Christmas Album

by Herb Alpert & the Tijuana Brass

Overview

Herb Alpert turned to jazz's Shorty Rogers -- then toiling in the L.A. film and TV studios -- for voice and string arrangements on his Christmas album, and Rogers in turn went all out for schmaltz. Rogers' cooing voices introduce several of the tunes, whereupon the Tijuana Brass do their mostly unrelated Ameriachi thing familiar from past albums. Indeed, "Las Mananitas" seems to have been lifted from an obscure B-side of a 45 and overdubbed with the Rogers treatment. Jingling bells is a recurring song theme -- first with "Jingle Bells," then the cloying "The Bell That Couldn't Jingle," and ultimately "Jingle Bell Rock." For the first time in a long time, Alpert's sense of pacing occasionally goes awry; "My Favorite Things" nearly comes apart in the silences and piano/vocal interlude between the TJB grooves, and "Sleigh Ride" screeches to a dead halt. And yet time and further exposure has revealed this record's homey charms, which no doubt is one reason why it continues to be available on CD where other TJB best-sellers have fallen by the wayside.

Product Details

Release Date:	10/23/2015
Label:	Herb Alpert Presents
UPC:	0814647020129
catalogNumber:	70201
Rank:	3828

Tracks

1. Winter Wonderland
2. Jingle Bells
3. My Favourite Things
4. The Christmas Song (Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire)
5. Las Mañanitas
6. Sleigh Ride
7. The Bell That Couldn't Jingle
8. Let It Snow, Let It Snow, Let It Snow
9. Jingle Bell Rock
10. Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring

Album Credits

Performance Credits

Herb Alpert & the Tijuana Brass   Primary Artist
Shorty Rogers   Vocals

Technical Credits

Leroy Anderson   Composer
Herb Alpert   Arranger,Producer,Liner Notes
Mel Tormé   Composer
Julius Wechter   Arranger
Richard Rodgers   Composer
Burt Bacharach   Composer
Shorty Rogers   Arranger,String Arrangements
Felix Bernard   Composer
Sammy Cahn   Composer
Oscar Hammerstein   Composer
Larry Levine   Engineer
Jerry Moss   Producer
Mitchell Parish   Composer
John Pisano   Arranger
Jule Styne   Composer
Robert Wells   Composer
Dick Smith   Composer
Tom Wilkes   Art Direction
Joe Beal   Composer
Jim Boothe   Composer
Larry Kusik   Composer