This blog
entry was prompted by a request from Fred, a loyal blog reader.
Holiday
recordings typically live out their lives as background music. Every store at
this time of year pipes in the familiar tunes by a multitude of artists. Even
in the home, holiday music is usually turned on to provide ambiance. I’m happy
to say that Béla Fleck and the Flecktones’ “Jingle All the Way” CD rises far
above that level of listening. If you choose just one holiday recording to
actually sit and listen to, you can’t go wrong with “Jingle All the Way.” We
spoke of this inventive release in our blog in December of 2014, and the
constantly shifting arrangement of “The Twelve Days of Christmas.”
The album
opens with “Jingle Bells” and employs the arranging scenario of “everything,
including the kitchen sink.” This 3-1/2 minute version of the standard
of holiday standards, includes the sound of a galloping horse, a flute, a
rather disco-ish repetitive bass line, synthesized percussion, bluegrass banjo
picking, and (best of all) Tuvan throat singers vocalizing the lyrics to “Jingle
Bells” in what I assume is their native Tibetan language. If you put this cut
on at the typical background music level, your curiosity will draw you to the
volume control so you can give a good listen to what is actually going on.
Highly recommended.
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