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Stocking Stuffers · The Piano Maven with Jed Distler

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  This is Jed Distler and I welcome you to the Piano Maven, your friendly podcast guide to
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  piano recordings.
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  I'm so happy you are here with me for this episode because the holiday season is just
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  around the corner and I'm sure you want to know just what are the essential holiday piano
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  releases that belong in every collection.
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  I can think of several that I like and I'm always very happy to put them on to get into
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  the holiday spirit.
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  On the Steinway and Sons label, let's start with a Steinway Christmas album.
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  It features pianist Jeffrey Beagle who has been a former guest on my radio show Between
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  the Keys.
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  This disc contains seven original works and 14 arrangements featuring nine different arrangers.
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  And among the original works that are Christmas themed on this disc include December from
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  Tchaikovsky's The Seasons, The Christmas Tree by Rebikov, and Chanteur by Lyapunov.
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  And we have Jeffrey Beagle's own sensitive arrangements of Auld Lang Syne and David
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  Foster's song called My Grown-Up Christmas.
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  One of my very favorite tracks on this disc is Leroy Anderson's Sleigh Ride and a brilliant
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  piano arrangement by Andrew Gentile.
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  But that isn't as fun as Andrew Gentile's arrangement of You're a Mean One, Mr. Grinch.
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  And no one plays this arrangement better than Meryl Gunneman, who is also a friend and a
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  former Between the Keys guest.
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  And this is a highlight of her 2019 release that's called Christmas Memories.
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  You still might be able to find a copy of this disc on CD Baby, but it's easily accessed
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  on download and streaming platforms.
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  Also, the second of Meryl's two holiday discs came out earlier in 2004 on the Venice label.
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  It's called A Christmas Memory and it largely features her own arrangements of songs like
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  White Christmas, Joni Mitchell's River, Silent Night, Mel Torme's The Christmas Song, I'll
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  Be Home for Christmas, and quite a few others.
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  But also, she plays Bill Charlop's beautiful arrangement of Have Yourself a Merry Little
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  Christmas.
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  She plays Dick Hyman's arrangement of My Favorite Things and Ted Rosenthal's arrangement of
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  Greensleeves.
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  Both of Meryl Gunneman's Christmas albums belong in any serious piano holiday collection.
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  And so does Stuart Goodyear's astonishing piano transcription of the entire Tchaikovsky
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  Nutcracker Ballet.
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  Not just the sweet or the greatest hits, mind you, but the whole ballet.
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  It's kind of unbelievable.
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  The whole kit and caboodle.
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  That's also on the Steinway and Sons label.
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  It's quite a tour de force and the music making is so cultivated and it is so much in style
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  that you forget what astonishing piano playing it is.
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  Stuart, by the way, also is a former Between the Keys guest and a good friend.
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  Also on Steinway, there is an album called Christmas at Steinway Hall.
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  And this consists of Christmas favorites and really imaginative and tasteful jazz arrangements
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  conceived by and played by Simon Mulligan.
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  Probably the most famous and joyful solo jazz piano Christmas album is Christmas Ivory with
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  the late great Dave McKenna on the Concord Jazz label.
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  I've loved this disc for decades.
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  Dave McKenna was famous for creating a style where he punctuates walking bass lines with
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  chords underneath right hand lines.
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  And this gives the illusion that three hands are at work.
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  I would also place Tchaikovsky's complete piano cycle, The Seasons, among holiday piano
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  releases.
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  I don't know.
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  For some reason, it seems like a good holiday fit.
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  My personal favorite recording of The Seasons is the one that Mikhail Pletnev recorded for
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  Virgin Classics.
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  At some point, I'll do a more detailed podcast about The Seasons and its various recorded
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  versions.
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  But Pletnev's on Virgin Classics is my top pick.
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  And I would be totally remiss if I did not plug my infamous release that first appeared
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  in the year 2000, and it's popped up on many super budget labels.
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  It's called Baby's First Christmas.
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  There are several discs on the market that are called Baby's First Christmas.
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  One of them is all of my selections.
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  The other one, I think, uses some of them, but then other selections are taken from some
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  other source that has nothing to do with me.
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  But about Baby's First Christmas, I basically recorded Christmas songs on a little portable
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  keyboard that had sounds that sort of resemble Christmas bells.
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  I'm not quite sure how these sounds were set up.
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  My producer, David Merrill, arranged the whole thing for me.
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  And I recorded this disc on a little keyboard on a card table at David Merrill's apartment.
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  And he was the producer and the person behind the project.
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  And we basically knocked out the whole album in a couple of hours.
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  And as usual for me, when I'm working with David Merrill, we have this little in-joke
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  where I interpolate the theme from the TV show Mr. Ed in more than a few accompaniments.
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  And I did this most memorably, I think, in Joy to the World, which is like, da da da
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  dum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum.
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  You see, I throw in Mr. Ed at the end of there.
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  Also, I think I used Mr. Ed on Here We Come a-Caroling.
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  Ya da dum ba dum ba dum ba do do do do do dum dum.
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  Here we come a-caroling.
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  A horse is a horse, of course, of course.
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  What's interesting is that a couple of really notable classical pianists wrote to me when
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  they found Baby's First Christmas selling for $2 at their local pharmacies.
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  And they were surprised to see my name on the credits.
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  But on the other hand, when I was first dating my wife, Mima, I gave her a copy of Baby's
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  First Christmas, and she absolutely hated it.
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  And she was very direct.
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  She said, I can't listen to this.
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  I can sort of understand that because the bell sounds from that little keyboard I was
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  using are really pretty cheesy.
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  And I think other people have found this disc to be kind of cringe-worthy.
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  But it's gotten more positive reviews on Amazon.com than from any of my more quote unquote serious
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  releases.
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  Maybe I need to record another holiday album.
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  I think maybe this time I'll do it on my toy piano.
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  Anyway, I would not make Baby's First Christmas your holiday shopping priority, especially
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  when you have such wonderful holiday piano discs by Jeffrey Beagle, Merrill Goodenamen,
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  Simon Mulligan, Stuart Goodyear, and Dave McKenna.
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  This is Jed Dissler, and you've been listening to the Piano Maven, your friendly podcast
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  guide to piano recordings.
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  Happy holidays to you, and I look forward to being together with you for our next episode.