Winter Romance

Personnel: Beegie Adair (piano); Jack Jezzro (guitar); Mary Alice Hoepfinger (harp); Connie Ellisor, Karen Winkelmann, Pamela Sixfin, David Davidson , David Angell (violin); Kristin Wilkinson, Jim Grosjean, Monisa Angell (viola); Sari Reist, John Catchings (cello); Erik Gratton (flute); Lee Levine (clarinet); Denis Solee (tenor saxophone); Beth Beeson, Jennifer Kummer (French horn); Eric Darken (percussion).
Audio Mixer: Brendan Harkin.
Recording information: Wildwood Recording.
For her Christmas album, pianist Beegie Adair engages an orchestra to back her usual trio. That action pushes the genre designation for her music from "jazz" to "easy listening." Although generally defined as a jazz artist, Adair is on the more conservative side, usually playing the melodies of the standards she likes to fill her albums with, while adding only brief improvisational sections and embellishments. Here, the string arrangements don't leave much room even for that, making this instrumental pop with a holiday bent and almost no jazz content. Of course, it's a pleasant recording of some very familiar material, festive and occasionally playful ("Santa Baby") as well as sentimental. Most artists use their Christmas albums simply to present seasonal music in their established styles; Adair goes beyond that somewhat by adding the orchestra, but this album still sounds like what her followers would expect. ~ William Ruhlmann