by Gary Powell
Jazz pianist and long-time friend Jeff Hellmer came to the studio in 2008 with the purpose of creating a solo piano recording of seldom-heard Christmas songs. Jeff was graciously helping me build a catalog of holiday music for Miramuse, which at the time was a business-to-business solution for helping companies learn how to best utilize music to enhance their brand or deepen their relationships with customers and even employees.
I had researched ancient hymns and carols in the mid-1980’s for Ensemble 109 at the University of Texas and had written several vocal arrangements for several of these beautiful pieces of music; most of them lost to antiquity. Jeff freely improvised from these original hymn arrangements delivering a freshly re-harmonized interpretation of these ancient carols. Jeff also added a classic in “Oh Christmas Tree” and and one of my own tunes which I wrote as he waited, “Enchanted Star.”
The gift Jeff Hellmer brings to us is a relationship to music that belies that relationship’s underlying complexity while deepening our own. Jeff’s musicianship invites us to engage his music in an atmosphere free of self-agrandizement. What’s that sound like? The sound is alive, safe and disarmingly intelligent! – Gary Powell
Now this recording is available for download from iTunes, Amazon and Rhapsody for the rest of the world to hear. Thank you Jeff for making my Yamaha C7 sound better that I could ever do myself. Also, thank you to master piano technician, Brian Henselman, for keeping this piano in top shape.
“Jeff Hellmer, Christmas Jazz” – Now Available for Worldwide Download from These Stores:
by Gary Powell
Jazz pianist and long-time friend Jeff Hellmer came to the studio in 2008 with the purpose of creating a solo piano recording of seldom-heard Christmas songs. Jeff was graciously helping me build a catalog of holiday music for Miramuse, which at the time was a business-to-business solution for helping companies learn how to best utilize music to enhance their brand or deepen their relationships with customers and even employees.
I had researched ancient hymns and carols in the mid-1980’s for Ensemble 109 at the University of Texas and had written several vocal arrangements for several of these beautiful pieces of music; most of them lost to antiquity. Jeff freely improvised from these original hymn arrangements delivering a freshly re-harmonized interpretation of these ancient carols. Jeff also added a classic in “Oh Christmas Tree” and and one of my own tunes which I wrote as he waited, “Enchanted Star.”
The gift Jeff Hellmer brings to us is a relationship to music that belies that relationship’s underlying complexity while deepening our own. Jeff’s musicianship invites us to engage his music in an atmosphere free of self-agrandizement. What’s that sound like? The sound is alive, safe and disarmingly intelligent! – Gary Powell
Now this recording is available for download from iTunes, Amazon and Rhapsody for the rest of the world to hear. Thank you Jeff for making my Yamaha C7 sound better that I could ever do myself. Also, thank you to master piano technician, Brian Henselman, for keeping this piano in top shape.
“Jeff Hellmer, Christmas Jazz” – Now Available for Worldwide Download from These Stores:
My lifelong friend and movie producer, Cynthia Coury of Poppy Productions, offered me the opportunity to write a song for her movie, 