Carla Bley

CARLA BLEY - CARLA'S CHRISTMAS CAROLS (2009)

1. O Tannenbaum

2. Away In A Manger

3. The Christmas Song

4. Ring Christmas Bells

5. God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen Part One, Part two

6. It Came Upon A Midnight Clear

7. Hell's Bells

8. Jesus Maria

9. Jingle Bells

10. O Holy Night

11. Joy To The World

Christmas music has been an enthusiasm of Carla Bley's for decades, and both traditional and non-traditional seasonal pieces are here subjected to her offbeat wit and idiosyncratic arranging skills. The material includes her inimitable arrangements of Christmas classics and a brace of Carla's own pieces - "Jesus Maria" (first recorded by Jimmy Giuffre back in 1961), and, giving the devil his due, "Hell's Bells". Carla's Christmas Carols was recorded in La Buissonne Studios in the South of France after a whirlwind tour of Europe at the end of 2008, and folds in two pieces from that tour (recorded live in Berlin). The pleasure that the musicians find in the material is unmistakable and, perhaps particularly after a glass of mulled wine, contagious.