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Christmas

Fantasia | Christmas After Midnight


 
Fantasia | Christmas After Midnight
Concord Music
by Peggy Oliver
 
When it comes down to the annual barrage of holiday musical fare, music connoisseurs can be very fickle about their beloved artists singing Christmas set-in-stone standards. Sometimes the best intended orchestrations and re-constructions of hymns and pop pieces fails to elicit anything remarkable from past renditions.

Musical McCrary Family Offers Excellent Contemporary Christmas CD For Charity


 
A Very McCrary Christmas
The McCrary Foundation Choir
(Indi-Genius Music Group)
A Record Reflection by A. Scott Galloway
 
With the goal being to create a Christmas album for all the generation within your household, the world famous McCrary family of vocalists, musicians, songwriters, arrangers and record producers (Michael Jackson, Beyonce, Chaka Khan) glowingly succeed in their mission with a richly inspired and diversified 12-song collection of original and traditional offerings.

Bob Baldwin | The Gift of Christmas

bob-baldwin-the-gift-of-christmas
 
Bob Baldwin
The Gift of Christmas
(City Sketches)
A Record Reflection by A. Scott Galloway
 
Keyboardist/Producer Bob Baldwin eases us into the 2016 holiday season with some much needed aural relief via his 10 song offering, The Gift of Christmas. The CD opens with a pleasant jaunt through Donny Hathaway’s “This Christmas” then lifts off into space for a celestially reharmonized sojourn through Vince Guaraldi’s “Christmas Time is Here.”

Jazz Piano Master Stanley Cowell Releases Best Holiday Genre CD of the Season 2015

Stanley Cowell – Reminiscent (Plus a Christmas Suite)
(SteepleChase)

 
A Record Reflection by A. Scott Galloway
 
Stanley Cowell - Reminiscent - SteepleChase - 2015
 
The art of piano is all about touch. Over a fifty year career as a leader and sideman with the likes of Sonny Rolins, Stan Getz and Max Roach, Stanley Cowell has mastered an impeccable balance of intelligence and taste.

Mint Condition | Healing Season

Mint_healingseason
 
Mint Condition | Healing Season
Mint Condition Music, LLC
by Peggy Oliver
 
At one time or another, those artists who have logged in many studio hours will eventually find their way to record their perspective on what Christmas hymns or popular tunes should sound and feel like. I thoroughly appreciate when an artist refuses in leaning too far to the left or right for the sake of holiday cheer,…

Maysa | A Very Maysa Christmas

Maysa - A Very Maysa Christmas
 
Maysa | A Very Maysa Christmas
Shanachie
by Brent Faulkner
 
An adjective that best describes Baltimore singer/songwriter Maysa (Leak) is versatility. Incredibly gifted possessing nothing short of a beautiful, angelic-sounding instrument, Maysa is a magnificent musician. A mix of soul, jazz, and R&B, Maysa offers a “little bit of this and a little bit of that.” Classically trained sporting a classical performance degree from Morgan State University, Maysa is definitely the real-deal.

Tamar Braxton | Winter Loversland

Tamar Braxton - Winter Loversland
 
Tamar Braxton | Winter Loversland
Epic Records
by Darnell Meyers-Johnson
 
Is Tamar Braxton finally winning at this game of music? On the surface it would seem so. Nearly a year ago her single “Love And War” was released and by August 2013, it sold over one million copies. The September release of her album of the same name has already generated three official singles, as well as the recent release of the video for one of the project’s weaker tracks (but one of Tamar’s favorites) “Hot Sugar”.

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