Friday, December 19, 2008

For you - a Christmas Story and a beloved Carol.....

There is even more snow in Vancouver now and it is very cold. The City of Vancouver will have its first white Christmas in decades. It is a tribute to my scaredy-catness and worry-wartedness that I got snow tires on my car (and the car used by the children) a few weeks ago - but even with the tires, I don't venture out in the new snow unless it is really necessary.

But, I am thinking of the holiday season - last weekend my first-born, daughter and heir went with me to see Handel's Messiah. It was a wonderful performance by the Vancouver Chamber Choir and Vancouver Cantata Singers, with four excellent soloists. Getting to see my son's Christmas Concert a few weeks ago in Toronto and being there for his solo of "Silent Night" was another high-light of the holidays. Tomorrow my son arrives home from University - and the Christmas holidays will truly start.

Here is a great Christmas Carol for you to enjoy. It is "O Holy Night" from an Aaron Sorkin show called Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip. The thing about Sorkin is that he incorporated great music into the West Wing - remember Hallelujah by Jeff Buckley? If not, check out this link.

For this episode, before the Christmas show of Studio 60, many of the regular band members for the house-band started calling in sick, sending substitute musicians to fill in. The producers of the snow began to notice that the fill-ins were world class musicians, and they later discovered that regular musicians all over LA were "calling in sick" to give displaced New Orleans' musicians, who weren't members of the unions, a couple of gigs to make some Christmas money. Apparently this was a more-or-less true story in Los Angeles at the time.

The producers of the show decided to feature some of the New Orleans' musicians on the television show, and Troy Andrews and other jazz musicians from New Orleans played "O Holy Night" while black and white images from Katrina and the rebuilding of New Orleans flashed in the background.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

God, I loved West Wing. And funnily enough, just yesterday, we were talking about Jeff Buckley's version of Halleliah. Voted the best version on Tom Allen's CBC Radio Two show(Personally, I think that nobody beats Leonard Cohen, but he comes pretty close.) Great song, great voice and wow, what a great show. Got teary just watching it again. I also saw The Messiah this week. Was transcendant.However, snow here in Toronto is anything but. Must remember to keep humming O Holy Night -- my favourite carol. Thanks for clips.
Wendy