Carol Of The Bells is a pretty common song, most people have heard it. There’s a cool history over at Wikipedia.
For the unintiated, George Winston is a wonderful pianist. He has a great improvisational style that’s really fun to listen to.
I particularly love his version of Carol Of The Bells for several reasons. The first is that it’s kind of haunting. My vision of the night Christ was born isn’t really all that happy, for all the joy that was there. It was a stressful scary time for his parents. This version has plenty of drama in it.
The second reason is that his improv of the bells is great. He spends a fair amount of time just making joy pour out of the piano. Also dramatic, but in a climactic glorious way, like all of heaven is proclaiming.
You can buy it on disc or in mp3 at Amazon.
