A New Century Christmas
Holiday
Program
The New Century Saxophone Quartet’s holiday album, “A New Century
Christmas” (CCS 14698) was released in 2000 to wild critical acclaim
and was featured on National Public Radio’s “Weekend Edition,” leading
to a Command Performance at the White House. This program from
one of America’s most innovative ensembles is now available in concert.
“The aural
equivalent of spiked eggnog. … Mixes festivity and funk; Lenny
Pickett’s hilarious klezmer-style ‘God Rest Ye Merry Gentle Mensch’ is
alone worth the price of admission.”
—Chicago
Tribune
“The New
Century Saxophone Quartet has avoided gimmicks in this remarkable
reinvention of carols that is the freshest Christmas CD I’ve heard in
years. … The result are Christmas carols that come alive, rescued
from the bin of repetition and jaded familiarity. … Throughout,
the quartet performs sensitively, always keeping the carols — and their
spirit — at the forefront.”
—Pittsburgh
Post-Gazette
What is A New Century Christmas?
“A New Century Christmas” is a series of delightful and moving
arrangements of holiday standards by over a dozen composers from the
worlds of classical, jazz, and popular music. Among the composers
who joined in the fun were Lenny Pickett (leader of the Saturday Night
Live Band), Ben Johnston, David Ott, Ronald Rudkin, and Lawrence Dillon.
Let the New Century Saxophone
Quartet mix just the right proportion of these holiday favorites into
the your program:
Funkin’ with the Bells • The First Noël • Little Drummer Boy • We
Wish You a Merry Christmas • In the Bleak Mid-Winter • I’ll Be Home for
Christmas • Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas • White Christmas •
Lo, How a Rose E’er Blooming • My Favorite Things • O Holy Night • God
Rest Ye Merry Gentle Mensch • What Child Is This • Santa Claus is
Coming to Town • O Little Town of Bethlehem • We Four Kings • Rock Land
Bell Winter Jingle Wonder • In Dulci Jubilo • The Last Noël •
Silent Night
“An unusual take
on familiar Christmas songs. … Will particularly appeal to
saxophone fans as well as anyone looking for holiday music with a
little different bent.”
—Denver Post
“The New
Century Saxophone Quartet is a breath of fresh air. … A New Century
Christmas is unique. It presents amusing and ingenious
arrangements of Christmas tunes by a diversity of living composers, and
the results are fun and original. By refusing to be gulled by the
Christmas hype, the quartet has created something fresh and irreverent
— and it will probably still sound good long after the turkey has
become soup.”
—BBC Music
Magazine