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| Holiday Music from PJ Parker PJ Parker's digital-only collection, It's Christmas, is once again available. Featuring a mix of traditional and contemporary Christmas songs such as “Silent Night," “Deck the Halls," “A Child is Born," and nine others, the collection also introduces PJ's own, “Not Beneath the Tree." “Not Beneath the Tree" was born in December 2002 on a hectic, pre- Christmas Saturday after a phone conversation between PJ and her parents concerning holiday shopping. PJ's father, Tom, was gravely ill, and his worry was that he would be unable to travel to gift his beloved wife with the typically lovely things he so delighted in presenting her, not even a card. Her mother, Gloria, married to the love of her life for over five decades, plainly and simply declared that all she would ever need was him, her sweet darling, in whose lap she was happily snuggled - the perspective immediately and indelibly righted. The debut of this recording marked the fifth anniversary of that bittersweet season. It's Christmas includes a bonus version of “Silent Night," previously recorded in Rosse's, an intimate venue nestled in New Jersey's Watchung Mountains. PJ's first recording of Mel Torme's “The Christmas Song," an a capella version at age three, was one of the first songs she was taught by her father, jazz pianist Tom Parker. Her grown-up version concludes the collection. PJ is creatively accompanied on “It's Christmas" by pianist Vinnie Ruggieri and bassist Earl Sauls. A native New Yorker, PJ Parker has been performing live since she was five years old. After graduating from New York University, PJ toured with various show bands up and down the East Coast, Midwest and the Bahamas. She has performed in concerts, dinner theater, summer stock and regional theater and musical reviews, and has also been the featured vocalist with orchestras and bands from Atlantic City to New York City. As a jazz vocalist, PJ has performed with such artists as Jerry Bruno, Roy Cumming, Steve Gilmore, Harry Leahy, Keith MacDonald, Gary Mazzaroppi, Geary Moore, Rich Reiter and Radam Schwartz. She has also been the featured vocalist for opening act bands for John Pizzarelli and Harry Connick Jr., and appeared in the annual Philadelphia Variety Club Telethon with Ben Vereen and Maureen McGovern. She was also the featured female vocalist in the big band show, “Your Seaside Ballroom," which received rave reviews at the Trump Plaza Theater in Atlantic City. PJ's has released two other physical CDs, Intimate in 2006 and her latest, Dreams Are Meant For Two, in 2008. write your comments about the article :: © 2008 Jazz News :: home page |