Customer Reviews

Family Holidays

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

The sound samples are wrong you can listen to the samples on Gap Mangione dot com

Here is the tracklist:
1. O CHRISTMAS TREE
2. SLEIGH RIDE
3. CHRISTMAS WALTZ
4. SANTA CLAUS IS COMING TO TOWN
5. SWEET CHERYL LYNN
6. CINCO DE MAYO ('85)
7. CAROL OF THE BELLS
8. SERENATA
9. BELLEZZA
10. JOY TO THE WORLD
11. THE WAY WE CELEBRATE NEW YEAR'S
12. WHAT ARE YOU DOING ON NEW YEAR'S EVE
13. AMAZING GRACE
14. TARANTELLAS
15. SILENT NIGHT

Here are the musicians involved:
GAP MANGIONE Piano, Keyboards
STEVE GADD Drums
GRANT GEISSMAN Guitars, Synthesizer, Percussion, Vocals
TONY LEVIN Electric Bass (Tracks 5, 6, 9, 10, 13, 14)
NEIL SWAINSON Acoustic Bass (Tracks 1, 2, 3, 8, 12)
GERRY NIEWOOD Alto, Soprano Sax, Flute
ANDY WEINZLER Tenor, Soprano, Alto Sax
PAT LABARBERA Tenor, Soprano Sax
ED XIQUES Baritone, Soprano Sax
DENNIS TRIBUZZI Trumpet, Flugelhorn
JEFF JARVIS Trumpet, Flugelhorn
JACK SCHANTZ Trumpet, Flugelhorn
PAT CARNEY Trumpet, Flugelhorn
MARK KELLOGG Trombone
JOHN HASSELBACK Trombone
BOB KALWAS Bass Trombone
CINDY MILLER Vocals
TED WARREN Drums (in studio)

Check out some of Gap's other albums as well:
Diana In The Autumn Wind

Planet Gap: Big Band

Stolen Moments

Ardis

Gap Mangione

When my wife brought this CD home, I was, umm, pensive. Oh, great - a Christmas record by a local figure. Do not get me wrong - I've seen Gap Mangione play at various places around town (Rochester, NY) and he is better than his audience on most nights. But one can get very blase about the production qualities of a "hometown" recording. Fear Not! As soon as this came on I thought - this is pretty good. As the band opened up and began to play - wow! what a sound! The arrangements. The playing. The variety.. they take simple tunes and stretch so well... but quite subtley too.. like the Christmas Bells tune... there is a version of this on a Narada CD we have.. it's, umm, nice. This version is alive and sparkling! There's Amazing Grace and there's some Italian country song bouncing along. There's TSOP sounds and big band. But it all goes together well. Sorry - I don't know the jazz guys on this but I do recognize Steve Gadd and Tony Levin. If you know these guys, just know that the rest of the band is of that calibre. Final accolade - this is my wife's favorite record right now. Once was I could not play jazz in the house (at least at a volume you could hear it). She plays this all the time now. Great record.

Congratulations to Mr Gap Mangione for this project., " Family Holidays.," the big band arrangements are really superb and they are played to perfection by some great players in the recording industry., I have not heard such great music for a long while and this is a great gift for Christmas., one of my favorite tracks is titled Bellezza with Gerry Niewood on the alto sax., he played it with much passion.,also one worth of mention is Steve Gadd's drumming here., simply awesome and in the pocket.,if I may comment., the mixing of the drum parts should be slightly put to the fore., having said that.,I still think this is a great CD from one underated Gap Mangione., a salute and thank you for such a fine recording and Happy Holidays to you all.