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Our Review

The Christmas season is all about love, family, and (hopefully) warm memories of holidays past. Towards that end, we often look for music that will create a receptive mood to welcome the flood of unique pieces of our past into the moment and our hearts. Oddly, although my childhood never contained blissful harmonica serenades around the campfire, I strongly associate harmonica music with homey, happy times, and I'm thinking that I'm not the only one who feels this way.

Robert Bonfiglio is a harmonica Picasso, a master of his craft. He plays the mouth organ with precision and pizazz, and the music reflects depth and soul. Bonfiglio's not alone; he is joined here by artists on strings (guitar, violin, bass), flute, and percussion. What separates All Is Calm from the rest of the holiday pack, however, is Bonfiglio's magnificent harmonica. Warm and familiar, the instrument conveys relaxation and comfort, regardless of the song.

I particularly loved the clarion harmonica voice lifting the melody on Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas--exquisite! The coolest cut is probably Little Drummer Boy, which morphs from a staid militaristic approach into a jazz-charged swing, complete with wah-wah sighs from the harmonica. The album includes a nice variety of moods and approaches; on some numbers, the harmonica/strings combo communicates a distinctly western theme (Silver Bells, for example), and some violin-focused cuts are far more classical (e.g., Greensleeves).

If you enjoy well-executed instrumental holiday music, but are tired of the same old piano, guitar, or jazz trio approaches, try something a little different. Gather 'round the campfire for All Is Calm and a heap o' heavenly harmonica. You'll be glad you did!

--Carol Swanson
(Reviewed in 2008)

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From the liner notes:

Robert Bonfiglio: Harmonica
Laura Seaton: Violin
Clare Hoffman: Flute
Jay Berliner: Acoustic & Classical Guitar, Six String Bass
John Beal: Acoustic Bass
Tommy West: Acoustic Guitar, Percussion

Produced by Tommy West
Arranged by Robert Bonfiglio & Tommy West
Recorded Somewhere in New Jersey


From the Website:

Called "the Paganini of the Harmonica" by The Los Angeles Times, ROBERT BONFIGLIO has dazzled audiences at Carnegie Hall, the Hollywood Bowl, the Gewandhaus, Teatro Colón, Teatro Massimo, Kennedy Center, Boston Symphony Hall, Lincoln Center and throughout the world with his ability to play : Harmonica Concertos and turn right around and "sizzle" on the 'blues. The reviewer at his GEWANDHAUS Debut said, "BONFIGLIO makes music: full of fire; noble."

Robert has appeared on "CBS Sunday Morning," "CBS Morning Show," "Live with Regis and Kathy Lee," "Larry King," "The Jim Bohannon Show" and Garrison Keillor's "American Radio Show." He has had feature stories and reviews in the New York Times, the Boston Globe, the Los Angeles Times, the Washington Post and the Chicago Tribune.

BONFIGLIO performed recent debuts with the Pittsburgh Symphony, the National Symphony at Kennedy Center, the Orchestre Symphonique de Quebec and the Orquesta Sinfonica de Principado de Asturias and the Bochumer Symphoniker. He just finished his debut with the Louisville Orchestra and with the City of Hong Kong Chamber Orchestra, Andrew Sewell conducting and a return engagement with the Orquesta Del Nuevo Mundo under Maestro Johannes Bruno Ullrich.

He performed the world premiere of the Henry Cowell Harmonica Concerto with the Brooklyn Philharmonic under conductor Lucas Foss and the West Coast premiere with David Alan Miller and the Los Angeles Philharmonic. Robert Bonfiglio has appeared as a soloist with Skitch Henderson and the New York Pops at Carnegie Hall, John Williams and the Boston Pops on PBS, John Mauceri and the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra, with Fabio Luisi and the MDR Orchestra at the Leipzig Gewandhaus and Theo Alcantara and the Buenos Aires Philharmonic at the Teatro Colón.

BONFIGLIO has been a concerto soloist with leading orchestras around the world including the Minnesota Orchestra, Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, the Orchestra of the Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires, the Luxembourg Philharmonic, the Leipzig M D R-Radio Symphony, the Hong Kong Philharmonic, Orchestre National du Capitole de Toulouse, the Madrid Radio Television Española Orchestra, Real Orquesta Sinfónica de Sevilla, the Estonia National Symphony, Edmonton Symphony, the Mexico City Philharmonic, as well as the Milwaukee Symphony, the Indianapolis Symphony, Oregon Symphony, Utah Symphony and the Los Angeles Philharmonic.

Robert Bonfiglio

All Is Calm

Artist link

Track List