Holiday Newsletter 2008 KKSF Update_MK

Holiday 2008
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WELCOME TO THE A-TRAIN NEWSLETTER!
Tis The Season...
Another Holiday newsletter from A-Train?! We just can’t get enough
Christmas cheer! Its never too early to begin the holiday festivities and you
simply can’t start to make that list, bake those cookies, or trim that tree without
some holiday cheer to lift your spirits and ring in the Christmas season. To
help with the gift giving A-Train is swooping down your chimney with a wide
variety of music to stuff stockings and fill caroling voices, from traditional takes
of classic tunes, to jazzy renditions, new age interpretations, acoustic
arrangements and everything in between.
Not to be missed, aside from mom’s pumpkin pie, is the latest
collaboration/compilation from KKSF and your very own A-Train! Just in
time for this years celebration comes the KKSF Sampler for AIDS Relief
Volume 19, Holiday edition, packed with the stations most requested, must
have holiday Smooth Jazz titles. And in the spirit of giving, proceeds benefit
the San Francisco AIDS Foundation in efforts to raise both research funding
and awareness for this most worthy cause. So hang the mistletoe already, and
be sure to keep Tiny Tim away from the eggnog, as A-Train heralds in this
year’s Christmas extravaganza!
- The A-Train Staff
Release Artists
•KKSF Sampler For AIDS
Relief Vol. 19
•Jeff Golub
•Warscout
•Gregg Karukas
•Shelby Flint
•Todi Neesh Zhee Singers
•Silver Wave Artists
•Peter Kater
•R. Carlos Nakai
•William Eaton
•Southern Scratch
A-Train Entertainment • P.O. Box 29242 • Oakland, CA
94604 • 510.893.4705
Holiday 2008
RELEA S ES
KKSF Sampler For AIDS
Gregg Karukas with Shelby
Relief Volume 19 - Various
Flint - Home for the holidays
Artists
KKSF is proud to present Volume 19
of their benefit CD sampler. This
collection is one that they have
received many requests for over the
past eighteen years - the "must have"
Holiday Smooth Jazz titles. Included
here is a small sampling of the KKSF Holiday Library including
classic tracks performed by smooth jazz icons like Kenny G, Diana
Krall, Luther Vandross and Boney James as well as a new, never
before released, track from the Bay Area's Joyce Cooling. We are
pleased again to team up with KKSF to raise money and awareness for
The San Francisco AIDS Foundation and other Bay Area AIDS
organizations, but hope that in the future there will be no need to do
so.
Todi Neesh Zhee Singers Navajo Christmas
Christmas comes to Navajoland as
the Todi Neesh Zhee Singers present
five Christmas songs done in
traditional song and dance style
interspersed with four social dance
songs. These popular singers are
joined by Roger Begay, Radmilla
Cody, Socie Saltwater and Consuela Chacon in Christmas standards
sung in both Navajo and English.
Navajo Christmas Review:
Sick of the same old shopping mall music? Interested in exploring
the roots of Americana? Here is something very unique and cool
for the holiday season. On Navajo Christmas, the Todi Neesh
Zhee Singers & Friends do something I had never previously
experienced. They interpret classic Christmas chestnuts such as
Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer as traditional Navajo song-anddance pieces, and the result is mesmerizing. This music is
fascinating; the ambience is both relaxing and stirring. Very
sweet.
-Carol Swanson, ChristmasReviews.com
Popular contemporary jazz
keyboardist Gregg Karukas captures
all the warmth of being "Home For
The Holidays" with this exquisite
collection of seasonal classics,
recorded live in studio in an intimate,
acoustical setting featuring fresh,
inventive piano trio arrangements of some of the best-loved holiday
songs ever recorded. Gregg teams up with longtime musical partner
Shelby Flint, whose singing and songwriting talents are featured in
unforgettable, heartfelt performances of original and familiar holiday
music.
Home For The Holidays Review:
This lush, glorious holiday treat truly captures the warmth and
intimacy of the season. Eased along by the rhythm section of John
Leftwich and Joel Taylor, Karukas weaves freshness into wellworn standards, his acoustic piano touch has never been sweeter,
crisper or more emotional than these interpretations. The ultimate
in "Unplugged!" Adding passionate drama to this gem are the
breathy, poignant vocal stylings of longtime cohort Shelby Flint.
All in all, a beautiful holiday treat for all; a jazz collection even
those who favor pop can treasure.
- Jonathan Widran, LA Jazz Scene
Jeff Golub - Six String Santa
Combing a rich love for blues, rock
and pop with potent jazz chops, Jeff
Golub and his band recorded their
first Christmas record, Six String
Santa. "I’ve always wanted to do a
record of Christmas music…" Golub
says. "I went in the studio, and we
came up with some very spirited
arrangements of these classic songs that I love so much. " On this
lively holiday CD, Golub lays down his own smooth and funky
interpretations of holiday classics, backed by the stellar line up of
saxophonist Warren Hill, Chris Palmaro on keyboards, Lincoln Goines
on bass, Stephen Ferrone and Shawn Pelton on drums, and Roger
Squitero on percussion. A great accompaniment for any holiday party,
sure to get your guests in the spirit!
A-Train Entertainment • P.O. Box 29242 • Oakland, CA
94604 • 510.893.4705
Holiday 2008
RELEA S ES
R.Carlos Nakai and William
Eaton - Winter Dreams for
Christmas
R. Carlos Nakai and guitarist William
Eaton have arranged these beautiful
Christmas songs from Europe. It is as
if these melodies carried themselves
from the Old World across the
New...to the southwestern deserts
where the wind and solitude imbued them with a new enchantment. It
is the dream of Nakai and Eaton that the peace and goodwill expressed
in these timeless melodies lives throughout the year for people of all
cultures and faiths.
Winter Dreams is a bona fide new age Christmas
classic, an instrumental masterpiece. This timeless
recording excels on every level. Nakai is worldfamous for his mastery of the cedar flute, which
comes to life in his capable hands. The innovative
arrangements and artful execution on Winter
Dreams are guaranteed to make visions of sugar
plums dance in your head!
Peter Kater - Xmas Ecstasy
The most recent of GRAMMY
nominee Peter Kater’s holiday
classics, Xmas Ecstasy displays the
visionary and evocative
interpretations of Peter's favorite
Christmas songs as they transport us
around the world to experience the
soul of the season in a wholly
timeless and universal canopy of sound. Velvety smooth percussion
and celebratory rhythms playfully dance with the Native American
flute, Middle Eastern duduk, Irish penny whistle, woodwinds, guitar,
bass and piano; all resounding deeply, joyfully and reverently,
exposing layer after layer of Xmas ecstasy.
Xmas Ecstasy Review:
If you're looking for a more sophisticated sound in your
holiday music this is the one you should get. Each track
is unique in its interpretation making these familiar tunes
almost unrecognizable. Most pieces are gently rolling
and majestic yet subtle enough to play as background
music all day.
-Carol Swanson, ChristmasReviews.com
- ZANGOMUSIC.COM
Silver Wave Artists - A Winter
Celebration A Winter Celebration
features traditional and original
instrumentals and vocals from these
extraordinary artists: Peter Kater, R.
Carlos Nakai, Joanne Shenandoah,
Flesh & Bone, Tom & Susan
Wasinger, Trio Globo, Fowler &
Branca, Margot Krimmel and Mark
Miller, Eugene Friesen, Chris White, Danny Heines and Curandero.
The glory of summer gives way to harvest, to solstice and to the
preparation for the slumbering earth. The Silver Wave artists give us a
gorgeous grouping of music in celebration of this time of year.
Radhika Miller - Blossoms In
The Snow
Holiday minstrel magic with
delightful renditions of familiar
favorites on traditional medieval and
renaissance instruments plus
refreshing originals for flute and
recorders (Radhika Miller), harp
(Michelle Sell and Cheryl Ann
Fulton), piano (Louis Magor), cello (David Darling), vielle and rebec
(Shira Kammen), mandola (Peter Rowan), kalimba and dulcimer
(Tony D'Anna). CD Review gave it their highest rating. "Simply the
most striking Christmas album of any year." Great holiday gift item!
A-Train Entertainment • P.O. Box 29242 • Oakland, CA
94604 • 510.893.4705
Holiday 2008
RELEA S ES
Southern Scratch - Chicken
Warscout - Red Christmas
Scratch Christmas
Chicken Scratch, the social dance
music of the Tohono O'odham
("Desert People"), also known as
waila music, evolved from the earlier
acoustic fiddle bands that adapted
European and Mexican tunes heard in
Northern Sonora. Twelve popular
Christmas carols are done in the
happy go lucky chicken scratch style by one of the premiere bands of
the Tohono O'odham. Includes “Frosty the Snowman”, “Silent Night”,
“Feliz Navidad” and “Jingle Bells”.
For the Plains Cree, winter brings the
season of the Round Dance. A social
dance of happiness and harmony, its
songs contain often amusing lyrics
about love and courtship. Inspired
by this tradition, Warscout has
crafted these songs infused with the
spirit of Christmas.
Joyful and
touching, Red Christmas is a heartfelt Native American yuletide
celebration that will warm the soul on the frostiest winter night.
Chicken Scratch Christmas Review:
Southern Scratch is only the best known of innumerable chicken scratch bands that are now flooding dance halls in the
Southwest. This Native American-Southwestern crossover is exclusively instrumental and is performed to be danced to.
-Leon Jackson, All Music Guide
A-Train Entertainment • P.O. Box 29242 • Oakland, CA
94604 • 510.893.4705