A Christmas Story Live

Judging by last year’s “Grease” telecast and this year’s “A Christmas Story,” the Fox network seems to like everything about live television except the “live” part. A game cast, lively score and sturdy source material made Fox’s big holiday spectacular “A Christmas Story Live!” a pleasant enough way to pass a mid-December Sunday evening. But the presentation throughout was a letdown like getting pink bunny pajamas for Christmas instead of a Red Ryder BB gun.

Long associated with the music of Gabriel Jackson, in 2020 the Choir of Merton College, Oxford and their director Benjamin Nicholas won a BBC Music Magazine Award for their recording of The Passion of our Lord Jesus Christ, a work which grounded its narrative of Christ’s suffering and humanity’s redemption in texts associated with the history of the College.The Christmas Story, again with a libretto assembled by the College’s chaplain the Revd Dr Simon Jones, takes the same approach to tell the story of Christ’s birth. Spanning the period from Advent to Candlemas, it mixes biblical narrative with liturgical texts and four specially commissioned poems by members of the College.The new poems are given to the College’s girl choristers (an independent part of its choral foundation since 2016), while the main body of the work is carried by the full choir and by an ensemble of flute, percussion, strings, saxophone and three trombones – the latter recalling the hieratic sonorities of the seventeenth-century works by Schütz and others which Jackson had in mind while composing The Christmas Story.

In a pro career spanning 40 years and five countries, USA guitarist Greg Chako has released 14 albums and been the subject of a documentary called, “An American Cat in the Lion City.” He lived in the Far East for 17 years, where he evolved into a masterful, expressive composer with rich story telling abilities. His style merges Mainstream, Hard Bop, Latin & World music.

ROCKPALAST is a legendary live music TV show hosted in Germany by the WDR channel. It was first broadcast in 1974 and has become a pan-European television institution. It has its own fan club and online forum, and in four decades, it has become a trademark of quality viewing and listening.

A strong argument can be made that Faces were the greatest rock 'n' roll band ever. To be fair, that argument is strongest after a couple of pints or with the stereo at an appropriately loud volume (preferably both). But even in the most academic sense, it's easy to make a case that the band purely embodied the most essential elements of what made the early '70s rock 'n' roll landscape so exciting. Utterly unconcerned with being a supergroup (the remnants of the post-Steve Marriott Small Faces combining forces with Ronnie Wood and Rod Stewart from the Jeff Beck Group), and instead focused on delivering a loose, bluesy (and boozy) update on the Small Faces’ soulful psych-rock, Faces charted a back-to-basics course for other bands to follow out of the muck of the late '60s.

A strong argument can be made that Faces were the greatest rock 'n' roll band ever. To be fair, that argument is strongest after a couple of pints or with the stereo at an appropriately loud volume (preferably both). But even in the most academic sense, it's easy to make a case that the band purely embodied the most essential elements of what made the early '70s rock 'n' roll landscape so exciting. Utterly unconcerned with being a supergroup (the remnants of the post-Steve Marriott Small Faces combining forces with Ronnie Wood and Rod Stewart from the Jeff Beck Group), and instead focused on delivering a loose, bluesy (and boozy) update on the Small Faces’ soulful psych-rock, Faces charted a back-to-basics course for other bands to follow out of the muck of the late '60s.

Hailed as ‘a palpable success … and utterly new’ at its premiere performance, Bob Chilcott’s Christmas Oratorio brings the magic, wonder and joy of a centuries-old story to modern-day life.This first recording reassembles the glittering cast of soloists from the premiere: Nick Pritchard’s Evangelist, intimately accompanied by harp and flute, is joined by mezzo-soprano Dame Sarah Connolly and bass Neal Davies.Benjamin Nicholas’s award-winning Choir of Merton College, Oxford enrich the Christmas story with carols that are sure to become instant favourites. The composer is delighted with the recording, describing it as ‘elegant, well paced and poised … The choir is fabulous – confident and sure’.

Some of the most popular country/western artists connected with The Grand Ole Opry are featured, performing outstanding Christmas and seasonal material, many tracks debuting on CD. The great George Jones is heard on four rare tracks; Kitty Wells performs eight fine Christmas songs (in stereo); four great early tracks feature mega-star Tennessee Ernie Ford; Western stars - Tex Ritter, Roy Rogers, Dale Evans, Gene Autry, and Jimmy Wakely - are featured; Jimmy Dean, Molly Bee, Eddy Arnold, The Dinning Sisters, Patti Page and Faron Young are included. There are many well-loved traditional titles featured, and in addition, some great songs that have been brought back: Lonely Christmas, An Old-Fashioned Tree, He's A Rootin' Tootin' Santa Claus, He Was A Man, My Friend, Star Of Hope, Little Sandy Sleighfoot, Willy Claus, Blue Snowflakes, Blue December, The Light Of The World, and many more. This will be one of the best Country Christmas sets of the decade!

Everyone knows them from the Hollywood movies, the beautiful Christmas songs of the 50s and 60s.Starting with Bing Crosb's unforgettable "White Christmas", Doris Day's "Here Comes Santa Claus" and Dean Martin's evergreen "Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow!" up to the Christmas rock songs "Jingle Bells Rock" by Bobby Helms and Brenda Lee's "Rockin' Around The Christmas Tree", everything that makes up the American Christmas sound is represented on this double CD.In addition to the well-known Christmas massongs, there are also several rarities such as "Nuttin' For Christmas" by the Fontane Sisters and "I Believe In Santa Claus" by the Mills Brothers. Johnny Mathis' version of "Sleigh Ride" is probably one of the most successful recordings of this time.Celebrate an American Christmas like in the "good old days" with this CD.