I have never had a Pink Martini, but it sure sounds fun… & 60’s-ish.

And how exactly does a Pink Martini relate to Advent? to Christmas? Well, there’s this awesomely amazing music group called PINK MARTINI.  And guess what?  they have an awesomely excellent Christmas CD called JOY TO THE WORLD.

The story goes like this. Last Sunday nite as my Barnes & Noble coupon was about to expire (of course, online acquisitions are an option, but it’s oh so much more fun traipsing about the actual STORE!) I headed in to check out new Christmas music options.

Music is such a part of Christmas for me. We, ah, have many (100+) Christmas CDs, but you can never have too many.

This time I was looking for a world collection, kind of like Putumayo World Christmas compilations (already have several of theirs.) Couldn’t find anything new, but the cover of the Pink Martini Christmas CD caught my eye.

I remembered hearing a song of theirs on my brother Dwight’s jazz playlist (the 60’s-ish song was in Japanese, hard to forget.)  Thinking it would be all Santa-stuff, I looked at the song selection with surprise – lots of  great carols.

So, I took a wee chance after asking the helpful B&N staff member who said, “Pink Martini, how could you go wrong with a name like that? Sounds like a winner!”

He was OH, SO RIGHT.

What an AWESOME CD(~!~)  Sure, there are one or two fun holiday pieces, but mostly lovely carols in various languages (Ukranian, French, Chinese, Italian, German, Arabic), a Hebrew prayer and a poignant Italian prayer (“La Vergine Degli Angeli,”) plus the most unusual rendition of Auld Lang Syne, ever.

(Click here for a YouTube link to have listen. You don’t want to miss this, trust me! -it’s like the spiritual jumper cables of LBM’s  “Swing Low, Sweet Chariot” with a Hawaiian, international spin in 4 languages!  : )

http://youtu.be/Z-37NDoT6qI

When my (very) NICE NICE brother Dwight loaded the CD onto our iTouches (via his computer), he also downloaded Pink Martini’s newest compilation from iTunes called “Dream a Little Dream” done with Sofia, Melanie, Amanda, and August von Trapp, the great-grandchildren of Captain & Maria von Trapp (of Sound of Music fame!)

Another rad compilation.

For sure, there are a few 60’s time warp pieces (‘Dream a little Dream’, ‘Fernando’ et all) & a few from The Sound of Music (Edelweiss & the Lonely Goatherd) but these are interspersed among lovely, unusual international pieces in four-part harmonies – the first one, “Storm,” blew me away… and then there’s a haunting Rwandan melody (selected because the Von Trap grandchildren volunteered @ a Rwandan orphanage) along with Bavarian, French, Swedish & Chinese selections..

Inspirational music, all around!  And, for those Sound of Music fans out there, Charmian Carr, who played Liesl in the original Sound of Music makes a guest appearance.

Highly, HIGHLY recommend…

…Back to the Joy To The World CD —

Silent Night is such a favorite, familiar carol — the German version, too.  Pink Martini include a cover of the Arabic version as sung by the famous Lebanese singer, Fairouz.  The English translation provides a new spin on the words to contemplate:

• “The night is flourishing
• The voice of the holiday
• The night is shining
• Be excited o night with the clusters (of grapes)
• Begin with sweetness and promises
• Jesus visited the night!
• Jesus emblazoned the night!”

grace, peace & (awesomely amazing) Christmas music

Virginia : )