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Each year, I
seek out new holiday music, usually in the jazz and classical realms.
There have been several notable releases this year, including offerings
by the Nagel-Heyer bunch and Cyrus Chestnut, among others. However,
the music that immediately captured my attention this season I found
being sold at a local holiday goods offering by the artist himself.
I found the artist, Steve Barta, studied and urbane...like I was
to find his music.
Steve Barta
is a Colorado Springs-based pianist-composer who has been releasing
recordings on his Source Music label for the last several years.
A longtime associate of flautist Herbie Mann, Barta has released
a variety of jazz and seasonal recordings, and returns to the latter
genre with Herbie Mann on The Twelve Days of Christmas. Supported
by his working trio members, Kim Stone and Ronnie Shaw, and augmented
by Mann and Don Griffin on guitar, Barta follows up two exceptional
solo piano holiday discs (That Christmas Feeling and Noel) and a
multicultural extravaganza (Christmas Around The World).
Twelve Days
is the most overtly jazzy of Barta's holiday releases, and that
is what makes it so fun.
Mr. Barta employs
an exquisitely soft touch and sensibility while steering carefully
through the traditional ("O Christmas Tree", "Sleigh
Ride", and "Let It Snow!") and more contemporary
("Skating", "Linus and Lucy", and "My Favorite
Things"). Herbie Mann and Don Griffin join Barta on a decidedly
Bossa version of Mel Torme's "Christmas Song". The playing
across board is tasteful. Barta's arrangements are equally tasteful
and informed. He judiciously uses his string section to add a down
filler to his arrangements, increasing their warmth. This holiday
music is worth seeking out!
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