Music Review: Bryan Eng Shares Some Holiday Happiness With His New Jingle Single SANTA'S FAVORITE PLACE TO GO

Heigh Ho, dear lovely rainbow tribe, welcome back to Bobby’s CD sandbox where we offer our broken-down breakdowns of new music releases. So, strap in and get ready, as Bobby goes on the record ABOUT the record.

This week’s single entry in the BobbyFiles comes from the FAB children at Club44 Records and their latest talent acquisition, Singer, Actor, Pianist, Composer, Bandleader, and real Christmas Cutie, Bryan Eng, who has churned out his own obligatory holiday single - SANTA'S FAVORITE PLACE TO GO. As the titular frontman for three (count them, 3) music groups, the Bryan Eng Trio, the Bryan Eng ‘Circle Room’ Trio, and the Bryan Eng Sextet, it seems as though this 25-year-old Northwestern grad has more bands than a pilates gym. In his copious free time, Bryan has re-located from Chicago (where the Tribune dubbed him a rising star) to our fair Gotham, toured the country singing, playing, and acting, and managed to make his debut on The Broadway (in a PLAY!), PLUS plant a half dozen seeds in TVLand, going by his IMDB page. This is the path of all greatly talented multi-hyphenates in the biz of show, today. If you’ve got the goods, spread 'em out and diversify on all fronts, and make dat money, honey… and that is what this young man is doing. Christmas is the time of giving and getting, and the reason for writing holiday material, music, or stories, dating back to Mr. Dickens, is money. The question any rainbow reviewer should, then, ask is, “Did they earn some clink in the bank with this one?” and in the case of SANTA’S FAVORITE PLACE TO GO, the answer is, yeah, sure. Bryan has written a fun, pithy Christmas song that can land on holiday playlists, elevator speakers, and Muzak systems coast-to-coast. It’s a good old-fashioned “Santa’s got his bag of reindeer and that’s why his nose is so shiny” kind of song.

As you can hear in the music, this is a Christmas song to jam to… Like A Vince Guaraldi kind of jam, it makes you want to dance with Santa. Eng is a jazz musician and composer, and that’s where this pleasant romp comes from. He’s not reinventing any wheels here, and there are holiday motifs throughout that are as familiar as any of the other classics of this kind because they had them first. Pleasant and danceable, you can’t help but get the sways while listening to the palatable recording. This is a New York Christmas song if there ever was one, and that’s the story here - that each season St. Nick must return because there really is no place else to have Christmas. Bryan’s Lyrics are a love poem to our city in that “NYC it must be for Xmas because all the other cities are nowheresville” vein. Fun, funny, and concise rhymes like, “New York is Santa’s favorite place to go. He even tries to catch the Rockette show” mean more to us New Yorkers, perhaps, but it is all meant in fun. There’s lots of picturesque NYC imagery coupled with comic inferences that, if you listen, will give you a bit of holiday chuckles.

For his own performance, Bryan is possessed of a gentle crooner’s tone like those of yesteryear, but for someone this young, it’s a pleasant surprise. His cool jazz vocals are possessed of a liquidity that makes the song flow easily - that would make any song flow easily. His piano playing is quick and precise and lifts one’s spirits throughout. His improv riff on the piano is another call back to a Guaraldi or a Brubeck and, vocally, he is a crooner for today with a youthful exuberance that makes the croon crush.

Finally, you may ask, “Bobby, is SANTA'S FAVORITE PLACE TO GO worth the download?” and our answer would be, “You bet.” Has Bryan Eng written the next ALL I WANT FOR CHRISTMAS IS YOU? or HAVE YOURSELF A MERRY LITTLE CHRISTMAS? - No he hasn’t, but in the realm of new releases for the holidays this is a fine entry and gets our respectable

3 ¾ Out Of 5 Rainbows - Put this one in your collection/stream today.

Jump In The Amazon And Stream This One: HERE

Or Link To All Its Platforms: HERE

You Can See And Hear Everything About Bryan Eng On His Webbysite: HERE

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