Album Notes

Singer Meg Murray of Annapolis, MD has created a beautiful jazz holiday record that you will be listening to with your family for years to come!!

This festive CD is driven by an amazing jazz trio... Unified Jazz Ensemble members Mike Noonan on keyboards and John Pineda on bass, plus drummer Chuck Karner on drums, while bassist Larry Melton performs on two tracks. These players swing!

Murray's warm and sultry vocals wrap around your favorite holiday carols with impressive skill and ease, creating a warm, rich recording that brings to mind your best holiday memories. Murray's voice beautifully ebbs and flows from standard ballads to swing to bossa nova and then back again, dancing cheek to cheek with the great music created by this fantastic jazz combo.

This is the perfect music to play at all your holiday gatherings!! Grade A!!


*************** washingtonpost.com/MP3 Holiday Songs, New and Old 2004
By Maria Villafana
washingtonpost.com/MP3 Producer

Meg Murray
Mistletoe & Holly
Jazz

FEATURED HOLIDAY SONG 2004
www.washingtonpost.com/MP3

"Mistletoe & Holly" is but one of the many wonderful traditional songs Meg Murray jazzes up on her holiday album, "I'll Be Home for Christmas."


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washingtonpost.com/MP3 Holiday Songs, New and Old 2003
By Maria Villafana
washingtonpost.com/MP3 Producer

Meg Murray
My Favorite Things
Jazz

I'll Be Home for "I'll Be Home for Xmas," Meg Murray's new holiday album is a wonderful compilation of traditional songs. Her jazzy take on "My Favorite Things" is especially good.


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Review by Dan Mollen Chesapeake Music Guide December 2003

New York's loss is Maryland's gain. After a brief dalliance with renowned New York producer Timbalake (of Missy Elliott and Justin Timberlake fame), Meg Murray came home to Annapolis to record her R & B flavored CD "Ready" in November of 2002. And now, in a turn both prolific and versatile, Murray returns with the jazz-inflected holiday treat "I'll Be Home For Christmas."

This is the kind of seasonal record that Ella or the Velvet Fog made back when singers knew the importance of phrasing. Remember phrasing? Well, Meg does a fine job of crafting songs rather than bludgeoning them to death in the manner of today's American Idolized pop singers. She's like the bizarro Celine Dion or Mariah Carey in a parallel universe - a universe where over-emoting and vocal gymnastics do not a fine singer make. Although perfectly capable of running up and down the scale, Murray has learned that the best notes are sometimes those left unsung. And while most Christmas standards have been done to death, the combination of stellar musicianship and exquisite taste here allows Murray to put her own stamp on some time-honored favorites.

WARNING: With an album this sophisticated and stylish, "I'll Be Home For Christmas," may force you to throw a party that is as cool as this sounds. Regardless, make sure to unwrap it before Christmas so Meg Murray can provide the soundtrack to your holiday season in its entirety. Consider it a gift to yourself.

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