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January 2002

December was filled with all kinds of music for me. Of course my piano students were all excited as they are every year to play Christmas songs. I myself searched through much Christmas music to find some new gems and to take some old familiar ones and find to a way to present them in a new fresh fashion, I don't know why exactly I am so obsessed with Christmas and the music of that season. Much of the music written about the season is dreadful in my opinion however I do not tire of some of the more interesting pieces or the ones that lend themselves to new interpretation. I also am very fascinated by the Christmas music from various countries. We have Jingle Bells etc. but there are some beautiful songs that are performed in other countries to celebrate the season and that is something I became interested in as I prepared for the Jazz Vespers concert on December 23rd. There are some beautiful Spanish carols and French carols that have haunting melodies and really stay with you after you have sung or heard them. Of course some of the most famous carols that we sing in English we forget actually are from other countries originally and we sing the translations of them for the most part: Silent Night, O Come All Ye Faithful, O Christmas Tree and so many others. I had great fun turning O Come All Ye Faithful into a joyous samba for Christmas Jazz Vespers. It really did seem to work that way and the samba groove helped give that feeling of joy to the song too.

I will say that the high light for me this past December on the performing front was a concert where I was able to sing a couple of duets with Denzal Sinclaire with an all star band led by Bill Coon. Denzal is such an amazing artist; he is as brilliant a piano player as he is vocalist and truly I have never heard a more beautiful rendition of "Little Drummer Boy" than when he sat down at the piano to play and sing it at the concert. Another special feature occurred when he sang "O Christmas Tree" accompanied by Ross Taggart on the piano. That was pure bliss to me and definitely put me in the spirit of Christmas.

I did listen to a lot of music during the later part of December, One recording I am absolutely hooked on is by Gerardo Nunez called "Calima". Gerardo is a flamenco guitarist from Spain and the music he plays is beautiful and played with precision and excitement that you would expect coming from fiery Spain. On several tracks pianist Danilo Perez is featured as well. I have always loved the music of Spain, even in my days of studying classical piano seriously I was drawn to the music of Albeniz and Granados. It is so exciting to hear this flamenco based music performed by musicians who blend their jazz knowledge within the flamenco forms. Many people have probably heard flamenco guitarists and seen the wonderful dance that interprets the music and heard the throaty vocals of a flamenco vocalist. On "Calima" you hear the piano and the acoustic guitar together exploring this music which is really quite a unique combination.

I can scarcely believe that it is now 2002! I hope to find a way to make time slow down for me so that I don't feel as though I am never quite caught up. I have been told that the older you get the faster time seems to move and I feel that somehow. I guess fast time is ok in some ways; I do love to sing at a zooming tempo so maybe I should be glad for the sensation of time speeding along in that regard so long as I can keep up!

Happy New Year to everyone, good health and happiness too.

Karin