Navona Records presents Dashing, a festive album for the holiday season featuring brand new works and arrangements of holiday favourites by several outstanding composers, with performances by The Stanbery Singers, the Moravian Philharmonic Orchestra, and the Salt Lake City Jazz Orchestra...

I don't know why, but I love eclectic Christmas releases. I've acquired albums over the years that mix lounge jazz tracks in with traditional choral arrangements - each song being a total genre change from the last. These sort of albums wouldn't work for any other genre, but Christmas music seems to break down all the walls of what is acceptable.

Dashing includes twists on old familiars with such a great attention to detail that there's plenty of quality material here to appeal to everyone from the youngest to the oldest member of every family.

The album contains 14 tracks (51 min, 05 sec) opening perfectly with 'A Visit From St. Nicholas', which sees Kerry Stratton narrating the classic poem ’Twas the Night Before Christmas' and closing with the beautiful 'A Christmas Celebration' performed by the Moravian Philharmonia Wind and Percussion Ensemble.

Familiar faces and tunes make appearances here, including Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s perennial holiday favourite, 'Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy' from his ballet The Nutcracker. Henry Wolking provides a jazz arrangement of 'God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen'; likewise, David Tanner contributes with an arrangement of 'O Holy Night'. His other work, 'A Visit from St. Nicholas', sets Clement Moore’s classic poem ’Twas the Night Before Christmas to orchestra, with narration by Kerry Stratton.

Delvyn Case and Timothy Lee Miller deliver rousing, spirited music with their 'Rocket Sleigh' for orchestra and 'A Christmas Celebration' for wind band, respectively. Christopher J. Hoh introduces the album’s choral works with his invitational 'Come Now and Celebrate', along with a choral arrangement of Thomas W. Talley’s folksong 'Behold That Star', composed in the style of African–American spirituals. L. Peter Deutsch weaves choral voices with solo instruments on each of his Three Winter Holiday Songs, 'A Winter’s Rime', 'Hodie Christus Natus Est', and 'The Holly and the Ivy'. James Shrader contributes two choral works - a setting of 'In the Bleak Midwinter' as a theme and variations, and 'Balulalow', written in a traditional Scottish style. Phillip Rhodes rounds out the album with the luminescent 'A Lullaby for the Nativity'.

This is one album that I'll be playing constantly this Christmas, not to mention for many years to come.

Track listing:

David Tanner (SOCAN)
01 - A Visit From St. Nicholas
Moravian Philharmonic Orchestra  |  Petr Vronský, conductor
Kerry Stratton, narration

Alphonse Adam (arr. David Tanner) (SOCAN)
02  - O Holy Night (Cantique de Noel)
Moravian Philharmonic Orchestra  |  Petr Vronský, conductor
David Tanner, saxophone

Delvyn Case (BMI)
03 - Rocket Sleigh
Moravian Philharmonic Orchestra  |  Petr Vronský, conductor

Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky
04 - Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy
Moravian Philharmonic Orchestra  |  Petr Vronský, conductor

L Peter Deutsch
05 - A Winter’s Rime
The Stanbery Singers  |  Paul Stanbery, conductor

Emily S. Van Niman, english horn
06 - The Holly and the Ivy
The Stanbery Singers  |  Paul Stanbery, conductor

Rebekah E. Chesnes, flute
07 - Hodie Christus Natus Est
The Stanbery Singers  |  Paul Stanbery, conductor
Davis McKinney, trumpet

James Shrader
08 - Balulalow
The Stanbery Singers  |  Paul Stanbery, conductor
Samantha Staton, soprano; Christopher Scott Wyatt, tenor

09 - In the Bleak Midwinter
The Stanbery Singers  |  Paul Stanbery, conductor

Henry Wolking
10 - God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen
Salt Lake City Jazz Orchestra  |  Henry Wolking, conductor
Kevin Stout, trombone

Christopher J. Hoh
11 - Behold That Star
The Stanbery Singers  |  Paul Stanbery, conductor
Sean David Taylor, baritone; Shawn Dawson, organ

12 - Come Now and Celebrate
The Stanbery Singers  |  Paul Stanbery, conductor
Tisha C. Patton, piano

Phillip Rhodes
13 - A Lullaby for the Nativity
The Stanbery Singers  |  Paul Stanbery, conductor
Shawn Dawson, organ; Haejin Kim, violin

Timothy Lee Miller
14 - A Christmas Celebration
Moravian Philharmonia Wind and Percussion Ensemble
Petr Vronský, conductor

9

Darren Rea