Get into the holiday spirit with Simone Kopmajer’s album Christmas, a collection of 16 seasonal favourites including 'Jingle Bells,' 'The Christmas Song' and 'Baby, It’s Cold Outside' along with songs from her homeland Austria with 'Stille Nacht' and 'Leise rieselt der Schnee,' performed by grammy nominee John di Martino and his band featuring Terry Myers and Aaron Heick and jazz and folk musicians from Austria on four european traditionals...

Simone Kopmajer's festive album, titled simply Christmas, delivers exactly what you'll be expecting: a wonderfully traditional holiday album which hopes to capture the Yuletide spirit. And it does, ensuring that you'll return to this every year.

The album contains 17 songs (1 hr, 07 min, 06 sec) and casts its net wide from Chris Rea's 'Driving Home for Christmas' (reimagined as a slow jazz song) to the essential 'White Christmas'. To bring more a European flavour, there are a number of traditional songs from Kopmajer's native Austria.

And there was something I discovered when listening to 'My Grown Up Christmas List' that I'd never spotted before. It would seem that it was the main inspiration for Jordan Hill's 'Remember Me This Way' which featured in the movie Casper (1995). The two are too similar for it to be a coincidence.

The production on the album is impressive and gives the feeling that you're sat in a small jazz bar listening to an intimate performance. A wonderful feel good album.

Track listing

01. Santa Baby (3:15)
02. Jingle Bells (2:56)
03. Leise Rieselt Der Schnee (feat. The Schick Sisters) (3:11)
04. Baby, It’s Cold Outside (feat. Viktor Gernot) (4:28)
05. Christmas Time Is Here (3:26)
06. The Most Wonderful Time (feat. Anna Catharina) (3:08)
07. Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas (4:06)
08. Es Wird Scho Glei Dumpa (feat. Ina Regen) (4:42)
09. Driving Home for Christmas (3:55)
10. The Christmas Song (Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire) (feat. Allan Harris) (5:17)
11. Feliz Navidad (2:41)
12. My Grown-Up Christmas List (3:36)
13. White Christmas (3:58)
14. Oh Heiland, Reiss Die Himmel Auf (feat. Willi Resetarits) (4:33)
15. Is Finsta Drausst (3:46)
16. Silent Night / Stille Nacht (4:46)

8

Nick Smithson