Sound Samples: Carol Of The Bells (MP3) White Christmas (MP3) Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas (MP3) USA INTERNATIONAL

CHRISTMAS PIANO was a joy to do. It is a distillation of my personal recollections of this very special time of year. My earliest memories of Christmas go back to the carols we sang in the church in a small Southern town where I grew up. Later on, as a teenager, I remember Holiday dances when the Season suddenly took on a romantic glow with songs like, A Winter Wonderland, and White Christmas, and Nat Cole singing, The Christmas Song (Chestnuts roastin'....) What this wonderful music does is to warm our hearts and allow us, for just a little while, to re-create Christmas in our minds as perhaps it never really was but as we wanted it to be. It makes us young again.

About the selections in this album: Almost all are so familiar as to require no comment. But a few are not. Selections "1" and "2" pair traditional carols with ones my wife, Jerry, and I wrote in the 1960s and gave to our friends as Christmas cards. The Alfred Burt carols I heard for the first time in 1960 and knew instantly they were classics. Burt, you may know, was an on-the-road jazz musician who never got to spend Christmas at home. Writing these lovely carols with the modernistic harmonies was his way of "coming home for Christmas," if only in his mind.

A final thought has to do with the mood and setting we picture as ideal for listening to CHRISTMAS PIANO. This is music for the quiet times, like when addressing Christmas cards or while sitting and watching a warm yule fire. And just as for Alfred Burt, this music is for the Christmas that exists only in our minds.

We hope you will find much to enjoy here.

Try out the sound samples, order a copy, and plan your next party.