This means, for instance, that "Caroling, Caroling" doesn't begin with those familiar bouncing chords. Various verses of the same carol are performed in different keys (very jarring). Much of the time, the melody is accompanied by humming and ooohing.

The Jimmy Joyce Singers are nothing to write home about. They do a serviceable rendition, but without inspiration. Their leader takes the solo turn in 3 carols, and that's a poor decision -- he does not have a soloist's voice.

If you want a good performance of the (mostly) unadulterated Burt, I suggest you search for an old out-of-print LP done by a group called Singers Unlimited. (Update, 2002: that old LP has finally been remastered to CD.) About half of the Burt carols are there (along with some other jazzy carol renditions), and the Burt carols are done they way Burt wrote them. And performed with style and class.

But as for this CD -- don't bother, unless you absolutely have to have the Burt carols and just cannot find them anywhere else.


An Excellent Christmas CD   October 23, 2004
 11 out of 12 found this review helpful

This recording of the Carols of Alfred S. Burt is one of the few

ones that attempted to put the complete carols before the public

There was one with Fred Waring and the Pennsylvanians which is

available on CD just search for Fred Waring and look over the

page that comes up very carefully you will see an ad for it.

The other was made by the Warner Bros. label. As far as I can

tell it is not currently in print. This CD issue from Collegium

brings to CD one of the better acapella performances of these

modern carols I have yet to hear. Many reviewers have commented

that these performances lack spirit and heart, I must disagree

the Jimmy Joyce Singers deliver plenty of heartfelt and sincere

spirit. They do something special here, they just sing the carols

without any affectation or any other such devices. All you get in

this CD is wonderful performances of Alfred Burt's carols.

This is a Christmas CD Keeper.




A Tall Order, but a Good Effort   July 14, 2005
 7 out of 7 found this review helpful

(I own the original LP version of this album, so I am here commenting on the musical content only, not the quality of digital transfer, remastering or what-have-you.) Overall I was quite pleased with this album, my only previous exposure to Burt's carols being the selections performed by Fred Waring's Pennsylvanians. I will say that those remain my favorite performances of those particular tunes, as they are very simply interpreted and altered very little, if at all, from Burt's original scores, and that seems to yield the best results. However, I don't think the Joyce Singers' re-arrangements are inappropriate, as some other reviewers have expressed. In a few cases the arrangements get more elaborate than they maybe need to be, but I would not go as far as to say they are in bad taste. Burt's melodies are very strong --they do not suffer from the changes in the supporting parts, and if I am not mistaken, each cut on the album contains at least one verse of the composer's original part-writing. I have yet to hear an album of exclusively Burt carols that I've enjoyed more; very good overall. But, to my knowledge, nobody's recorded the perfect one yet.


Fred Waring This is NOT!   October 27, 1999
 5 out of 6 found this review helpful

While I am glad that this recording has been released, I'm sorry to say that Jimmy Joyce's group just doesn't do justice to these carols like Fred Waring and The Pennsylvanians did in their recordings. Maybe someday the record companies will "get a clue" and re-release Waring's versions of these absolutely phenomenal and all-too-little heard carols by Burt in a CD format. Until then, I'll just have to wear the grooves deeper into my album of Waring's versions....and make due with the Jimmy Joyce CD!!!