EWTN anchor Raymond Arroyo released his jazz Christmas album, “Christmas Merry & Bright,” in late September.
The album recently hit #1 on the Amazon Vocal Jazz charts. It also sits in top spots on the Billboard and Barnes & Noble charts.
Arroyo hosts EWTN’s “The World Over,” is a Fox News contributor, and makes appearances on shows such as Good Morning America and The Today Show. He is also a former CNN contributor and a New York Times best-selling author.
The jazz Christmas album features Arroyo’s leading voice backed by The NOLA Players, a big band jazz orchestra from New Orleans, Louisiana. Composer Kevin Kaska, who worked on orchestrations for “The Greatest Showman” and “The Jungle Book,” arranged many of the album’s songs.
In this video, Arroyo describes Christmas music as his favorite and says he listens to it year-round.
“My audience mostly knows me from television and my books. What they probably don’t know is that in my early life, I was trained as an actor, I did a lot of musicals, and I sang,” he explains.
“I went through each of these tunes. Where did they come from? What do they mean? And I have to tell you, I was stunned by some of what I discovered.” Arroyo continues. “I thought, okay, let’s go on this adventure.”
Some of Arroyo’s songs include “I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day,” and “Joy to the World,” as well as an original arrangement of “The First Noel/ We Magi of Orient Are.”
Multi-Grammy award-winning producer Brad Michel recorded the album at the Le Petit Theatre in New Orleans, Louisiana.
“That feeling that you get – there is a rich crackle in the room. You can hear it on those recordings,” Arroyo says of the album.
Arroyo’s album also includes a new version of the song, “Feliz Navidad,” featuring the song’s original Grammy award-winning musician, songwriter, and singer, José Feliciano.
“[Feliciano’s] song is one of the most downloaded songs of the season and Jose agreed to do a new arrangement,” Arroyo says.
“I can only describe this project as an explosion of joy. I love the togetherness of Christmas, the warmth of Christmas, the memories of Christmas,” Arroyo adds. “I wanted to capture all of that in this album. We wanted to remind people of the merry and the bright.”
Arroyo’s “Christmas Merry & Bright” Tour
Arroyo will tour five American cities in November and December of 2023. These cities include Phoenix, Ariz., on Nov. 25, Dallas, Texas, on Dec. 3, Tampa, Fla., on Dec. 8, Cleveland, Ohio, on Dec. 15, and Nashville, Tenn., on Dec. 21.
Here’s an album preview below:
Click here if you cannot see the video above.