Hat tip to my friend JB, who deftly dropped tonight’s Christmas song between Bad Company’s “Can’t Get Enough” and the Bee Gees’ “More Than A Woman” on his “Saturdays at the ’70s” show on WMGN radio is Madison, Wisconsin.
Never expected to hear it there. Hearing it again blew me away. Here’s why.
“A Festival of Carols in Brass” by the Philadelphia Brass Ensemble was the second Christmas record I ever bought. I didn’t buy Christmas records until after I left home for college. I bought it at Prange’s, a big department store in Eau Claire, Wisconsin, in December of 1977 or 1978.
I bought the still-excellent 1973 compilation “A Motown Christmas” at the same time, and I remember thinking I needed to get something traditional to go along with it, something like the Christmas albums we had at home as kids.
“A Festival of Carols in Brass” consists of 25 traditional Christmas carols, most of them fairly short cuts, “played by the first-chair virtuosos of the Philadelphia Orchestra.”
You’ve probably heard a bunch of these but never known who played them. JB’s excellent narration noted that these songs have been licensed far and wide for commercial use.
The liner notes on the original vinyl album also say this:
“Maybe it’s the influence of the Salvation Army, or maybe it’s just a special kind of inherent affinity. Whatever the cause, it’s a fact that practically everyone associates the sound of brass instruments with the music of Christmas.”
When this was re-released on CD (my CD copy is from 1991), those liner notes had disappeared, as had all the credits for the performers. The producer’s name survived, but not the names of those who played all that elegant brass.
So, for the record, here is the Philadelphia Brass Ensemble, circa 1967: Gilbert Johnson, first trumpet; Seymour Rosenfeld, second trumpet; Mason Jones, French horn; Henry Charles Smith, trombone; M. Dee Stewart, euphonium; and Abe Torchinsky, tuba.
“Deck the Halls with Boughs of Holly,” the Philadelphia Brass Ensemble, from “A Festival of Carols in Brass,” 1967. Certainly worth picking up if you find it in the dollar bin at your local record store or at a record show. I’ve done that.