Are you Hungry For Christmas?????

It's that time again. Sorry I haven't posted much but life has gotten in way. But here is stage one of my annual Christmas mix compilations. First up is a podcast style 1 track complete mix. As with last years mix 2015 A Space Oddity Christmas there is always a theme. I think you can see the theme for this year. You can stream it here on Soundcloud:

https://soundcloud.com/gps09/2016-gregs-swank-pad-lounge-presents-im-hungry-for-christmas

You can download it here:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/wfquzsk4ntgxuai/2016%20Greg%27s%20Swank%20Pad%20Lounge%20I%27m%20Hungry%20For%20Christmas%20Mix.zip?dl=0

Just download, unzip and load into your favorite media player. I have included the cover art and track listing.

Obviously there are hundreds of food themed Christmas songs. I picked some of my favorites and at some point a volume 2 may be order.  Here is the song playlist with lots of goodies sprinkled in-between .

Enjoy and Merry Christmas !!

Greg's Swank Pad Lounge Presents: 2015 A Space Oddity Christmas

As many of you know I love and collect Christmas music. I love all of it. The good, the bad and the ugly. This year I put together a classic "mix tape" style of a compilation of Christmas music centered around a theme and yes you can guess it, "Space." Download it here: 

https://www.dropbox.com/s/mjg6rj4snirtlwx/2015%20A%20%20Space%20Oddity%20Christmas.zip?dl=0

Just download ,unzip and load into your favorite media player. I've included the cover art and track listing.

My favorite Christmas Albums of 2015

As a Christmas music collector, I scour the earth and internet looking for new Christmas music as well as the old forgotten treasures. This year has had some great releases that are some of my most favorite in recent years. Here are my favorite Christmas albums of 2015.

Elizabeth Chan's  "Red and Green"

Elizabeth Chan dreamed of writing Christmas songs when she was a young girl. She got a corporate job but still dreamed of writing Christmas songs. After writing over 200 songs she left the corporate world, started her own company and never looked back. I don't know of any musician that has made it their goal to write one single genre of songs, but Elizabeth Chan is driven. Her purpose to write holiday standard. You know a song like "White Christmas" or "The Christmas Song." With three albums under her belt, her fourth "Red and Green" assures us that she will reach her goal.

As a musician myself with a degree in music, I know what makes a hit song and a standard. A great hook ( a musical idea that catches the ear of the listener), Melodies that you can not get out of your head and lyrics that are easy to remember and say something to you the listener. Elizabeth nails all of these. 

Take for example "Fa La La" 

One song you won't find on the album but will find on You Tube is her viral sensation parody of Taylor Swifts song "Shake It Off" entitled "jingle Bells"

I love this album as there is something for everyone young and old alike. From the dance pop of "Here's To The New Year" which would be a dance anthem of any New Years party, to the lush orchestration of "A Christmas Song" (not the Mel Torme version) to the pop greatest of "Red and Green." Her beautiful ballad "Christmas In The City" has already made the Billboard Adult Contemporary Chart for Christmas week.

Thank you Elizabeth for making all of our holiday's a little brighter. I have no doubt that your Christmas standard is well on it's way!

"Red and Green" at iTunes, Amazon
More info at Elizabeth's Chan's official website.http://www.lizchanchristmas.com



Next up!  Astrocolor "Lit Up"

Boy do I like this band. their take on the traditional Christmas album takes a fresh turn with this release. Their music combines a lot of different styles. Part, Ambient throw in some Jazz,  mix in Trip, Dub and you have a artfully deconstructive and reinvented holiday gem. 

Here is their version of "Silent Night" featuring  wonderful vocals by Rykka

This is Christmas music for headphones. Nothing better than sitting by the fire, glass of fine french Cognac in hand, grooving on these wonderful re-inventions of some of the classics. 

Get Astrocolor's "Lit Up" HERE!
More at their website: http://www.astrocolormusic.com


And Finally!
Sharon Jones & The Dap Kings " It's a Holiday Soul Party"

In 2011 I featured on my annual Christmas Comp, "There Aint No Chimney's In The Projects" and fell in love with this band and it's soulful queen Sharon Jones. This album is pure unadulterated old school soul. It reminds me of the old times where rhythm was king.

Along with "There Aint No Chimneys In The Projects, are some new classics including a wonderful song about Hannukah titled "8 Days of Hannukuh" Here is the song performed live on the "Steven Colbert Show."

Another fun one "Just Another Christmas Song"

Get this album and you will be sure tapping your toes and bobbing your head. Just perfect holiday fun!

Get it HERE!
More info on their Website: http://sharonjonesandthedapkings.com


                                 MERRY CHRISTMAS AND HAPPY LISTENING!!!

How about a Jazz Christmas ?

2015 was a year of some great jazz Christmas albums. Some new some re-releases. Here are a few of my favorites.

If you love killer Big Band Jazz this is the band for you! Made up of some the best studio musicians around. Gordon Goodwin is an virtuoso arranger. With several Christmas albums to date his latest "Wrap This" is incredible.
Listen to some of this!

Next up:  A Very Swingin' Basie Christmas-The Count Basie Orchestra

The history of Count Basie and his Orchestra is well documented as one of the greatest jazz big bands in history. Although the Count has left us, His memory is alive and well in this band. I don't know of any band that swing's harder than this. Here is a preview of the album.

A Very Swingin’ Basie Christmas! includes 11 holiday tracks 

featuring special guests Johnny Mathis, Ledisi, Ellis Marsalis, 

and Carmen Bradford. 

Here is a press excerpt:

Coinciding with celebrating its 80th anniversary, the legendary Count Basie Orchestra continues to make music history with the November 6th, 2015 release of A Very Swingin’ Basie Christmas! on Concord Jazz. The first full-length, yuletide album in the expansive Basie discography, the album boasts classic holiday songs, rendered in quintessential Basie style, under the masterful direction of longtime Basie trumpeter Scotty Barnhart and produced by seven-time Grammy winner and former Basie drummer Gregg Field.

The disc also showcases such guest artists as legendary singer Johnny Mathis, award-winning R&B singer Ledisi, veteran jazz pianist Ellis Marsalis, and iconic tenor saxophonist Plas Johnson (famous for being the soloist on Henry Mancini’s “The Pink Panther Theme”). The album also represents the return of the multi-Grammy winning Basie composer-arranger Sammy Nestico and the 2015 multi-Grammy winning arranger Gordon Goodwin. The results are blues-soaked, joy-filled holiday treats that will delight and warm the hearts of Basie die-hard fans and new fans alike!

“I think [Count Basie] would be proud if he heard this record,” says Barnhart, who conceived the idea of focusing on Christmas music. When asked how he and the orchestra were able to channel the essence of Basie into the repertoire, Barnhart explains, “We have 80 years of history on our side.”

A self-described Basie fanatic since the age of nine, Barnhart says that through vigorous study of Basie’s music and being a member of the orchestra for 22 years, he knows the ins and outs of the Count’s signature sound. “The Basie orchestra has always had a very distinct way of sounding and a way of playing based around the blues. It’s all about the feeling of the blues,” Barnhart says.

The orchestra brings Barnhart’s point home at the very beginning with the swaggering take of “Jingle Bells,” featuring a flinty trumpet solo from Bruce Harris and an arrangement from Nestico, who returns to the band after 35 years.

And Finally, Joey DeFrancesco-Home For The Holidays

There's something about hearing the organ at the holidays.

maybe it's because some of the greatest organ players in 

history have put out Christmas albums such as Jimmy Smith 

and Jimmy McGriff. But add Joey DeFrancesco, He can play!

Here is Joey talking about his Christmas release.

  
Here is another taste!

So if you want to hear some great Jazz this holiday season, 

check these releases out. You will be glad you did.

Looking for an Ambient Christmas?

As many of you know I not only love Christmas  music, I collect it, all of it. The good , the bad and the ugly. As we approach this holiday season I would like to expose as much yuletide cheer in music as I can. Today we focus on a fairly new genre of Christmas music, the Ambient side of Christmas.

Let's face it I love Christmas Music except for Wham's "Last Christmas" but now I've found a version I can get behind.
That’s where Youtuber MaddDiaz comes in. He has taken Wham’s classic holiday ballad, “Last Christmas,” and slowed it down by a factor of eight, turning it into a 36 minute ambient stunner. It’s lush and dreamy, garnering comparisons to Brian Eno and Autechre, though we would recommend checking out the similarly slowed-down original video that accompanies the song. It starts to seem eerily like an Angelo Badalamenti track, with an extremely David Lynch-esque video. However you choose to experience it, it’s pretty great, and no longer sounds the slightest bit like a Christmas tune.

Next up, Ken Elkinson  a Los Angeles multi-instrumentalist who puts a unique ambient spin on 16 well known and obscure Christmas songs. 





How about The BFW Christmas Album? BFW Recordings are an
independent music label. THey share the best music from around the world for free! You can't beat that. Their music is a mixture of Ambient, Indie, Experimental, Electronica and much more. They have been putting out an annual Christmas Album since 2010.

Here is the description from their 2010 release. "A while back, we invited BFW artists and our friends to submit songs for a BFW Christmas Album. We left the scope of these contributions quite wide-you could write a song with a Christmas or Winter feel, or maybe a song for your love ones, or even get out the sleigh bells and croon like Nat King Cole!

Very unique songs and while they are not your usual recognizable Christmas melodies, there is some great music to sit by fire with your Christmas tree lights on and sip a nice glass of fine french cognac.

More information on all their Christmas recordings can be found at:

www.bfwrecordings.com

2014


2013



Next up The Neon Ambience, A Neon Christmas

The Neon Ambience have recorded their own unique versions of some very popular Christmas Carols, and they're yours to download and share with your friends for free. Take a little Christmas cheer, add a touch of Radiohead, a dash of Neon, a sprinkle of Nine Inch Nails, a tipple of Sigur Ros, a few sleigh bells and a lot of Ambience, and you're somewhere close.

And Finally! Me. I have always loved Ambient music, matter of fact I've been working on a long term ambient Christmas album for the past year and I hope to have it done possibly next year. Here is one of the tracks I composed and recorded in my studio when it was snowing outside. Appropriately titled "Snow."

Prog Rock and the concept album is still alive and well today

Ever since my youth in the 70's being a drummer and musician, I have always been fascinated with complex music. Yes, Pink Floyd, Genesis, Gentle Giant, ELP all have left there mark on my musical history. It wasn't till 2002 that I heard a album that moved me to tears after hearing it for the first time. It was "In Abstenia" by the brilliant Steven Wilson and his band Porcupine Tree.

I have followed Steven Wilson and his various musical projects both as a solo artist and with Porcupine Tree and have faith that this artist has taken progressive rock to a new level. His fourth solo album is no exception, " Hand Cannot Erase." This concept album is inspiration from  a story of a young woman Joyce Carol Vincent, living alone in a city, dying in her apartment and no one misses her till 3 years later even though she had family and friends.

Steven Wilson explains the inspiration  behind "Hand Cannot Erase."

This album is another Steven Wilson masterpiece. It's both complex yet simple, both dark and light, with colors and textures that are beautiful to hear. You can hear the influence that Pink Floyd had on Steven as a youth.

Like Beck who deserved to win the Grammy for "Best Album," and played all the instruments and produced his album as well, Steven composed, played most of the instruments and produced this album as well. He did assemble a great supporting cast with Marco Minnemann on drums, Nick Beggs on Bass, Guthrie Goven on guitar, adam Holzman on Keyboards, and the haunting vocals of Ninet Tayeb.

Here is one of the tracks "Perfect Life" from "Hand Cannot Erase."

Another track, "3 Years Older."

I hope you give this great album a listen, trust me you will not only enjoy it at first listen but it grows even better with multiple listens. I am happy to report that progressive rock is still alive and well today. Thank you Steven Wilson for the "Hand Cannot Erase".  This concept will not be forgotten!

You heard it here first, mark my words, Steven Wilson and "Hand Cannot Erase" will win a Grammy next year.

I'm Sorry and Merry Christmas

I really dropped the ball as a blogger who is all about Christmas. You see I got so busy with everything else that I failed to do my job on this blog. I wanted to post some of my Christmas music rips that I did including Santa Goes Hawaiian and a Readers Digest compilation. I will share it later I promise. Christmas came so fast and not to make excuses but I was sick all week the week before. I hope all of you had a wonderful Christmas serpent with those you love. I know our family had some bad times with people being sick and in bad health, but we still managed to get into the spirit. So on behalf of my family I leave you with a video I made capturing how we love to decorate for the holidays. My wife is a decorating genius as she designed and made a mesh ribbon garland with lights for the bannister. Unbelievable!! Thank you my dear for making Christmas special for me who lives for this time of year!