Search - Peggy Duquesnel :: All I Ask for Christmas

PEGGY DUQUESNEL All I Ask for Christmas is a double album with 21 tracks separated into an instrumental disc and a vocal disc. The project features several popular Christmas standards along with four of Peggy's original Christmas songs. It highlights her fluid piano improvisations and inviting vocals with a trio that includes Brian Bromberg on bass and Joe La Barbera on drums. Extra finesse and colors are added by Brian Kilgore on percus-W. Rick Braun on flugelhorn and Jay Leach on guitar. Vocalist Bill Cantos is featured on three duets with Peggy, including the title cut, as well as introducing vocalist Emma Werderman, who joins Peggy on Mary Did You Know for another moving duet. Duquesnel's jazzy / pop arrangements and songwriting capture her eclectic jazz background and warm personality. Press Release: Some prefer swinging to straight-ahead jazz instrumentals while others prefer contemporary vocal numbers. Multidimensional pianist and vocalist Peggy Duquesnel s All I Ask for Christmas is certain to satisfy everyone with her generous 21-song collection that will be released November 5th by Joyspring Music. Duquesnel produced the two-CD set - one acoustic jazz instrumental disc and one vocal disc - offering fresh arrangements of seasonal standards along with four new songs that she composed and recorded as both instrumental and vocal selections. Multidimensional pianist and vocalist Peggy Duquesnel s All I Ask for Christmas is certain to satisfy everyone with her generous 21-song collection that will be released November 5th by Joyspring Music. Duquesnel produced the two-CD set - one acoustic jazz instrumental disc and one vocal disc - offering fresh arrangements of seasonal standards along with four new songs that she composed and recorded as both instrumental and vocal selections. The entire album will be serviced to jazz radio stations while smooth jazz outlets will be gifted with the single, Hark the Herald Angels Sing, featuring genre star Rick Braun s regal flugelhorn. The instrumental portion of All I Ask for Christmas is a return to the classically-trained pianist s roots in straight-ahead jazz presented with elements of adult pop, contemporary jazz and inspirational material on this, her seventh full-length outing. Backed by a crackling quartet Grammy-nominated bassist Brian Bromberg on upright, drummer Joe La Barbera, percussionist Brian Kilgore and guitarist Jay Leach, Duquesnel s arrangements are influenced by storied artists from yesteryear (George & Ira Gershwin, Horace Silver, Nat King Cole, Frank Sinatra) along with a dose of contemporary acoustic jazz (Dave Grusin, Bob James, Miles Davis). On the vocal disc, Duquesnel sings and scats three duets with debonair vocalist Bill Cantos: the bebop title track penned by Duquesnel; the aptly titled Breath of Heaven (Mary s Song), which was written and recorded by Amy Grant; and another new Duquesnel gem, Under the Christmas Tree, a romantic country gospel waltz adorned with Leach s pedal steel guitar. Talented newcomer Emma Werderman impresses with a vocal full of moxie during a duet with her mentor (Duquesnel) on the stunning Mary Did You Know further illumined by Duquesnel s piano eloquence. Duquesnel s glowing jazzer Light of Christmas and the waltz-like Christmas is Here are new songs written with warmth, familiarity and timeless qualities that have the potential to become enduring evergreens. The album concept is to take familiar Christmas songs and put them with unique arrangements that have a jazz influence, but that are all accessible to a broad audience.