Spirit of the Season

Spirit Of The Season / Hiroshima 冬季心曲．季节的精神 / 广岛融合乐团 专辑简介： 不妨在这里再向大家推荐一张较为另类的节日唱片，名字叫《The Spirit of the Season》，来自一队糅合东西音乐特色的组合Hiroshima。说起来 Hiroshima已成立二十多年，仍能屹立不倒，足见他们有一定魅力。记忆中他们从未出过节日唱片，这是他们首张此类作品。 看看入选曲目，不外又是些人人耳熟能详的例牌歌，除了在编排方面别开生面之外，Hiroshima使用的乐器亦与其他组合有异。一般圣诞歌曲只适宜于节日那几天欣赏，这张唱片却不一样，即使平日听也可以。像《I\'ll Be Home For Christmas》便被处理成一首带点R & B 味道的歌曲。《Little Drummer Boy》突显了东方乐器的位置，用尺八加日本大鼓奏圣诞歌，出来的效果之有趣可以想像得到。《Listen (To The Falling Snow)》用电子合成器打底，再加上色士风温馨的吹奏，非常悦耳。 by Rick Anderson Just when you thought it wasn't possible to add another twist to traditional Christmas music, here come the soft jazz stalwarts of Hiroshima to prove you wrong. Spirit of the Season may offer only mild and gentle surprises, but they're surprises nonetheless: "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer" as a big-band samba with koto; "Little Drummer Boy" in a plodding orchestral arrangement with heavy metal guitar obbligato and taiko drums (and koto); "I'll Be Home for Christmas" as a sort of gently funky quiet storm ballad, with koto -- you get the idea. Granted that challenging people's ears has never really been Hiroshima's gig, but it's still kind of disappointing that they didn't do a bit more with some of these arrangements. That version of "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer" really could have swung a bit harder, and "Little Drummer Boy" could have swung at all. On the other hand, their version of "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas," which puts a closely miked alto flute at the center of the arrangement, is simply gorgeous, and their take on "White Christmas" offers a perfect balance between celebration and sadness. Nice, but not essential.