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Welch releases Christmas CD

Helen Welch has been doing Christmas concerts since she moved to the United States from England a dozen years ago, but it’s taken until now for her to release her first Christmas album.

The new CD, “Home for Christmas,” will provide part of the setlist when Welch returns to Packard Music Hall for “Jingle Bell Swing” with the Big Band Sound of Packard.

“People have been asking when I was going to do a Christmas album since I started producing Christmas shows when I arrived in the states,” she said. “I didn’t want to record the same old songs that end up on most people’s Christmas albums.

“Every year I found these little gems and put them in my future Christmas album box. When I went into the studio to record my new album, ‘Spellbound,’ I thought I may as well do the holiday CD since I have my gems.”

One way Welch avoided the traditional Christmas canon was by drawing inspiration from songs that normally aren’t associated with the holidays. Welch said while preparing a show on the music of The Beatles, she started weaving bits of “The Christmas Song” (“Chestnuts roasting on an open fire…”) around John Lennon’s “In My Life.”

“I did it at the Packard concert hall two years ago, and so many people said they really loved that version of ‘In My Life,'” she said.

That’s one of the songs she’ll be doing Friday with the band along with the title track, which Welch co-wrote.

“It’s been sitting in drawer for 15 years unfinished,” she said. “Suddenly, I was grabbed by the songwriting bug and I finished it.”

Dave Morgan, an associate professor of jazz studies and composition at Dana School of Music, co-wrote the song.

“He was a big part of the album in that he was my extra pair of ears for mixing, and he also arranged the song for big band.”

Copies of “Spellbound” and “Home for Christmas” will be for sale at Friday’s  concert, and Welch will mix a few new songs among the big band arrangements of holiday favorites that have been a staple of past “Jingle Bell Swing” concerts with the Big Band Sound of Packard.

“It’s my favorite Christmas show of the year,” Welch said. “The Big Band Sound of Packard is such a powerhouse of a big band, and there’s this amazing atmosphere because everyone likes each other, which makes a huge difference. They’re very well rehearsed and organized by Dan Carioti, the band leader, and it just makes for a recipe for success.”

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