Description
When Mat Domber asked us to record a sequel to CHRISTMAS COOKIES, Randy Morris, Dave Gannett and I began compiling a list of songs we’d like to play. Thinking “There can’t be that many tunes left” (we recorded 20 on Volume One), we came up with 26 more titles! Narrowing our selections down to 17, we began working on how we would arrange and present this Fresh Batch. Each of us took on a group of songs, keeping in mind that we wanted to retain our original sound and style. Dave and Reneé took most of the vernacular titles, Randy took the whimsical and the commercial songs, and I got to stylize the remaining cuts. Randy and I even wrote an original tune for this album, Santa’s Little Girl. We called upon John Katalenic for two arrangements; Toyland, and Sweet Little Jesus Boy, and his charts are among some of the most unique and beautiful Christmas arrangements I have ever heard. Toyland starts with the verse, which is not commonly heard. John’s stark and intimate arrangement of Sweet Little Jesus Boy was inspired by notes he found in the original sheet music regarding the “Singing of Negro Songs”, stating that “Spirituals should be unaccompanied, solo-voiced songs, sung to oneself, holding personal communion with God. Instrumental accompaniments should always be unobstructive, resulting in a simple, sincere, and intimate expression of feeling”.
Other arranging credits go to Dave Gannett for his Spanish version of What Child Is This, titled Que Es Este Niño? and his transcriptions of two songs; Lo How A Rose Ere Blooming, arranged by Spevacek, and The Lord’s Prayer, arranged by Derek Johnson.
As with any recording session involving this crew, we had a lot of fun. At the completion of our take on “Two Front Teeth”, Randy blasted into a nit-wit version of a Vaudeville chaser, not knowing that the tape was still rolling! When we heard the playback, we laughed so hard we decided to keep it. All the guys gathered around the vintage RCA ribbon mic, and we played the whistles and hoots in classic “radio broadcast” style to give Randy’s chaser the finishing touch.
Musicians:
CHARLIE BERTINI trumpet, flugelhorn
RANDY MORRIS piano
DAVID GANNETT tuba, helicon
RENEE DOVER violin, angel voices
ALLAN VACHE clarinet
BOB LEARY guitar
EDDIE METZ drums, percussion
Record label: Arbors Records
catalog # ARCD19201
Produced by Charlie Bertini
Recorded at PARC Studios, Altamonte Springs ,FL
December 8 & 9. 1997
What’s playing…
- IT’S THE MOST WONDERFUL
TIME OF THE YEAR 3:02
(Eddie Pola/George Wyle) - WE NEED A LITTLE CHRISTMAS 3:59
(Jerry Herman) - MARCH OF THE TOYS 2:40
(Victor Herbert) - TOYLAND 4:57
(Victor Herbert) - FROSTY THE SNOWMAN 6:09
(Nelson/Rollins) - AVE MARIA 2:14
(Frans Schubert/Sir Walter Scott) - IT’S BEGINNING TO LOOK
A LOT LIKE CHRISTMAS 3:52
(Meredith Willson) - O LITTLE TOWN OF BETHLEHEM 3:37
(Brooks/Redner) - SILENT NIGHT 4:56
(Frans Gruber) - LO HOW A ROSE ERE BLOOMING 2:58
(Michael Praetorius) - QUE NIÑO ES? 5:27
(Traditional) - SWEET LITTLE JESUS BOY 4:27
(Robert Mac Gimsey) - THERE’S NO PLACE LIKE HOME
FOR THE HOLIDAYS 3:32
(Robert Allen/ Al Stillman ) - SANTA’S LITTLE GIRL 3:49
(Charlie Bertini/Randy Morris) - ALL I WANT FOR CHRISTMAS
IS MY TWO FRONT TEETH 3:38
(Don Gardner) - THE LORD’S PRAYER 2:36
(Traditional) - WHITE CHRISTMAS SAMBA 6:55
(Irving Berlin)
