by The Fireplace

After Camerata’s pre-Christmas concert at London’s King Place a few years back, where we played my arrangement of Silent Night as an encore, Matthew Trusler and I discussed the idea of recording jazzy arrangements of Christmas favourites. We came up with a programme which includes some of my own arrangements as well as those of a friend of mine, a brilliant violinist and arranger, Bjorn Kleiman. It also includes my orchestration of Take 6’s fantastic arrangement of O Come All Ye Faithful, taken from their 1991 album “Oh! He is Christmas”, as well as the 2nd movement of Winter from Vivaldi’s Four Seasons and Tchaikovsky’s Melody, Op.42.

Dj Maretimo, Cafe Americaine, Vladi Strecker, Jazzy James Jr, Bar Blue and more.
Includes continuous mix by DJ Maretimo.

Few are the bass players who the average music fan can name. There are simply not that many who stand out as more than a member of the rhythm section, however tight. Paul McCartney. Sting. Bootsy Collins. Tony Levin. Gene Simmons. These may be the greater part of a list that, for most, is no larger than one hand long. Shorter still is the list of bassists who can take their playing one step further. Brian Bromberg is one such bass player. Having originally begun his musical career on drums, Bromberg soon switched to classical upright bass. Though this switch was more or less his choice, Bromberg's next musical move was more demanded than decided: in order to get a gig with Stan Getz's band, Bromberg dropped the upright, picked up an electric four-string and, leaving home on his 19th birthday, started down his own musical road less taken.

A Family Christmas is filled with the diverse components that have typified the "TPG Twist" fun, irreverent combinations that people find refreshing. The album features new takes on Christmas classics such as "Let it Snow," "Winter Wonderland" and "Silent Night," as well as two original compositions from Jon Schmidt and Steven Sharp Nelson. And, for the first time since their breakthrough video of "What Makes You Beautiful," all four of The Piano Guys perform together for a remarkable version of "Angels We Have Heard on High," which will be supported by a new YouTube video. Says Schmidt, "We spent a lot of time crafting the album so that there's something for everybody. It's an opportunity to jam and dance around the house while decorating the tree as well as the chance to sit back with somebody you love and look at the fireplace."