Lyn Stanley – Novel Noel – A Jingle Cool

Lyn Stanley – Novel Noel – A Jingle Cool Jazz Celebration

45RPM 180g 2LP (Autographed)

Numbered, Limited Edition First Pressing – Only 1000 Copies

Extremely Limited, Personally Signed by Lyn Stanley Herself

Winner of Five Global Music Awards Medals!

Includes Full Colour Keepsake Poster + 20-Page Full Colour Booklet with Original Art for Each Song & Liner Notes!

Capping an extraordinarily prolific decade of sonically innovative releases featuring ensembles of L.A.’s top-tier musicians and recording engineers.

K-JAZZ (KKJZ 88.1 FM)’s 2018 Female Vocalist of the year Lyn Stanley releases her 2022 wildly ambitious, stylistically eclectic “really big band” holiday album Novel Noel.

A Jingle Cool Jazz Celebration with two enticing lead singles that collectively capture the joyful whimsy and lush, soulful romance at the heart of the 13-track recording – a sly, spirited romp through “Zat You Santa Claus?” (which starts with her hilarious, dead-on impression of Louis Armstrong) and a dreamily sensual contemporary twists on the iconic Jule Styne/Sammy Cahn classic

“It’s Magic”, originally popularised in the late ’40s by Doris Day.

To make Novel Noel a special holiday release, Lyn commissioned original illustrations for each song.

“I was driven to record this by my fans, who had been asking me, ‘Where’s your holiday album?'” says Lyn, who released her eighth album in 2020-2021, the critically acclaimed Live at Studio A, recorded at the famed Capitol Recording Studios, in June 2020.

“Originally, I thought about doing a winter solstice themed collection, and my vision was to try to cover all holidays, not just Christmas, celebrated by a variety of religions and traditions that time of year.

I wanted to create a perennial recording that my fans around the world could enjoy.

Over time, however, the project evolved to secular and Santa songs plus a handful of non-holiday classics that to me also capture the range of emotions people feel around the holidays.”

“Among the festive aspects,” she adds, “the season can also leave people feeling lonely if they’ve lost someone or are not with family and friends.

This was especially true last Christmas, during the pandemic.

On the celebratory side, I chose ‘Come Dance with Me’ not only as an ode to my other life as a former amateur champion ballroom dancer, but because when I was younger, I loved to go dancing on New Year’s Eve.

I added a poignant introduction to Cole Porter’s ‘I Concentrate On You’ to convey the need to think of something joyful to combat loneliness and enjoyed performing ‘The Way You Look Tonight’ from the female perspective, complete with a playful Santa reference towards the end. I added ‘Moonlight in Vermont’ as a special nod to an audiophile fan who lives there.”

True to its title, Novel Noel – A Jingle Cool Jazz Celebration includes unique, must-hear anew arrangements of classics we’ve known and loved for years, from “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas” and “Christmas Waltz” (done in a faster paced Viennese Waltz style) to “Little Drummer Boy – Jazz Version” (which features the spirited piano/bass 5/4 tempo vamp a la “Take 5” throughout, plus a powerful 32-bar jazz drum solo by Bernie Dresel), an amped up twist on the post WWII classic “Boogie Woogie Santa Claus”, a lively Latin swing through “Merry Christmas Darling” and a gracefully rendered “Mary Did You Know”.

The collection also includes a beautiful, spiritually themed original ballad by Lyn titled “Holy Night”.

Marking Lyn’s first time producing a big band project (she’s produced seven of her last albums with fewer players), Novel Noel was recorded at two legendary facilities, The Village in Santa Monica, CA and Ocean Way in Nashville (with additional vocal production at LAfx in Burbank, CA), mixed at The Village and Skywalker Ranch and mastered by another iconic industry force, Bernie Grundman Mastering.

The album is an expansive sonic masterwork featuring the contributions of five credited arrangers (including Lyn herself), a 13-piece horn section, four total conductors and strings by Budapest Scoring, Inc. in Hungary.

The rhythm section includes guitarist and leader John Chiodini, upright bassist Chuck Berghofer and percussionist Luis Conte, all members of Lyn’s longtime core band, affectionately dubbed “The Jazz Mavericks”, now re-dubbed “Big Band Jazz Mavericks”; pianists Bill Cunliffe, Christian Jacob and Pat Coil; drummer Bernie Dresel; and drummer and percussionist Aaron Serfaty. Rickey Woodward is the featured saxophonist.

Novel Noel was recorded by a team of several of the industry’s most renowned engineers, including five time Grammy winner Allen Sides (Natalie Cole, Joni Mitchell, Eric Clapton, Ray Charles), two time Grammy winner and Emmy winner Bill Schnee (Steely Dan, Rod Stewart, Barry Manilow), five time Grammy winner Leslie Ann Jones (Miles Davis, Quincy Jones, Herbie Hancock), and Spencer Guerra. In mastering the two 45rpm LPs, Bernie Grundman used the final stereo mixes that were recorded straight onto tape from the custom-made Neve analogue board at Skywalker Sound.

In Lyn’s colorful liner notes, describing the extraordinary journey of creating and developing Novel Noel, she writes, “It survived one of the most horrific events of our lifetime, mainly a worldwide pandemic that sidetracked the train of life for most of us.”

In addition to the opportunity to, as she says, “center our efforts in love and new beginnings,” an impactful silver lining musicians being sidelined from the road during the year of quarantine was their availability to have what Allen Sides calls “every amazing player in L.A.” available for the sessions at The Village.

Sides, who has helmed scores of logistically complex big band sessions throughout his career, comments on the sonic challenges necessitated by COVID-19 protocols at The Village, where most of the album was tracked:

“Having musicians separated from one another could be difficult because recording the elements of a horn section in four individual parts sounds nothing like having all of them in the same room at the same time.

The same is true with trombone and woodwinds. So, what we did was put the four trumpeters spaced apart from one another, on one riser, and the four trombonists on a riser below them. We used three isolated studios simultaneously, putting drummer Bernie Dresel in one, bassist Chuck Berghofer, saxophonist Rickey Woodard and Lyn in another, and the horns in the third, known as the Moroccan Room.”

“This record is a true audiophile project,” Sides adds, “with a very high sampling rate for digital and quality reel tape for analogue, it sounds like it was done 35 years ago when budgets were at a premium for these kinds of sessions.

Most of the mics we used were vintage tube condenser mics from the ’50s and ’60s. I can’t say enough about the musicians on the project.

Chuck is to me the greatest bassist in the world, the trumpet players were beyond imagination, and everyone on the sessions had such great fun getting out and participating on what I believe is one of the greatest big band records I’ve ever heard.

I have a fondness for the genre, and it was truly a privilege to work with Lyn and these musicians to bring her vision to life.”

Lyn says she and her large team of musicians and engineers worked joyfully together to make Novel Noel – A Jingle Cool Jazz Celebration a dynamic new addition to the classical big band catalog tradition.

“I truly hope it will touch people’s hearts, religious or not, for their holiday seasons and beyond,” she adds.

“I think it’s a classy, sophisticated, unique, and fun album. I hope it’s added to purchasers’ favorite music shelf.”

The 2022 Global Music Awards announced in July 2022 that Novel Noel had received five medals – three GOLD Medals (Female Vocalist, Producer and Album) and two SILVER Medals for Lyn’s original song, “Holy Night” (Female Vocalist, Holiday Music).

Recorded at The Village in Los Angeles and Ocean Way Nashville; Additional Vocal Production at LAFX

Lyn Stanley’s Vocals Recorded on a Neumann U47 Microphone

Mixed at Skywalker Sound

Engineering Team: Leslie Ann Jones, Bill Schnee, Allen Sides, Spencer Guerra, Bernie Grundman

Mastered at Bernie Grundman Mastering from the Final Stereo Mixes That Were Recorded

Straight onto Tape from the Custom-Made Neve Analog Board at Skywalker Sound

Winner of Five 2022 Global Music Awards

Full Color Premium Weight Board Gatefold Jacket with Gold Foil Accents

11″ x 11″ One Page Full Colour Keepsake Poster

20-Page 11″ x 11″ Full Colour Booklet with Original Art for Each Song & Liner Notes by Lyn Stanley

Tracklist: Lyn Stanley – Novel Noel – A Jingle Cool Jazz Celebration

Side A:
Zat You Santa Claus
Come Dance With Me
It’s Magic

Side B:
Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas
Little Drummer Boy
I Concentrate On You

Side C:
Boogie Woogie Santa Claus
Merry Christmas Darling
Christmas Waltz

Side D:
The Way You Look Tonight
Moonlight In Vermont
Holy Night
Mary Did You Know? (Bonus Track)

Hybrid SACD also available

Audiophile Hybrid Multi-Channel & Stereo SACD

Immersive 5.1 Surround Sound + 44.1/16bit, 192/34bit/Single 126 DSD

Winner of Five Global Music Awards Medals

This Hybrid SACD contains a ‘Red Book’ Stereo CD Layer which is playable on most conventional CD Players

Immersive 5.1 Surround Sound

44.1/16bit, 192/34bit/Single 126 DSD

Recorded at The Village in Los Angeles and Ocean Way Nashville

Additional Vocal Production at LAFX

Lyn Stanley’s Vocals Recorded on a Neumann U47 Microphone

Mixed at Skywalker Sound

Engineering Team: Leslie Ann Jones, Bill Schnee, Allen Sides, Spencer Guerra, Bernie Grundman

SACD Authored by Gus Skinas

DSD Files by Engineer Andreas Koch of Playback Designs & Dann Thompson

Winner of Five 2022 Global Music Awards

Track List

Zat You Santa Claus?
Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas
Come Dance with Me
Little Drummer Boy – Jazz Version
It’s Magic
The Way You Look Tonight
I Concentrate On You
Christmas Waltz
Boogie Woogie Santa Claus
Moonlight In Vermont
Merry Christmas, Darling
Holy Night (Bonus Track)
Mary Did You Know? (Bonus Track)