One of my favorite guitarists, Jamie Bonk, told me he intended to have a holiday music album out this year, but life intruded and he only got one track done. That’s a shame because it’s a great track (no surprise since it is Jamie Bonk we’re talkin ’bout here). The carol is “Noel” and features Bonk, his wife Sonya Mitlewski on keyboards and vocalist Wendy Irvine-Patel. For all intents and purposes, it’s really more of an instrumental as Irvine-Patel’s vocals are only heard singing the refrain. Bonk’s trademark breezy, jazz-inflected guitar flows through the 3:16 duration and wife Sonya’s keyboards flesh out the song nicely. The rendition fuses a touch of rock and jazz into the carol’s melody, but only strict purists would object to the variation. What we’re left with is the desire to hear much more from the Canadian guitarist. Come on, Jamie…give us a whole album next year, huh? The track is up on Bandcamp: http://jamiebonk.bandcamp.com/track/the-first-no-l
– reviewed by Bill Binkelman on 12/6/2013
Jamie Bonk 