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It is only fitting I open my "official" reviewing season with Don Latarski. This is Mr. Latarski's second seasonal CD. On his first submission to this site, I remember an email exchange where (not for the last time) I was bemoaning the fact that I had to listen to Christmas music in August under a blazing Texas sun; he wrote back something to the effect that his CD wouldn't sound like syrupy holiday fare, so it would be okay to listen to it in August. And he was right: it made the room seem about ten degrees cooler, and for a few minutes I think we got that hot breeze off the Rockies instead of that other hot breeze off the Gulf.

Well, anyway, his Guitars on Holiday is in the iPod, and Latarski again delivers the cool sound of the Northwest. Called a jazz guitarist in his official University of Oregon bio, any jazz riffing is entirely muted on this 13-song, mostly religious offering; either that, or jazz has finally fused with classical, because Latarski propagates a technique where he has ninthed or augmented all of his chords and has slowed and clipped the tempo to a point where the songs have a Celtic or chamber orchestral quality to them. The effect is a new age coffee shop or laid back ski lodge understatement to coopts rather than confronts.

In short, Guitars on Holiday is an understated beginning to a season that will most assuredly get syrupy sweet and sticky before Christmas Day dawns and I can get back to listening to the glorious girl pop and headbanger music I neglected as a younger man. Thanks, Don.

--Richard Banks
(Reviewed in 2005)

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From the liner notes:

All songs produced and arranged by Don Latarski.

(Most of the liner notes are just too cool to share with the entire Internet, but here are a couple of excerpts.):

This CD came about because my son and I like to play and sing holiday songs together. We've done a couple of performances of holiday songs and people always enjoy our efforts. . . . All of the acoustic guitars and the electric bass parts were performed by me with (my son) Spencer adding his voice and/or some guitar (steel string) parts to nine of the songs. . . . This is not a jazz recording even though I am often called a jazz guitarist. There is no real improvisation. I appreciate the beauty of a simple melody, and all of the songs I've chosen to arrange have beautiful melodies. The aesthetic I was after with these arrangements is similar to that found in the music of Aaron Copeland and the sound he was able to achieve in some of his "Americana" style works like Billy the Kid, and Appalachian Spring.

Don Latarski

Guitars on Holiday

Artist link

Track List