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Riff On This: Special features Orlando jazz musician with a different kind of Christmas song

John Korbel uses a classic sounds inspired from Nat King Cole to create new sounds for the season

Orlando – What’s Christmas without Christmas music, right? From classic songs to modern Christmas standard, it’s really the music that’s the driving force of the holiday spirit.

Orlando jazz musician John Korbel recalls a recent post he saw on a friend’s Facebook page regarding jazz music and Christmas.

“All it said was Christmas, the time of year that the rest of the music business gives jazz a pass,” said Korbel with a chuckle. He explained that while there are plenty of jazz fans out there, around the holidays more people who don’t typically listen to that genre will tap in and really enjoy it.

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Korbel’s love for music started at home in Philadelphia. His siblings were classically trained and that talent trickled down to him. In college Korbel joined a rock band saying that by the time he graduated, music was all he wanted to do. Playing guitar, writing lyrics, and singing is Korbel’s passion. His inspiration often comes from greats like Nat King Cole and Johnny Mathis.

When trying to come up with a classic Christmas-sounding song, Korbel found another source of inspiration. His friends.

“They were so cute together doing everything I thought, yeah, first Christmas, I remember what that was like to be with somebody,” said Korbel. “It suddenly dawned on me that I don’t think really, anybody had written a song, certainly none of the classic songs sort of took that approach.”

Korbel began writing and came up with a sweet song touching on all the fun and exciting things new love brought his friends for the holidays.

Hear more about the work that went into making the song “First Christmas Loving You” come to life and watch Korbel play his latest single on this special Christmas episode of Riff On This.

Check out every episode of Riff On This in the media player below:


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