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Our Review

Whenever I hear Steve Barta play, the first thing that comes to mind is what a light touch he has. Barta's style is always warm, restrained, and elegant. His new Christmas recording, The Twelve Days of Christmas, is light-hearted and full of smooth jazz arrangements of some of our best-known modern seasonals.

Barta pays homage to Vince Guaraldi on several numbers, including Guaraldi's own compositions Skating and Linus and Lucy and his arrangement of Christmas Time is Here. Barta adds warmth and depth to these works with his orchestral arrangements. The flute was particularly satisfying on Skating.

His rendition of Silver Bells was poignantly evocative--quite "Novemberish." On the other hand, Bach's Air on the G String was jazzy almost to the point of irony. My Favorite Things, an unusual inclusion, was moody and mellow.

I welcome the occasional seasonal--meaning non-religious--Christmas release. (It is the rare recording these days that does not include Silent Night.) Also notable is the 13th (and title) track, a "straight" instrumental rendition of The Twelve Days of Christmas.

The orchestral arrangements give the work a rich, full-bodied sound that would have been more difficult to achieve with piano alone. The jazzy arrangements should prove accessible even to occasional jazz listeners. And Barta's light style lends poignancy and spirit to a nice sampling of familiar seasonal works.

--Richard Banks
(Reviewed in 2000)

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From the liner notes:

Steve Barta is a composer, author, producer, and recording artist. (He is also the first artist gracious enough to submit his work to Christmasreviews.com for review, almost before there was a Christmasreviews.com.) In addition to his several holiday CDs, Barta has several other CD releases to his credit, including the highly acclaimed 1997 release, Blue River. He is also the author of a musical reference book entitled The Source: The Dictionary of Traditional and Contemporary Scales.

Steve Barta

The Twelve Days of Christmas

Artist link

Track List