The Connecticut music scene is doing its gift-giving a little early. “Hartford Unwrapped,” a new EP of original holiday songs by local artists, was recently released to all major streaming services with a live celebration of the project scheduled for Dec. 19 at Infinity Music Hall Hartford.
The idea for this community-centered cultural gathering, and the funding for it, came from the city of Hartford’s new Office of Arts, Culture and Entertainment. A limited number of vinyl records will be pressed as well.
“This came right from the mayor and the city,” said Stephen Cusano, who supervised the recording at his Parkville Sounds studio on Park Street. “They came up with a plan. It’s a super unique plan. I don’t see other cities doing this. I never thought of it coming from the government like this.”
“Hartford Unwrapped” brought together over 30 musicians plus 10 or so producers, engineers and studio professionals. The recording was produced by Cusano, his wife and studio partner, Jillian Cusano, and Eugene Morton, Jr., the local artist/entrepreneur who also performs on the EP under his stage name Gene June. Taneisha Duggan, who in March was named the first director of Hartford’s newly established Office of Arts, Culture and Entertainment is credited as the project’s executive producer. The cover art was designed by David Braithwaite.
Producer Stephen Cusano setting up his Parkville Sounds studios for the “Hartford Unwrapped” sessions. (Courtesy of Parkville Sounds)
The EP opens with a spoken word introduction featuring Duggan and Hartford Mayor Arunan Arulampalam. The mayor brought his acoustic guitar to the session. “We hear the mayor and Taneisha having a natural conversation, then the music rises up,” Stephen Cusano said. “They were genuinely excited to do this.”
The music kicks off with the funky, festive tune “Fireside” performed by singer/songwriter Dom McLennon (formerly of the group Brockhampton), vocalist Yummy Bingham (who began her career as a member of Tha’ Rayne and toured and recorded for years with De La Soul), Gene June, Stephen Cusano, Manchester-based vocalist/producer Machinesix and vocalist Keila Myles — all of whom are credited as co-writers on the track — plus jazz musicians Jake Falce and Matt Schmidt.
The third track on the EP, “Sleigh Ride Mambo,” is written and performed by Zaccai Curtis, whose “Cubop Lives!” won a Grammy award for Best Latin Jazz album last year. Curtis is accompanied by Alex Hernandez on bass, Daniel Antonetti on timbales, Reinaldo De Jesus on congas, Carlos Abadie on trumpet and Mitch Frohman on saxes and flute.
All four members of the Hartford hip-hop collective Bap Pack — Tang Sauce, Rapoet, Hydro 8Sixty and Klokwize — are on “Gather Round,” a rap track which sings the praises of artists in the Hartford area and even gives a shoutout to the “Hartford Unwrapped” project itself.
“That Time of Year” is written and performed by Hartford gospel artist Doobie Powell and brings a deep spiritual touch to the project.
The EP ends with “The Light,” composed by Erica Tracy Sullivan, vocalist for the bands West End Blend and The New Mosaic. Sullivan is joined by guitarist Andy Sorenson, keyboardist Paulie Philippone, bassist Tim Weisman, and fellow vocalists Marquis “Mr. Qwes” Johnson, Ysanne Marshall, Brandon Serafino, Charmagne Tripp, Orice Jenkins and Olivia Gaines. The track took three days in the studio to complete, Cusano said, “with a full band and a choir.”
Guitarist Andy Sorenson, one of the musicians on the multi-vocalist song “The Light,” part of the “Hartford Unwrapped” holiday EP project. (Courtesy of Parkville Sounds)
“Hartford Unwrapped” was developed under serious time constraints. “We got the project in mid- to late September, so there was crunch time to come up with six songs,” Stephen Cusano said.
The December deadline for the recording’s release was, of course, immovable, but the organizers wouldn’t let a tight schedule compromise the goals and standards they had set for a project that was intended to highlight Hartford’s creative community. So despite having just weeks to prepare, the producers insisted on commissioning at least one of the songs with relatively short notice and getting another as the result of an open submission process.
Stephen Cusano also wanted one of the tracks to be a “group sing” with multiple vocalists. For Erica Tracy Sullivan’s “The Light,” the artist and the track’s producer, Jake Subin, “split up the melody among seven singers, sort of like ‘We Are the World,’” Stephen Cusano said. “It’s kind of a masterpiece.”
There have been other Connecticut local band Christmas projects over the years, particularly from the New Haven music scene. There was a live Christmas show at Toad’s Place in the early 1990s where dozens of bands tried to outdo each other with creative covers of Christmas songs (the rockabilly band Gone Native did “Linus and Lucy” from “A Charlie Brown Christmas” while The Housebreakers covered The Kinks’ “Father Christmas”), as well as originals such as The Gravel Pit’s bubblegum tune “Sucking On a Holiday Treat. Parts of that performance aired on WPLR’s long-running “Local Bands” program. A bunch of Fairfield area bands appeared on a “Tarquin Records All Star Holiday Extravaganza” album in 1997, and a couple of “Christmas in Connecticut” local music compilations came out in the 2000s on the Bright Lights label.
During the COVID shutdown of 2020, Hamden guitarist Dean Falcone modified his annual “Vomitorium” Thanksgiving gathering of locals covering pop and rock classics to a streaming anthology of freshly made Christmas video by an array of local musicians (and a few nationally known ones).
The cover art for the city of Hartford-produced “Hartford Unwrapped” holiday EP. The recording was released to streaming services on Dec. 2. On Dec. 19 at 7 p.m., there’s a listening party and live show at Infinity Music Hall Hartford. (Courtesy of Parkville Sounds)
“Hartford Unwrapped” is unique for being supported by a city government. The EP was conceived as a high-quality production made by Hartford-based music professionals. “It was funded entirely by the city,” Stephen Cusano said. “Every artist got paid.”
Parkville Sound has worked with a variety of artists in its eight years of existence at three locations. A couple of years ago, it moved to a 8,000-square-foot multi-room space on Park Street.
Despite his range — from rock to jazz to hip-hop, from intense studio productions to live recordings — Stephen Cusano had not made a Christmas record. “This is my first time doing a holiday record,” Stephen Cusano said. “I just never had the opportunity before. This one feels so right.”
“Hartford Unwrapped” may be Stephen Cusano’s first such experience, but it’s unlikely to be his last. He’s already hoping that, with the seasonal blessings of Hartford and his other collaborators, that local band holiday recordings will become an annual tradition. If it does, he hopes to make room for jazz and classical sounds on the next one. In any case, this is a landmark musical effort from the city of Hartford and a vibrant local music scene that keeps on giving.
A listening party for the EP featuring live performances by some of the artists and accompanied by Evan Wood and The Blueprint takes place on Dec. 19 at 7 p.m. at Infinity Hall, 32 Front St., Hartford. Admission is $10 and includes a drink ticket. For information. go to hartfordunwrapped.my.canva.site.