Béla Fleck is no doubt, one of the premiere banjo players in the world and has made a name for himself as a virtuoso instrumentalist unbounded by genre. His band The Flecktones - Victor Wooten on electric bass, Jeff Coffin on sax and flute, and Future Man on electric and acoustic percussion - are equally talented and adventurous as Fleck himself.
Last year's holiday CD "Jingle All the Way" is still all of that, with bells on - Christmas music as it's never been heard it before, with unique tonal textures, hot solos and tight ensemble arrangements that make every measure new. The Flecktones last appeared at Yoshi's on Fillmore 2 years ago, promoting this album with several memorable shows. They skipped the West coast last year however, for a memorable tour in Europe, reuniting them with original member, pianist and harmonica legend Howard Levy. Last night, they returned to the Fox Theater in Oakland for another stellar, Christmas-time performance.
Released two tears ago on Rounder, "JATW" marked the band's first recording since their departure from Columbia. Jingle All the Way also reached #1 on the Top Contemporary Jazz chart, the group's first album to do so since 1991, and won the 2009 Grammy Award for Best Pop Instrumental Album. The band's rendition of "Sleigh Ride" was nominated for Best Country Instrumental Performance. It was even performed on the December 28, 2008 edition of Late Night with Conan O'Brien.
Critically, Jingle All the Way is widely praised as a unique and engaging jazz-infused twist on classic holiday songs. Juli Thanki of PopMatters praised Jingle All the Way for its reinvention of "tired songs." She commented, "Fleck and his bandmates keep the improvisational noodling to a minimum, making this an enjoyable album for jazz fans and nonfans alike while still maintaining the integrity of these holiday classics."
Despite his criticism of the album's uncreative title and photography, Allmusic's James Christopher Monger considered Jingle All the Way "anything but predictable." He added that the "notoriously monotonous" holiday music is "filtered through the skewed prism of an outfit capable of just about anything from klezmer, to classical to Tuvan throat singing."
The Flecktones were named The Washington Post Editors' Pick in December 2008. Post writer Geoffrey Himes described the innovative tweaks the Flecktones put on classic tunes and added, "They slow down for 'Silent Night' and prove they are just as capable of coaxing the feeling out of a simple melody as they are at quadrupling the number of notes per measure."
In an interview with Billboard, Fleck described the band's desire to record Christmas songs: "We've always wanted to do an album like this. . . This year we started to do less touring, and we didn't want to tour without some new music. It was a slow, steady project. A lot of the arrangements were worked out on tour."
One of the album's most ambitious tracks, "The Twelve Days of Christmas," builds up to 12 different keys and 12 different time signatures over the course of the tune. Jingle All the Way also features a medley which fuses several Christmas classics and as Fleck described, "five or six are being played together, simultaneously." Indeed, the song includes “We Wish You a Merry Christmas,” “Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer,” and “My Favorite Things” and has been performed at Flecktones concerts for years prior to its 2008 studio recording. Guests on the album include Andy Statman, Edgar Meyer, and the Alash Ensemble, who specialize in Tuvan throat singing.
Fleck also described to The Washington Post, who named the band Editors' Pick in December 2008, how the Flecktones wanted to avoid holiday music clichés: "I didn't want to go the route of getting super-famous guests because that could lead to cheese. That suggestion came up: 'Why don't you make a Christmas record with Tony Bennett, Willie Nelson, and Sting with you guys as the backing band?' We're not a backing band. We'd rather go down in obscurity than to be famous for something we're not."
He went on to describe how, while much of the Flecktones' music is complex and not easily digestible to some music fans, "Christmas music is inside everyone's DNA" and that it creates a doorway for them to understand the Flecktones' unique music.
If you missed last night's show, fear not. "Jingle All the Way" is still available online and in stores, so you can still hear these virtuosos ringing in Christmas like no before ever has. It's is the perfect stocking stuffer for those who like their Christmas music fun and challenging at the same time. Merry Christmas, everyone!
