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Listened to on its own terms, Carl Vasta's It's Christmas is one of the most attractive and intriguing CDs you will hear this
year. On one level an old-fashioned children's record, Vasta's easy listening stylings can also be heard as
romantic pop crooning. As a recording for children, it is Disneyesque. Vasta's arrangements are eerily similar to
the Disney film scores of the 1950s and '60s, full of earnest sentiment and nostalgia. Vasta's voice effects that soft vibrato
we all remember from Pinnocchio's When You Wish Upon a Star. As an authentic reference to easy listening's
heyday, It's Christmas is an important contemporary recording.
But better than that It's Christmas is a lot of fun. The CD covers a few Christmas standards (and novel arrangements of these, to be sure), but the greater part of It's Christmas is Vasta's opus. Six songs are new! These include Christmas Is for Children, If the Little Baby Jesus Hadn't Been Born, It's Christmas, The Christmas Child, Invitation, and The Lord's Prayer. Of the six, my favorite is Christmas Is for Children, which begins the CD. Sung with moody poignancy using, apparently, an old analog microphone, the song achieves the beautiful, cavernous sound of mid-20th century recording, something I just haven't heard lately. But my other favorite is the title track, sung almost as a bubblegum pop song (or an homage to one). But homages these are not. Vasta is no poser and no imposter. His innate understanding of his genre and his inimitable style give his recordings an authentic quality that can't be duplicated. The tune is nicely constructed, interestingly arranged, lyrically strong, and features a twisting, turning melody with hooks galore. If you have a fondness for easy listening crooners, Carl Vasta's It's Christmas is for you. --Richard Banks |