JUST IN TIME FOR CHRISTMAS
An Album Review

This Album Review Section is by our Team Nancy Member, B. Douglas Swiszcz, who owns the copyright of the text provided below.

Thank you, Doug!

The holiday season is upon us yet again, a time for quiet reflection, for taking stock of all of the true gifts in our lives and for recognizing our common humanity. And what better way to induce such a benevolent frame of mind than to listen to Nancy's "Just in Time for Christmas" CD. How fitting that the woman whose credo was to live and love as fully as possible should record a collection of songs which celebrate the warmth, joy and peace of this holiday.

Nancy delivers a program which includes a nice balance of traditional carols with newer, less known but equally potent songs. She is once again supported by a wonderful group of musicians, including Christopher Marlowe on piano, Jay Leonhart on bass, Ken Sebesky on guitar, John Redsecker on drums, and Joe Passaro on percussion, with an occasional appearance by Glenn Drewes on trumpet, Mike Migliore on flute, and Debra Assail-Migliore on cello. David Friedman continues to do a wonderful job as producer.

The disc begins with Nancy's stirring performance of "Some Children See Him," backed by Marlowe's impressive piano arrangement. The purity and simplicity of Nancy's vocals penetrate every nook and cranny of this song. To hear Nancy's high, open notes at the song's conclusion is to imagine how the angels must sound when they sing.

Nancy and Marlowe effectively combine "I Saw Three Ships" and "Bring a Torch, Jeanette, Isabella," with both songs deftly woven together to create a seamless whole.

"Santa Claus Is Comin' to Town" finds Nancy teamed with the vocal group Hudson Shad for an a cappella rendering that is engaging, good fun. Nancy's singing is bright and joyous, and her laugh near the end of the tune indicates what a great time she is having performing with this inventive group of men.

"I'll Be Home for Christmas" is the shortest track on the CD at just a little over 2 minutes. Nancy sings the song through only once; there is no instrumental interlude, with Nancy returning to repeat the chorus. But Nancy's singing and Marlowe's accompaniment fittingly capture the heartfelt simplicity of Christmas, hearth and home. A song needn't be long to be effective.

If a listener hasn't already fallen in love with Nancy, he will surely be smitten when he hears her romantic, seductive reading of "Christmas (Stay with Me)" from Zippel/Coleman's musical "City of Angels." Glenn Drewes' trumpet playing nicely underscores the feelings Nancy conveys in this lovely ballad which deserves to become a Yuletide favorite in years to come. Who among us could resist her purring invitation to "stay with me"?

Annie Dinerman, whose "Child in Me Again" was such a strong entry on Nancy's "Beautiful Baby" CD, scores again with "Earth and Sky," which teams Nancy with a children's choir. This song, too, has a child-like innocence about it with its eco-friendly litany of Christmas wishes and the "la la la" vocals of the children. It's interesting to compare Nancy's performance here with the more mature sounds of the preceding track. What's incredible is that Nancy gives such disparate readings and yet sounds utterly convincing in each, a testament to her interpretive genius.

"All Those Christmas Cliches" is a song which extols just about every Yuletide platitude you can think of, and probably some you may have forgotten as well. Nancy does a fine take on this number, although it is probably the weakest of the newer tunes on the recording.

Marlowe's playing of "What Child Is This" serves as an effective counter-melody to Nancy's evocative singing of the Appalachian carol, "I Wonder as I Wander." This track proves what a magical team Nancy and Chris were.

Nancy's pure, sweet tones serve her well once again in Alec Wilder's "A Child is Born." As always, Debra Assail-Migliore's sensitive cello playing warrants mention. (The cello arrangement is by David Friedman.)

The disc's title track gives our Nancy the chance to tell us about the redemptive power of love, and how it can steer us from the crass commercialism of Christmas to an appreciation and understanding of what the holiday is really about. Will there ever be a better purveyor of the optimism and goodness of David Friedman's songs than Nancy LaMott?

Michael Feinstein duets with Nancy on the old favorite, "Baby, It's Cold Outside." They capture the teasing and playfulness of the number, but with a twist: in this incarnation, the woman is the pursuer trying to convince her date to stay the night instead of heading out into the inclement winter weather, and the man is the pursued, coyly trying to think up excuses why he can't stay. Welcome to the nineties!

Nancy encourages us to count our blessings in Carroll Coates' "A Song for Christmas." This is another example of how Nancy and Chris Marlowe's knack for effective understatement can make profound what might come off as trite in lesser hands.

The recording concludes with "The Christmas Song." As with the two CD's which preceded this one, the final track finds Nancy accompanied only by Ken Sebesky's vibrant guitar. The arrangement provides a warm, intimate setting for Nancy's expressive vocals, and reveals anew for us the sentiments of the Torme/Wells classic.

This recording, incidentally, makes a wonderful stocking stuffer, and is highly recommended as an antidote to disillusionment with the holiday season. It took at least three spirits to get Scrooge to see the error of his ways, but then they didn't have recorded sound back in 1840's England...did they?

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JUST IN TIME FOR CHRISTMAS An Album Review

JUST IN TIME FOR CHRISTMAS
An Album Review