JEFF BALL

Songs of Winter

Red Feather Music (2003)

no cover art available at this time

review by Bill Binkelman

On Songs of Winter, Jeff Ball, an accomplished artist on the American Indian flute, is joined by his brother Randy (electric and acoustic basses and dobro), Sennen Quigley (acoustic and electric guitars, assorted keyboards), and Ted Natale (drums and assorted percussion). Together, they serve up some interesting variations on traditional seasonal favorites as well as a few inspired and enjoyable originals. All the players do a fine job on their respective instruments, with Jeff (of course) leading the way, playing his various flutes with sincerity and a readily apparent depth of feeling. Some of the well-known songs are tuned-up in a more contemporary vein, such as the uptempo spin given to the opening "Greensleeves." The next cut, "Silent Night," while not played strictly "traditionally," still comes across soft as falling snow (the unique treatment of this song is the interjection of Randy's dobro playing alongside Jeff's flute, yielding a somewhat Appalachian feel to the carol).

Personally, while I had mixed reactions to the carols ("God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen" starts off fine but ends up being close to the bombast of a Mannheim Steamroller number, courtesy of cascading church organ runs and overdone trap set drums, almost rock-like in intensity), the originals are almost uniformly excellent. "Through the Eyes of Innocence" pits a somewhat melancholy but spirited piano against plaintive flute with bass and drum beating out a midtempo rhythm underneath it all. As you would infer from its title, "Winter Without You" is a bittersweet tune, again showcasing the lovely interweaving of piano and flute (this might be the standout track on this album in fact). I also like the quiet and moody "November," featuring acoustic guitar alongside Ball's flute.

Unfortunately, the album finishes weakly, with a poorly thought out version of "O Holy Night" (it suffers much the same fate as "God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen," as it moves from a more traditional mode into a rock-like ending, starting at about the two-minute mark). The final number is the tried-and-true "Auld Lang Syne" which gets a pleasant semi-jazzy treatment which is less jarring than that afforded the two aforementioned carols, although I wonder why you would work so hard to disguise such a well-known number. Still, I liked it, and since the song is automatically connected with the New Year, it seems fitting to end the album with it.

On balance, Songs of Winter is a fine (and in some cases, excellent) album, and, when I play it this holiday season, which I intend to do, I will just program my CD player to skip the tracks I'm not crazy about. These judgments of mine are based more on taste than on anything I found lacking in the music. Engineering and production are excellent on the disc and if you enjoy hearing old-fashioned carols updated, you'll probably like what Jeff Ball and company do with them. Even the best holiday music albums that I have heard always contain at least one or two songs I like less than others (e.g. "Jingle Bell Rock" or even "O Tannenbaum" which I've never warmed to). Is Songs of Winter perfect? No, but those original numbers more than make up for any shortcomings as far as I'm concerned.