Customer Reviews

Caliban does Christmas

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I love everything the Caliban Quartet has done so far, and this is my least favorite of their albums. There are a lot of tracks that I really love and feature the quartet on their own with a lot of humor and wonderful bassoon work, and these tracks will be appreciated by fans of the quartet's other work. The other tracks, however, feature a lot of guest vocalists with bassoon accompaniment (along with more normal instruments). These tracks would be perfect for a bassoonist to play for a family that doesn't want to hear wacky bassoon music. At first, I wanted to be able to mute the shrill voice of one of the guest artists so I could hear the instrument I bought the album for. I hoped the tracks would grow on me, but there are many of them that I simply cannot listen to.

This album tries to be a wacky bassoon quartet version of some seasonal music for those of us who get sick of the traditional versions of the carols, but it also has a lot of tracks suggesting some new carols that will leave the bassoon fans straining to hear their favorite instrument as they do on so many other recordings. Yes, the new carols often have clever lyrics, but their style often nauseatingly perky like traditional carols (even though there's some bassoon in the background) and, as someone more at home in the bass clef, I cannot stand the voices of many sopranos.

I can't possibly give fewer than 4 stars to an album featuring the Sugar Plum Fairy theme played by a contrabassoon, and there's a lot of awesome bassoon work on here that makes me happy to own it, but be warned that whatever you're after, you will probably only enjoy half of the CD.

The Toronto-based Caliban Quartet Of Bassoonists - Nadina Mackie Jackson, Mathieu Lussier, Frasier Jackson and Kathleen McLean - who take their name from the weird creature in The Tempest by William Shakespeare, has been entertaining audiences around the world for the past 15 years.

For this Christmas CD, which came out in the fall of 2005, they are joined by these well-known Canadian instrumentalists: trumpet/flugelhorn-player Guido Basso, trumpeter Guy Few, trombonist Alain Trudel, guitarist Michael Francis, bass player Scott Alexander, drummer Brian Barlowe, and mallets/percussionist Mark Duggan.

One of Canada's best-known folk singers, Valdy (born Paul Valdemar Horsdal on 1 September 1945 in Ottawa) lends his voice and guitar to the traditional I Saw Three Ships as well as the James Van Heusen/Sammy Cahn tune, The Secret Of Christmas. Alan Gasser, Canada's resident expert on Georgian Folk Music, does Megruli Alilo, a traditional chant, from jazz singer Bonnie Brett we get Santa Claus Is Coming To Town, and another noted jazz vocalist, Heather Bambrick, lends her considerable talents to Frank Loesser's What Are You Doing New Year's Eve? and the tune made famous by Earthy Eartha Kitt, Santa Baby.

But the best, in terms of the vocals, belongs to one of the top musical comediennes ever produced in Canada - Mary Lou Falls - who begins her quartet of tunes with Tom Lehrer's biting A Christmas Carol, then follows a straight instrumental rendition of The Twelve Days Of Christmas with what happens during The 12 Days After Christmas. At track 14 she alarms the kiddies by asserting that Santa is "Too Fat For The Chimney" and then finishes her participation with The Same Christmas Cake - a tale of a cake that hung around for 30 years, going annually from family member to family member.

An unusual entry (to non-Canadians anyway) is The Theme From "Hockey Night In Canada." The long-time opening to the CBC's Saturday night icon was recently lost to the rival CTV network due to some idiotic argument over royalty payments to the tune's composer, Dolores Claman.

A multi-page insert (in both English and French, naturally) contains thumbnail information on each artist as well as a complete sessionography. Certainly not for all tastes, but if you like the unusual when it comes to Christmas music, you'll find it here.