Winter Awhile - Cool Twists on Holiday Classics

by Robert Hicks

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Compact Disc (CD) + Digital Album
"Robert Hicks never ceases to thrill and amaze me. He sings. He swings. He plays the piano like the best, most versatile jazz musicians in the music world. And now he tackles the very special (and generally over worked) holiday--season genre with an originality and freshness unlike anything that has been heard before. Old Christmas classics and new, exciting seasonal originals warm the soul and enhance the familiar with beauty and skill. From horn choirs to big-band charts, expect one surprise after another, in an album that surpasses the season with a value that lasts all year long. This is a triumph of wonder and joy." REX REED

Includes unlimited streaming of Winter Awhile - Cool Twists on Holiday Classics via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.

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1.	Big City Christmas 07:51	info	buy track
2.	Bop King Wenceslas 06:19	info	buy track
3.	In The Bleak Midwinter 02:38	info	buy track
4.	Wassail Beat Suite (album mix) 07:52	info	buy track
5.	Winter Awhile (vocal) 04:13	lyrics	buy track
If you want a cool break by a frosty lake Then I’m the guy you’ll want to see For a ride up the mountain to a chic chalet Winter Awhile with me Palm Desert is nice, I’ve only been there twice The climate isn’t so versatile The temperature’s oppressive, I intend to be suggestive Come along and Winter Awhile BRIDGE It won’t feel like Christmastime Unless you’re getting snow on the ground A jaunt on a caterpillar through the pine With not another human around Why dontcha come forth and bring your chassis up north Canoodle on a cozy settee Frisky pranks while romping in the snow banks Winter Awhile with me INSTRUMENTAL BREAK Snow shoes in powder, and then some duck chowder And if you want to cross-country ski I’ve got the gear, and if you’ve got the gumption Winter Awhile with me Jet planes are quick if you wanna take a trip Far away from the Salton Sea We’ll enhance bliss and celebrate the solstice Winter Awhile with me BRIDGE Hot spiced cider, leave out the rum Don’t ever want to catch you off your guard Forget Jack Frost so we can get lost And get rescued by a Saint Bernard I wanna confide and be your nature guide Escape from the bourgeoisie Put on your parka, the night is getting darker You’ll fall in love I guarantee I’ll fend off the bears and be your concierge Journey through the forest in style Proceed with me and Winter Awhile
6.	I Saw Three Ships Come Sailing In 01:49	info	buy track
7.	I Saw Three Ships Come Swinging In 03:08	info	buy track
8.	Little Town Of Bethlehem 06:37	info	buy track
9.	Arabian Dance (Coffee) 05:51	info	buy track
10.	Deck The Hall 07:49	info	buy track
11.	Holy Holly Holiday Hula (vocal) 02:55	lyrics	buy track
I know that you’re distressed about the blizzards way out west But you can leave them all behind - I’ve got some paradise in mind… Holy Holly Holiday Hula Doug Fir won’t grow in Hawai’i We’ll decorate a canafistula Illuminated by a Molokai moon You won’t have to spend a lot of your moolah To have a warm tropical celebration Come on all the way from Missoula For a Kamehameha feast tonight We’ll partake of poi and all the roast pig you can eat A shimmy up the palm tree is an acrobatic feat We’ll do the Ho-Ho-Holy Holly Holiday Hula Trade winds blowing aloha Enjoy a nuzzle under the luna Ho’omaha i kēia pō INSTRUMENTAL BREAK Kilokilo Christmas in Pacific island style Plumeria and coconuts are certain to beguile We’ll all have a lotta Hallelujah You’ll wanna stay for a lifetime And do the Holy Holly Holiday Hula Forever dancing in the sun and in the sea BREAK Together doing Holy Holly Holiday Hula Forever dancing in the sun and the sea
12.	We Wish You A Merry Christmas Cha Cha 05:07	info	buy track

about

Total playing time: 1:02

Liner notes by James Gavin (award-winning journalist and biographer of Chet Baker, Lena Horne, Peggy Lee, and George Michael)

This album is a bottomless Christmas stocking of fun and surprise; it circles the globe and surveys a whirlwind of styles. They include the tightly orchestrated coolness of 1950s West Coast jazz as well as rhythm-and-blues, bebop, Far East exotica, Afro-Cuban rhythms, Hawaiian music, and Tchaikovsky. But wherever the album roams, it never loses its Christmas heart.

Winter Awhile came out of the mind and pen of Robert Hicks, a Portland-based singer-pianist known for his sly, insinuating performances of the retro jazz he loves. Among his proudest achievements is the 2000 album Textures in Hi-Fi, a collaboration with the legendary big-band arranger Pete Rugolo, who backed Robert with a dream orchestra of ‘50s West Coast sidemen.

Not even Robert’s staunchest fans, however, could have imagined him creating an album with the remarkable scope of Winter Awhile. Aside from playing piano throughout and singing on two songs, which he wrote, Robert conceived and arranged every track. He contracted 36 musicians, many from Portland’s opera, symphony, ballet, and jazz orchestras. The soloists include Paul Mazzio, Portland’s first-call jazz trumpeter; drummer Todd Strait, who played with Marian McPartland, Tal Farlow, and Woody Herman; and guitarist Dan Faehnle, who toured for three years with Diana Krall.

Robert’s musical eclecticism here recalls that of his idol, Henry Mancini. “Here We Come A-Wassailing” becomes an eight-minute suite that encompasses (among other styles) cool jazz, swing, bop, and the chamber-jazz elegance of the George Shearing Quintet. Samba percolates beneath the overture from Tchaikovsky’s The Nutcracker Suite. To “Arabian Dance,” from the same work, Robert adds the dulcimer-like santour from Persia. “We Wish You a Merry Christmas” is transformed into cha-cha-cha. The atmosphere is churchly and classical in Robert’s chamber-music arrangement, for strings and woodwinds, of “In the Bleak Midwinter,” a Gustav Holst hymn set to a 19th-century English poem about the birth of Jesus.

The album would not have been complete without his voice. Robert wrote himself a pair of groovy lounge tunes to sing: the tongue-in-cheek Hawaiian love song “Hoola” and “Winter Awhile,” whose R&B horn sound and backbeat give it a touch of Louis Jordan.

Foremost in Robert’s mind during the year it took to make this album was the holiday itself. “I like Christmas music to feel like Christmas,” he says. “Christmas should be fun. It also has tinges of melancholy. But I’d like to think that this record can be listened to at any time of the year; that it can stir up all kinds of emotion".

One thing seems certain: With Winter Awhile, Robert has produced an evergreen.

credits

released November 16, 2022

Produced, Arranged & Conducted by Robert Hicks

Engineered and Mixed by Sacha Müller

Engineering Assistants: Jarrod Ackerly, David Badstubner & Andy Nagatori

Mastered by Dana White at Specialized Mastering

Cover photo by Thomas Hicks

SPECIAL GUEST STARS INCLUDE: Lars Campbell, JáTtik Clark, David Evans, Dan Faehnle, Masoud Fouladimehr, Tim Gilson, Ben Greanya, Jen Harrison, Mike Horsfall, Martin Hébert, Tim Jensen, Michael Long, Willie Matheis, Paul Mazzio, Todd Strait, Giancarlo Viviano, Christopher Woitach and members of the Oregon Symphony.

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about

Robert Hicks Portland, Oregon

Pianist/vocalist/arranger/composer Robert Hicks has entertained audiences all over the world. His first two full length albums, "New Standards" & "Textures in Hi-Fi" were met with critical acclaim. The latter was recorded with jazz legend Pete Rugolo's All-Star Orchestra. Robert arranged and conducted his 2022 holiday album, "Winter Awhile", as well as his 2023 single, "There Is A Moose" ... more

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