Beegie Adair - Winter Romance [Cream]

Beegie Adair's Winter Romance pairs a gifted jazz pianist with a full orchestra for a Christmas record made for low lamps and falling snow, pressed here on cream vinyl.

Adair spent more than six decades at the keyboard after settling in Nashville in 1961, backing everyone from Peggy Lee to Dolly Parton before her own trio sold well over a million albums of graceful, swinging standards. Winter Romance first appeared in 2009 and remains one of the warmest entries in her catalogue.

Jeffrey Steinberg's orchestrations give the record its glow, wrapping Adair's light, nimble touch in soft strings and woodwinds without ever smothering it. "Winter Wonderland" glides along with an easy lilt, while "Sleigh Ride" trades the usual clatter for something sly and elegant. "Santa Baby" gets a knowing, after-hours wink, and the title track "A Winter Romance" lets her melodic instincts unfold in slow, lovely phrases that land like snowflakes on a windowpane.

Nothing here shouts for attention. These are arrangements for long dinners, wrapping paper scattered across the floor and the last glass of something warm before midnight, and closing the set with "Auld Lang Syne" feels exactly right.

The cream pressing suits the mood perfectly, as soft and quietly classy as Adair's playing.