Month: December 2003

Remember how I said my family has weird taste in holiday music? English Village Carols is one of those recordings that proves the point: a field recording made in village pubs across England, with amateur choristers of varying age and ability (and, apparently, hearing), singing carols together as they’ve done for almost two centuries.

If you have low tolerance for enthusiastic but occasionally imprecise harmonies, eccentric vibratos, lots of dramatic rubratos, cheesy little pub organs, and carols that have been forgotten everywhere else but in these small village gatherings, you may want to steer away. But for me this recording is a breath of fresh air amidst the general seasonal miasma of “White Christmas” (as performed by Martina McBride, Rosemary Clooney, Elvis, Roomful of Blues, the Oak Ridge Boys, Clay Walker, Percy Faith, the Statler Brothers, Lee Ann Womack, the Chipmunks, and about 180 others, according to the iTunes Music Store). Recommended for the general rough beauty of the singing, and the clinking of pint glasses that accompanies most of the carols.

Upon hearing the phrase Irish (or worse, Celtic) Christmas music, most people have one of two reactions: either they grab their families and their Claddagh rings and their shamrocks and their green scarves and they settle in for a long listen, or they head for the hills. The reason is simple: there are a lot of really bad Irish recordings out there, and the misty headed sentimentalism that often parades under the name of “Celtic” makes a lot of it worse.

Fortunately, the Chieftains mostly avoid this trap on their holiday album The Bells of Dublin. They are, after all, revered for having brought a sense of traditionalism and musicianship back to Irish music. Unfortunately in recent years they have fallen prey to the unfortunate “guest star syndrome,” familiar to many classical music listeners, where normally serious musicians bring in pop artists on recordings, often with disastrous results.

What makes this album so special is that for the most part the guest stars don’t get in the way of some really amazing playing. “Past Three o’Clock” features a nice jig around the traditional carol, and “St. Stephen’s Day Murders” is unabashedly fun as guest vocalist and co-writer Elvis Costello(!) sings about doing away with family members who’ve overstayed their welcome:

For that is the time to eat, drink, and be merry,
Til the beer is all spilled and the whiskey has flowed.
And the whole family tree you neglected to bury,
Are feeding their faces until they explode.

There’ll be laughter and tears over Tia Marias,
Mixed up with that drink made from girders.
’Cause it’s all we’ve got left as they draw their last breath,
Ah, it’s nice for the kids, as you finally get rid of them,
In the St Stephen’s Day Murders.

But the highlights of the disc are the two medleys that pull together traditional songs and airs into flowing sequences. The Carol Medley features some fine singing over a sprightly arrangement of “O the Holly She Bears a Berry,” “God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen,” and “The Boar’s Head.” And the absolute high point is the medley on “The Wren! The Wren!,” which pulls together a set of traditional Irish dances, reels, and hornpipes in a grand bit of craic. One can almost imagine the close walls of Matt Molloy’s pub getting just a little snugger as the incomparable Northumbrian pipes of guest Kathryn Tickell play over the bodhrain.

I wouldn’t be honest if I didn’t mention the following nightmarish stretches of the disc: the French carols warbled by the McGarrigle sisters; Marianne Faithfull’s version of “I Saw Three Ships”; the weak “Rebel Jesus” with Jackson Browne; and the absolutely execrable version of “O Holy Night” by Rickie Lee Jones. But as Elvis Costello points out, “it’s nice for the kids as you finally get rid of them.”

On Tuesday I wrote about Dave Brubeck’s Christmas recording recalling holiday traditions of people gathered round the piano in the parlor, playing and singing. As I did so, I reflected that this probably isn’t a tradition for everyone. Our family is atypical in a bunch of ways, notably in having musical talent on both sides.

Then again, we’re also atypical in our taste in holiday music. For about twenty-five years, one of our favorite holiday recordings has been an odd record of carols by the Boston Camerata. The repertoire includes Middle English carols (yes, Chaucerian English, and Latin as well) that span the 12th through 15th centuries, and a rich selection of 18th and 19th century carols from England and America. The performances were recorded during a crossroads in early music, when popular performance practice was still introducing primitive instrumental accompaniment (typically viols and rudimentary wind instruments) to choral music that originally would have been performed unaccompanied. But, as on the pivotal Music of the Gothic Era recording, the voices take center stage. Even without understanding Middle English (and the diction here is impeccable), the listener is carried away by the sheer energy and enthusiasm of the singing. And the early American tunes have the same propulsiveness; the shape-note carol “Sherburne” can ring your room and rattle your rafters if you’re not careful.

There are only a handful of carols that will be familiar to most listeners on this disc, including “Sunny Bank” (“I saw three ships”) and “The Coventry Carol,” but the performances are so compelling that you may want to learn Middle English or the Sacred Harp singing style to pick up some new favorites. My friends in the Suspicious Cheese Lords and I did just that with “Nowel, Owt of Your Slepe,” “Nova, nova: Aue fitt ex Eva,” and “Sherburne,” all of which we performed several times during my tenure with the group. A holiday essential that reaches back to earlier times and brings them vibrantly to life. That ever was thralle, now ys he fre; That ever was smalle, now grete is she; Now shall God deme bothe the and me Unto his blysse yf we do wel. Nowell!

(Incidentally, the Camerata’s web site includes a discography page with lo-fi MP3 previews of some of the tracks from this album.)

Continuing my review of my personal favorite holiday recordings, today’s disc is A Dave Brubeck Christmas. This latter-day collection of solo piano numbers has a parlor ambience to it, as though Dave were sitting at your grandmother’s old upright piano. Dave covers a set of mostly standards with a few of his own compositions in fine Brubeck style.

Now, when I say “Brubeck style,” don’t expect the thundering blocked chords and odd time signatures of Time Out. The approach here is much less fiery. At his liveliest on this recording, on “‘Homecoming” Jingle Bells” and “Santa Claus is Coming to Town” Dave calls to mind great stride pianists like Fats Waller, with a little Count Basie thrown in for good measure. Most of the other numbers are approached with melodic inventiveness but contemplative tempos. The end result is a hushed anticipation that recalls Brubeck Plays Brubeck, his groundbreaking 1956 solo album recorded at home late at night as he tried to keep from waking his infant children. The comparison is apt: Brubeck says he was trying to recapture some of his favorite holiday memories of playing with his family. The end result is more “drowse by the fire” than “jingle bell rock,” but having a little help to get out of the holiday bustle and into a meditative mood during the season never hurts. Recommended.

One note about the sound: this is a Telarc recording, and like all Telarc discs is recorded with a much quieter playback volume than typical rock or jazz albums. As a result the disc doesn’t really play well in a changer, shuffled among other recordings, unless you have your hand on the volume knob at all times. Better to go ahead and turn up the sound and listen to the album straight through.