Noel [Original recording remastered]

Joan Baez | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (August 14, 2001)
• Original Release Date: 1966
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: Original recording remastered
• Label: Vanguard Records
• ASIN: B00005NF1E
• Also Available in: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (24 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #71,610 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Editorial Reviews

No Description Available
No Track Information Available
Media Type: CD
Artist: BAEZ,JOAN
Title: NOEL
Street Release Date: 08/05/2001
Domestic
Genre: XMAS VOCAL

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

28 of 28 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The perfect voice, December 21, 2001

By 

E. A. Lovitt "starmoth" (Gladwin, MI USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Noel (Audio CD)

Joan Baez has the perfect voice for these lovely old (or seemingly old) Christmas carols---a plangent, high, pure soprano. Only her fast vibrato keeps her from being mistaken for a Vienna choir boy.

It was eerie to hear her sing these carols again on CD, almost forty years after I first heard them on vinyl. In that decades-long interval, no one has ever managed to sing "The Little Drummer Boy" without sounding saccharine and/or lachrymose. I grew to despise the "rump bump bump bums" that resounded every Christmas season through elevators and K-Marts---until I heard Joan sing the song again. Somehow her straightforward presentation, with medieval-sounding accompaniment turns this 1940's chestnut into a haunting Childe ballad.

This CD has a good mix of traditional carols, and some that may sound unfamiliar, e.g. "Down in Yon Forrest." For those of us who still remember the original vinyl release, there is the pleasant surprise of six additional songs.

Another new add-on is "The Making of Noël"-liner notes by none other than Peter Schickele, the discoverer of that 'highly figmental composer' P.D.Q. Bach! Schickele also happened to write the arrangements for this album of Christmas songs back in 1965, and talks about his experiences with Joan Baez.

The original liner notes---a poem by Joan Baez---are also included.

17 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A classic of the season, December 10, 2002

By 

riwabo "riwabo" - See all my reviews

This review is from: Noel (Audio CD)

If, like me, you heard this record every December when you were growing up, this reissue is a must-have. It is one of those Christmas classics for me, up there with the Waverly Consort's Christmas and New York Pro Musica's Play of Herod. It is also (I have to admit) one of my favorite Joan Baez albums.
I have to disagree with one of the prior reviewers, who questioned the need for an expanded reissue. Now I have to admit my prejudice here--I love expanded reissues. I love hearing what got left off the initial release, even if it was deservedly omitted the first time. In this case, the expanded reissue is worth it, if just to hear Joan's rendition of "the First Noel."
There is, as other reviewers have noted, a dark side to this album, a dark side that keeps it from slipping into treacly sentimentality. For that and other reasons, it has staying power. Brava, Joan. Bravo, Peter Schickle, the arranger. And bravo to the Solomons, the original producers and creative force behind the album. This team would go on to make the great, now-forgotten BAPTISM, an even darker album of songs and poetry. But that's for another season.

16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars It was worth 5 stars the FIRST time ..., July 14, 2004

By 

J. Williams "llyfr_lufr" (Rocky Hill, NJ) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Noel (Audio CD)

now, the remastered release adds several tracks not present on the original. How could it get any better that that?

Being almost as old as Joan Baez is, I am now finally replacing my 60s LPs with CDs, remembering, recapturing a time I thought behind me. This recording of Joan Baez is different from her usual, as it is of traditional pieces, not of political protest. One gets to hear her voice, her lovely voice, and not be conflicted with a contrary point of view. Consequently it should be heard by a wider audience. This is about joy and the music simply sparkles

The hidden treat here is that the arrangements are by Prof Peter Schickele, too often unheralded for the excellent musician/musicologist he is aside from his more (n)famous PDQ Bach genre. I LOVE the percussive harpsichord in The Little Drummer Boy: it always gets REPEATS on my playlists.

I came searching Amazon for the album as originally released, and a can't be more pleased that it has 'grown', as well as matured. If pageants can be intimate, this sequence of vocal and instrumental tracks certainly qualifies.