Award-Winning Broadcaster and New York Times Best Selling Author, Raymond Arroyo brings his New Orleans jazz roots and well-honed dramatic talents to a toe-tapping, heartwarming, all new classic Christmas album, Christmas Merry & Bright.
Each Christmas, throughout his broadcast career, Arroyo has sung with legendary singers of the season. A response to longtime fan requests, Christmas Merry & Bright charms listeners with Arroyo’s renaissance sensibilities. Warm vocals and a touch of humor refresh and cast new light on a collection of Christmas standards we’ve all taken for granted.
Backed by the jazz supergroup, The NOLA Players, Christmas Merry & Bright showcases Kevin Kaska’s (The Greatest Showman, Jungle Book) beautiful, Big Band new arrangements of the timeless “I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day”, a hard driving, “Joy to the World”, and a never-before heard orchestration of “The First Noel/ We Magi of Orient Are”. The album also captures unexplored emotions of the season with an all-new rendition of the beloved, “Feliz Navidad”– complete with a moving duet with Grammy Winner, José Feliciano. Soon to be a Christmas favorite, ChristmasMerry & Bright will forever change the way you experience these cherished songs. Raymond Arroyo’s dynamic interpretations imbue the joyous rhythms of this repertoire while tugging at the heartstrings. Like a hot cocoa (with a toddy chaser) on a cold Winter night, this album is sure to warm your home and holiday traditions this Christmas.
Release Date: September 2023
Tracklist
Deck the Halls
Jingle Bells
The First Noel / We Magi of Orient Are
I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day
Hark the Herald Angels Sing
Go Tell It On the Mountain
Christmastime is Here
Joy to the World
Christmas Mem’ries
Feliz Navidad (featuring Jose Feliciano)
Silent Night
(Introduction to) We Wish You A Merry Christmas
We Wish You a Merry Christmas
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About the Artists
Raymond Arroyo is a New York Times bestselling-author, an international broadcaster and a contributor for CNN and Fox News who has worked for the Associated Press. Mr. Arroyo has been a contributor and/or made frequent appearances on: The Today Show, Fox News, Good Morning America, CNN Headline News, Access Hollywood, Erin Burnett Outfront, The Ingraham Angle and many more. He also enjoys a vast audience through his decades-long series of highly rated shows on EWTN (commonly known as "the world's largest Faith media network"). His work has appeared in the Wall Street Journal, The Financial Times, Newsweek, Time Magazine, The New Yorker, and elsewhere.
A graduate of New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts and the esteemed New Orleans Center for Creative Arts (NOCCA), Raymond has performed and directed in New York and London. He has produced Billboard topping musical projects including The Birth of Christ with Liam Neeson (Sony Classics) and Christmastime in New Orleans (Verve/Universal). His string of New York Times Bestselling books, Will Wilder series (Random House), The Spider Who Saved Christmas (Sophia) and Turnabout Tales (Harper Collins) have become household favorites for his devoted global audiences. Arroyo also hosted the Telly Award-winning special for Public Broadcast (PBS) called Christmastime in New Orleans. A native New Orleanian, Mr. Arroyo is passionate about sharing the unique culture of his beloved Crescent City and the great state of Louisiana.
Arroyo is also well-known for his captivating interviews. Highlights include: Mother Teresa of Calcutta, Placido Domingo, Martin Sheen, Mary Higgins Clark, Mel Gibson, Tim Conway, Mark Burnett, and a groundbreaking interview with comic legend, Jerry Lewis, to name just a few. Each Christmas, throughout his broadcast career, Arroyo has sung with legendary singers of the season.
To date, Arroyo has entertained an estimated 400 million global households.
This Christmas, the award-winning, best-selling talent continues to bring his New Orleans roots to a toe- tapping, heartwarming, all new classic Big Band Jazz Christmas album called Christmas Merry & Bright.
