Sound.  Ringing in the Yuletide, her performance shows reverence for the traditional singalongs while infusing her trademark sensitivity and tender vocal strokes. Shelley Carrol dabbles "I'd Like You for Christmas" with winsome saxophone trembles, jumping into the melodic progressions during Jones's vocal breaks, making for impromptu pivots along the track.  The bopping grooves lining "Merry Christmas Baby" are laden in good cheer as Mario Cruz's saxophone solo flashes a bright and bouncy blare while Jones lures listeners into the festive mood.   The sleek swagger of her vocal stride enshrouds "Red Christmas" in a vintage gl...

Single:  Once Again It's Winter Artist:  CeCe Gable Label:  CCGableLLC Website:  https://cecegable.hearnow.com Fireside jazz is a precise description of singer-songwriter CeCe Gable's music.  Her single "Once Again It's Winter" is a collaboration she did with pianist/accordionist/composer/arranger Corky Bennett. While Bennett wrote the music, Gable wrote the lyrics and sang the tune.  The verses are primarily based on her experiences while living in Vermont, a transitional phase in her life that left an indelible mark in her memory, which she shares in the song. The elegant phrasing of Akio Sasajima's guitar chords imbue a bossa nova flare strewn across the track, producing a balmy atmosphere around Gable's soothing tone.  The music is both airy and earthy as bassist Harvie S and drummer Andrew Heglund infuse gently rolling knolls along the melody.  The intimacy Gable creates with the audience results in a cozy, fireside ambience. The single follo...