It’s been six years since pianist Jim Brickman released his
\nfirst Christmas album
\nThe Gift<\/i> – not a surprising thing, since he probably knew it
\nwas going to take a Herculean effort to top one of his best albums
\never.<\/p>\n
With
\nPeace<\/i>, he does just that. In the time between the two
\nalbums, Brickman has cemented his reputation in the music world and
\nfinely honed his skills on the keys. He’s also become recognized
\nboth as a songwriter and as a performer, with several of his songs
\nbecoming adult contemporary hits. Add these improvements together
\nwith the magical feeling he brings to the holidays, and
\nPeace<\/i> turns out to be an excellent album – quite possibly
\nBrickman’s best effort yet.<\/p>\n
\nPeace<\/i> is a culmination of the work that Brickman has been
\ndoing to further his career. While there are more than ample
\nshowcases for just solo piano (“We Three Kings” – with a nice spash
\nof “Carol Of The Bells” added in, “Early Snowfall”), Brickman all
\nbut shatters the New Age label that was thrust upon his music. On
\none side, there’s the smokey jazz-club feel of “Let It Snow,” with
\nvocals courtesy of the Blind Boys of Alabama – and, frankly, it’s a
\ncollaboration that is intensely powerful. On the other side,
\nthere’s the ethereal “Rejoice (O Come, Emmanuel),” which would not
\nsound out of place in a church setting. In between, there’s the
\nfamily-friendly adult-contemporary style which has made Brickman
\nfamous, from the powerful “Do You Hear What I Hear” (which
\nshowcases violinist Tracy Silverman a little more than vocalist
\nAnne Cochran – and I don’t mean that as a slight in any manner) to
\nthe proper-for-the-moment “Sending You A Little Christmas,”
\nfeaturing Christian artist Kristy Starling on vocals. (With the
\nworld situation right now, this song is sure to bring tears to more
\nthan a few eyes – even though, when we spoke, Brickman told me that
\nwasn’t the focus when the song was written.)<\/p>\n
It almost seems a little anti-climactic that
\nPeace<\/i> doesn’t end with “Sending You A Little Christmas” –
\nand that’s not meant to slight the instrumental “Blessings” or the
\ntitle track (which reunites Brickman with country singer Collin
\nRaye, who sang on “The Gift”). In fact, both numbers are just as
\npowerful as any other on this disc – but somehow, it seems like the
\ncase is overstated by tacking these on at the end. Still, it’s an
\nextremely minor quibble.<\/p>\n
So what does
\nPeace<\/i> mean for Brickman? Besides furthering to solidify his
\nreputation as one of the nation’s leading performers and helping to
\nestablish him as an Artist – not merely as a New Age artist – this
\ndisc symbolizes something which is rare in this day and age.
\nBrickman has created a holiday disc which could well become a
\nstandard for the season, much like Johnny Mathis and the Harry
\nSimeone Chorale managed to do.
\nPeace<\/i> is the kind of disc that you’ll pull out year after
\nyear – that is, assuming you can stop listening to it as you’re
\npacking up the tree in January. (Yes, kids, this one is good enough
\nto listen to throughout the year without feeling out of place.)<\/p>\n
Brickman knew he had work to do in order to top
\nThe Gift<\/i>.
\nPeace<\/i> proves that he did his homework, and the results are
\nours to enjoy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":26555,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"artist":[6407],"rating":[5646],"class_list":["post-37795","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-jim-brickman","rating-rating-a"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/37795","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37795"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/37795\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26555"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37795"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37795"},{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=37795"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=37795"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}