Customer Reviews

A GRP Christmas Collection

5 star:		(21)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
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1 star:		(0)

 

 

...or something like that. Makes you want to trade in your black turtleneck and beret for green and red ones. Seriously, all three volumes of the GRP Christmas collection are very good and balance out a classical and popular Christmas music collection nicely. Very accessible to someone who is not ordinarily a jazz fan. Sometimes the same old Christmas standards can fade out of our attention because of familiarity...but on the GRP collections, they get fresh new treatments and it makes you pay attention and hear new possibilities. Also, since most are instrumental, I play them in my office as background music. Many people visiting my office have been curious about the music, and want to get it. These collections are not easily available in retail stores, so send 'em to amazon dot com! (I do not get paid a commission for saying so!) Enjoy, hep cats!

Hard to imagine this CD is more than ten years old. Thanks to modern technology you can't wear a CD out like a LP if you could I would be on third or fourth copy. The opening track of the Little Drummer Boy sets the tone perfect for the album. Followed by Tom Scotts version of Merry Little Christmas which has become a staple of every department store in the country. I had never heard of Diane Schurr until I heard her sing the Christmas Song and have loved her voice since. The rest of the CD is pure christmas listening joy, by far the best of the three GRP Christmas albums.

A shame this is out of stock as of this writing but hopefully it will be back in production from GRP. Hey maybe we'll get a GRP Christmas Collection 4? One can only hope!

I OWN THIS CHRISTMAS CD FOR A LONG TIME AND LOST IT. BUT BY FAR THIS IS THE BEST CHRISTMAS CD EVER. THE LITTLE DRUMMER BOY SOLD ME ON THIS CD WITH THE OTHER TWO GRP CHRISTMAS COLLECTION CD'S
YOU HAVE THE BEST CHRISTMAS MUSIC TO ENJOY FOR YEARS TO COME.

THANKS

I had the cassete once, but I lost it somehow. I also have the other two volumes, but I think this first volume of GRP Christmas Collection is the best one among the three volumes. Dave Valentin's Santa Claus is coming to town is a nice one for Valentin's fans. BUY ONE!!! WOW, KEREEEN!!! (It's Indonesian expression for "COOL!!"

I bought the tape ages ago and wore it out. Then thanks to amazon I found it here on cd so I bought it,great easy listening jazzy cd for the holidays.

I purchased this because my original copy was so scratched from overuse that I had to replace it! I LOVE this CD!!! It's my favorite Christmas music ever. I received this a couple of days after Christmas, but I played it over and over through the new year. It's the BEST!

The entire GRP Christmas collection is great! Once you have these songs on your christmas music playlists, only then do you realize that it's really the Christmas holidays!

In all honesty this is likely the first adult Christmas album I ever heard. And as the years (and now decades) have passed it's continued to impress me. Especially as I gain more knowledge of the different artists involved. Dave Grusin's GRP label was having a big golden age in the late 80's. But on the other hand Christmas is an extremely varied holiday if you understand it,made up of many different traditions actually. So it's actually very appropriate that this albums showcases a nice mixture of different artists playing different styles of jazz. Some is very electric,some very acoustic. Some poppier. Some more abstract. Some are instrumental and others have vocals. In the end it's a fifteen song collection from a fine artist roaster and even though it's by many different people it holds together as if it were a stand alone album rather than a compilation.

Daryl Stuermer starts it out with a lightly rhythmic take on "Little Drummer Boy" and Ton Scott continues on in the same fashion with "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas".Next are two numbers on the jazzier end. David Benoit takes on a mostly piano solo type take on "Carol Of The Bells" and Diane Schuur wraps her beautifully rangy pipes around "The Christmas Song". These are the most heavy in the acoustic jazz mode here along with Gary Burton's "Oh Tannenbaum" and Dave Grusin's own "Some Children See Him". Dave Valentin brings a great samba flavor to "Stanta Claus Is Coming To Town" and of course there's Yutaka's sweet version of "This Christmas". I heard this many many years before Donny Hathaway's soulful original. And both versions simply cannot be compared. Yutaka's basically coaxes while Donny's preached. But in the end,you might actually get a similar feeling really. Chick Corea and his electrik band really let loose on a spirited fusion type take on "God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen".

Kevin Eubanks takes a wonderfully rhythmic take on "Silver Bells" and Lee Ritenour,Mark Egan and especially Eddie Daniels with his softly chugging "Sleigh Ride" give you a great musical journey from start to finish. It's one of those multi purpose holiday albums. It's nice enough to have on while trimming the tree,wrapping gifts or whatever but you can also put it on with headphones and receive a lot musically from it. Coming from a family where all three of us enjoy jazz,on different levels there was something every one of us could really enjoy here. Say what you want about "universality". But there is a place for that,if coordinated properly. And this represents that. Highly recommended to anyone who is looking for an enjoyable jazz holiday collection from the 80's.

This Christmas Collection was recommended by a friend and colleague when I asked about recommended jazz Christmas music. This cd, the first in the collection, is certainly the best volume. I ordered it not only in CD but also in vinyl which I intend to gift to friends of our for their holiday party. Overall, I would highly recommend this cd. I am certain it will be a staple this December as we get in the Christmas spirit.

GRP put out three Christmas albums. All three are great! Each contains songs from the best jazz musicians of the 20th century. UNFORTUNATELY they don't make them anymore. Hey GRP! Please RE-ISSUE!!!