cooltunes

I bet you didn’t know he could sing so well. Something to listen to while you’re waiting for the office party to start.

‘Tis the season, even if you aren’t a religious person. I’ll be sharing from my collection of Christmas music, which has more than a few Hallelejahs, Exultates and Glorias. Even if I’m not a particularly religious person. This version of For Unto Us a Child is Given is not my favorite, but is the only one I can find that you can hear instantly.

Feel free to jump in at any time. There’s a reason Sing-Along Messiahs are so popular.

Last year about this time, I was looking over the 2006 holiday releases. The only one I liked was Joy - A Holiday Collection by Jewel.

Then my mother became very ill, and was hospitalized through Christmas. She died a few days after. As part of her funeral service music, I chose two songs from the album, Gloria and Ave Maria. Jewel’s mother, Nedra Carroll, duets with her on two songs in the CD. I’m not sure who sings with her on Gloria, since other women are credited as backup vocalists.

Since then, even through the summer, I have played Gloria and Ave Maria. Gradually, I could listen without thinking of the funeral, but always, I will think of my mother when I hear them.

For the past two hours, they’ve been going at it. Either the wind is blowing the sound my way or the guys are on the next street over. Must be practicing for the Festival of Lights parade.

Many singers have covered the song, which is featured on Herbie Hancock’s latest album, ‘River: The Joni Letters’

So far, I only have the Linda Ronstadt version, which is on the morning playlist. It’s a working Saturday, and not too early for Christmas-related music.

As we shop for the turkey, pick through Clementines, look at shelled nuts, the familiar tunes are coming out of speakers everywhere. I’m not ready. Few of us are, as we contemplate the big dinner ahead, is there enough of this, is there room for that, are we brining or not.

Maybe it’s because there are so few Thanksgiving-type songs.

My mother is in her 90s, and has seen her share of ICUs and CCUs. A living example of the saying, ‘what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger”, she emerges from her hospital visits all ready to tackle life again. In ‘98, she had a massive cerebral aneurysm, 5% survival chance. There was an operation, the brain surgeon said, but he admitted that if it were his mom, and she was that old, he would think twice. If she didn’t have the surgery, another aneurysm would be inevitable, and most certainly would be fatal. We didn’t choose surgery, and she got better.

Last night, that inevitability occurred. But, unlike the first, the bleeding was minimal. However, by the time my mom got to emergency, she was declared ‘comatose’ by two doctors.

In some part of her assaulted brain, she must have heard them , and thought to herself, ‘comatose, my ass’.

This afternoon, they removed her oxygen. All her vital signs are very strong (so different from last year, but that’s another story), and when the nurse checked her eyes, she asked, ‘Has your mom had eye surgery before? I see a kind of light in them that makes me suspect so.”

No, I said, but she frequently has a twinkle.

Tonight, as I was getting ready to leave, a guitarist set up right outside her room, and began softly playing ‘Gloria’.

Yes. Yes, indeed.

From a list by Geoffrey Norris, the Daily Telegraph’s music critic.

A few more things to wrap, and lots of candy to make (pralines, fudge, peanut brittle, rocky road). Not having to run out to get anything, although that may change as I get into the recipes.

The music slows down as well, and Chanticleer’s “Our Heart’s Joy” is perfect for that.

Are you done? Hallelujah, I am.

The Wexford Carol - Loreena McKennitt
Gloria - Jewel
For Unto Us a Child is Born - London Philharmonic
O Come, O Come Emmanuel - Linda Ronstadt
Air for G String - The Modern Jazz Quartet
Ave Maria - Jewel

There’s more, but there are presents to wrap. More later.

The enchanting song I wrote about a few days ago had its origins on a Cornwall Beach, where Blake had gone to purge himself of personal demons. He discusses how the first six notes of the song popped into his head, and the home those notes found when he met “The Snowman”.

Sadly, it doesn’t snow here in Silicon Valley. But I’ve lived where it does, and this song helps me remember what it’s like.

An early present! I’ve wanted this soundtrack for a long time, but don’t think of it till the holidays. The story is included with the CD, and is as magical as when I first read it to my kids all those years ago.

The song, “Walking on the Air”, sung by Peter Auty, a choirboy from St. Paul’s Cathedral, is the kind that stops you in your tracks if you’ve not heard it before. And if you have, its purity will touch your heart.

Yesterday in the Safeway cereal aisle, a woman was busy looking at the products while her two kids, a boy and a girl, were singing the song. They were about 4 and 5 maybe. Not loud, completely unaware that anyone else was paying attention. Obviously they didn’t know all the lyrics, and their voices were wavering, but even after they went over to the next aisle, I could still hear them.