Christmas Surprises From The Ralph Hunter Choir

Hoo boy, just days from Christmas 2011! My apologies for the lack of prolific album shares, but I seem to end up recording more than I can share here. Why not finish 2011 with a doozy — albeit a title that has been shared previously elsewhere (via Ernie Not Bert). My philosophy: I ripped it, so I might as well share it! Here then is Christmas Surprises From The Ralph Hunter Choir.

This one has it's moments of zaniness ("Parade of the Wooden Soldiers", "Wassail Song"), and swank Living Stereo bongos and percussion ("Indian Christmas Carol / Latin Lullaby") but always featuring superb arrangements for the choir. An absolute classic Christmas album that should be in every Christmas eve mix! Download it - now!

Factoid: this album was later re-issued and credited to The Living Voices (with different artwork).

Christmas with Waldo de los Rios

Waldo de los Rios, according to Wikipedia, was an Argentine composer, conductor and arranger. He passed away in 1977, just a few years after he recorded and released this album, Christmas with Waldo de los Rios (aka "Navidad Con Waldo de Los Rios") for Hispa-Vox (Capitol in North America). Rios was known for adapting classical music into a contemporary (for the time) easy-listening style and his interpretations here of yuletide classics are no different — soft drums, bass guitar, and whispering flutes (mostly carrying the melody) accompany a soft orchestral sound, all drenched in copious reverb.

New music comin' soon!

Hi folks — just an update... I had a couple of albums ready to go to post, however one was recently shared elsewhere (Christmas Surprises with the Ralph Hunter Choir — though I might still share it!) and another was recently released on CD (We All Need a Little Christmas by The Golddiggers.) So instead I'll post another album this week. New post here!