Track Listing

1. O Tannenbaum
2. It Won't Feel Like Christmas
3. Winter Wonderland
4. Christmas Time Is Here
5. Baby It's Cold Outside
6. Carol of the Bells
7. Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas
8. First Noel
9. Silent Night
10. This Christmas
11. Christmas Song

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #19759 in Music
• Released on: 2008-09-23
• Number of discs: 1

Album Description
A Jazz twist for that magical night, The Night Before Christmas. Get into the holiday groove with Spyro Gyra, a jazz fusion band that was originally formed in the mid-1970s in Buffalo, New York, USA. Their music, which has been influential in the development of smooth Jazz as they combine Jazz with elements of R&B, Funk and Pop music. Although generally considered to be more "Jazz" than "smooth", Spyro Gyra's music emphasizes melody over improvisation. Catch the spirit of the season with Spyro Gyra!

Customer Reviews

Great Christmas Music, Amazing Musicianship!
Finally, a great collection of Christmas music from the legendary Spyro Gyra! I do love Christmas music and personally own several hundred CD's of Christmas music. As a musician, I have a high standard of quality that I want in this type of music. This is now one of my favorites. If just for the "cool" performances of "Carol of the Bells" & "The First Noel". I really like that this disc has a nice mix of sacred and secular melodies. The gem in the collection is Jay Beckenstein's "It Won't Feel like Christmas", sung beautifully by Christine Ebersole, it should be a "new classic". No other jazz group has put out such consistantly fine music for such a long period of time (almost 30 yrs). They are the best!

It's About Time
Finally, after more than 20 years of making wonderful music together, the best jazz fusion band ever has produced a Christmas album. If you like SG, you'll not be disappointed with this release.

The arrangements are superb and the performances are immaculate. The vocals are just great, with the possible exception of drummer Bonny's opening to "The Christmas Song." To me it is a silly bit of unneccesary nonsense, but many will probably like it.

The best vocal is Christine Ebersole's lovely interpretation of Jay Beckenstein's original "It Won't Feel Like Christmas." This promises to be an annual favorite, especially so long as we have loved ones apart at the Holidays. Bonny redeems himself well in his duet with singer Janis Siegel on "Baby It's Cold Outside", which is an excellent arrangement and a clever vocal counterpoint.

The other charts are typical SG, with interesting and clever reworks of familiar tunes, sparked with high quality playing by all members. As an extra treat, Dave Samuels returns for cameos on "Carol of the Bells" and "Winter Wonderland" - great to hear his fine vibes' work again.

Rhythmic, harmonious and excellent describes SG's work over all these years, and "A Night Before Christmas" fills in the missing niche exactly the same way.

Very traditional Christmas from Spyro Gyra
I was most surprised by this very traditional release from this group of musicians. I was thinking it'd be more jazzy or new wave and here it was VERY traditional in the more classical style of 19th century presentations or "churchy" and that is not to say I didn't like it. I did. And if you like the old-fashioned arrangements, you'll like this too.