Vocalist PJ Parker brings her unique interpretation and style to Christmas standards and classics, and debuts her own, "Not Beneath the Tree."

13 MP3 Songs
JAZZ: Jazz Vocals, JAZZ: Mainstream Jazz

Show all album songs: It's Christmas Songs


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PJ Parker's new digital collection, "It's Christmas," debuts a mix of traditional and contemporary Christmas songs such as "Silent Night," "Deck the Halls," "A Child is Born," and nine others, and includes her own, "Not Beneath the Tree."

PJ's first recording of Mel Torme's "The Christmas Song" was an a capella version at age three, one of the first songs she was taught by her father, jazz pianist Tom Parker. Her grown-up version concludes the collection.

"Not Beneath the Tree" was born in December 2002 on a hectic, pre-Chrsitmas 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 thing she 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. This debut recording marks the fifth anniversary of that bittersweet season.

"It's Christmas" also includes two versions of "Silent Night," one recorded for this collection, and one recorded in Rosse's, an intimate restaurant nestled in New Jersey's Watchung Mountains.

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, âYour Seaside Ballroom,â which received rave reviews at the Trump Plaza Theater in Atlantic City.

PJ counts as her influences Frank Sinatra, the Hi-Loâs, Sarah Vaughan, Carmen McRae and Tony Bennett.

PJ's first live CD, âIntimate,â included selections from the Great American Songbook rendered in PJ's unique style. Radio stations airing âIntimateâ included WGBH in Boston, Mass.; KSDS in San Diego, Ca.; KMHD in Portland, Ore.; WPFW in Washington, D.C., and WPRB in Princeton, NJ.

Reviewers across the country and in Europe embraced "Intimate" and PJ. Andrea Canter of Jazz Police said PJ "rises above the sea of promising vocalists as a true jazz singer who warrants serious attention ... PJ makes every note and phrase a personal experiment." Scott Yanow of LA Jazz Scene said PJ "has a sweet and very musical voice and her singing is full of honest emotions and subtle improvising." And writing in Paris, France's Jazz Hot, Michel Bedin said "Intimate" is "a beautiful example of real jazz in the United States, the popular jazz that has never been avoided by the people who know the music." Jazz Hot also named "Intimate" a "Discovery" for March, 2007.