-- NY Times
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Bill Adler has been making a holiday mix since the early 1980s. His 2016 version includes 28 tracks from various genres, among them soul, waltz, jazz, merengue and zydeco. Credit Sasha Maslov for The New York Times
“Are you ready?” Bill Adler shouted with the joyful enthusiasm of a teenager about to set off a firecracker in his living room. Instead of lighting a fuse, Mr. Adler, 64, hit play on his home stereo in his Flatiron district apartment. Blasting out of the speakers was Calypso Rose’s upbeat “Oh Christmas,” one of the 28 tracks on Mr. Adler’s latest annual holiday mix, upon which he is putting the finishing touches.
It was suddenly Caribbean carnival meets Christmas, as the horns, steel pan, strumming guitars, maracas, bouncing bass and lilting vocals filled every crevice in the room.
“BOOM!” Mr. Adler yelled in his radio D.J. voice when the track ended. “Pure joy! It’s a party, isn’t it?”
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