Carmen Cavallaro was a prolific recording artist, starting with his first album released in 1939 and his last in 1982.  Carmen Cavallaro released close to 70 albums in his lifetime.  Most were between 1940 and 1974.

Carmen Cavallaro was born in New York City in 1913.  He showed great promise as a musician at a very young age.  He played piano in a few touring Big Bands in the 1930’s before starting his own dance band in 1939.  He was very successful as a band owner and was the house band for hotels in New York and San Francisco.

He expanded his career by playing himself in a number of movies in the 1940s.

Later in life, he scaled things back and played primarily Easy Listening music.  His piano style entailed him playing the classics and standards with flourishes of scaling on the piano.  He allowed himself to be backed by light orchestras, but it was his piano playing that drove the songs.  Carmen Cavallaro died in 1989 while residing in Columbus, Ohio.  He was 75 years old.

There is not a lot of information for this CD included in the artwork.  As best as I can tell, this was recorded in 1976 for Hindsight Records, at least that’s what the CD information has.  Was it released in 1976?  I’m not sure.  It doesn’t show up in discographies during his lifetime and the first release date I can find for this is 2002.  Inside notes give thanks to his widow Donna Cavallaro for this release.

The cover of the CD features a Christmas tree made from lights and that image is superimposed over a close-up of a piano keyboard.  The CD title sits in the center off to the right.  The back of the CD features an image of the same Christmas tree presented on a black background.  A numerical track listing is off to the left and features writer credits for each song.  At the top right is a small picture of a smiling Carmen Cavallaro.

The front cover opens along a single fold-out.  On the left side is a Christmas wish from Carmen’s widow, Mrs. Donna Cavallaro.  (Donna Cavallaro passed away in 2011).  Below the Christmas wish is a note thanking Donna Cavallaro for all her help in making this CD possible.  On the right side of the opened cover is a black and white close-up of a Christmas ornament hanging on a Christmas tree.

The back of the front cover has a numerical track listing superimposed over a reverse image of the piano keyboard found on the front.  The only songwriter credits are found on the back of the CD.

The CD features 12 songs; three are traditional Christmas carols while the rest are secular Christmas songs from the 20^th century.  There is one original tune, Christmas Melody.

All songs except for Christmas Melody will be familiar to most listeners.  All songs are accompanied by a light orchestra.  Most start off quietly with a solo piano introduction while the orchestra slowly comes in, building as the song progresses.  All songs feature Carmen’s trademark cascading piano scaling.  His fingers move effortlessly up and down the keyboard and in part, give all the songs a festive tone.

The CD begins with White Christmas performed in a very simple pleasant manner.  It is a good first opener.

Jingle Bells plays in all the traditional manners until the second half when the beat changes into a Latin Cha Cha arrangement before reverting back to a more traditional finish.  I find it very pleasant, albeit different than most.

I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus employs an array of brass instruments and banjo to give this Christmas novelty tune a Dixieland jazz feel.

Here Comes Santa Claus features many style changes throughout the song and at times it sounds like twin pianos.  This is Carmen Cavallaro at his best.  It is one of the standout songs on here.

The orchestra really shines on Santa Claus Is Coming To Town.  It has a different feeling than what is heard in other arrangements of this song.  The only way I can describe it is because it reminds me of the orchestras of Walter Schumann or Hugo Winterhalter in the late 1950’s.  It is possibly the best song on the CD.

A medley of O Little Town Of Bethlehem / Joy To The World closes out the CD nicely.  O Little Town Of Bethlehem is solemn and accompanied by violins before the tempo changes briefly and Joy To The World begins accented with bells while the piano cascades up and down the keyboard hammering out the rhythm.  It is a great song to end the CD with.

If you are not familiar with Piano music, give this a listen and you’ll get a good exposure as to what it sounds like.  There are many artists out there that specialize in Piano music.  The difference here is that Carmen Cavallaro mixes different rhythms and instrumentation all during the same song.  Also, he uses the orchestra to his advantage to give the songs more depth.

When it comes to piano music, after a while, all the songs tend to sound the same, and all the artists start to sound alike.  Not really, if you listen to them individually, but it is one musician and a light orchestra.  It is the basis for many piano soloists.  Technically, this is NOT Piano Solo as I have cataloged.  The orchestra playing behind Carmen Cavallaro negates the Solo part, but upon general listening, the piano is the dominate instrument.  And it’s more Piano Solo than Easy Listening which can feature full orchestras.  I really didn’t know how to catalog the genre, so I left it as Piano Solo.  It is the only Piano Solo Christmas CD in my collection that isn’t Piano Solo.  The others, Dave Brubeck, Emile Pandolfi, George Winston, Jeff Greene and Rio Clemente are truly Piano Solo, featuring only a piano.  But this Carmen Cavallaro Christmas CD sounds more like those than any of the Easy Listening CDs.

All the songs on this Christmas CD are pleasant to listen to.  It would be hard to pick out the best because they are all good in their own right.  Each has a special quality in the arrangement to make it stand out from the others.

If you are the type who enjoys piano music, I can highly recommend this CD for your Christmas collection.  Otherwise, if you find this in your own Christmas collection due to a gift or a yard sale purchase, it will mix in nicely with your other traditional Christmas songs.  Some people can listen to this all day.  For some people, this is all they listen to.  My mother is one.  But for me, less is more when it comes to Piano Christmas music.  As a collector, I have many Christmas CDs by Solo Piano artists.  I enjoy it to a certain degree as long as it plays mixed in with other Christmas songs from the Classic Christmas Era.

I give this CD :

***1/2*