Album Notes

Becca and James met in high school, where she was heavily involved in Drama, and James could be found backstage playing on the piano his own compositions that would later comprise his first album, VELVET RAIN. Years later, they reconnected to collaborate on cabarets Becca performed in the Tampa Bay Area, and the desire for original music in the holiday cabaret was the start of the album A NOT SO SILENT NIGHT. James went through his files of unfinished themes and sparks of inspiration and recorded them for Becca. Becca took each recording and listened over and over until a direction for the piece made itself apparent - that the music tonally or rhythmically sounded like a certain traditional carol, or a song matched up well with a specific poem, etc. Becca returned the pieces to James with these ideas and he re-arranged the songs. By focusing on the use of public domain carols to create the pieces, the Nativity naturally emerged as the core of the album. It is Becca and James' attention to musical and theatrical detail that results in the truly original versions of these well-known songs, found on this album.