Jingle All the Way (Béla Fleck and the Flecktones album)
Encyclopedia
Jingle All the Way is a Christmas album
Christmas Album
Christmas Album may refer to:* Christmas Album , a 1968 album by Herb Alpert & the Tijuana Brass* Christmas Album Christmas Album may refer to:* Christmas Album (Herb Alpert album), a 1968 album by Herb Alpert & the Tijuana Brass* Christmas Album Christmas Album may refer to:* Christmas Album (Herb...

 and the thirteenth album overall by Béla Fleck and the Flecktones
Béla Fleck and the Flecktones
Béla Fleck and the Flecktones is a primarily instrumental group from the United States, that draws equally on bluegrass, fusion and jazz, sometimes dubbed "blu-bop". The band formed in 1988, initially to perform once on the PBS series Lonesome Pine Specials. The Flecktones have toured extensively...

. Released in 2008 under Rounder, it marks the band's first record since their departure from Columbia
Columbia Records
Columbia Records is an American record label, owned by Japan's Sony Music Entertainment, operating under the Columbia Music Group with Aware Records. It was founded in 1888, evolving from an earlier enterprise, the American Graphophone Company — successor to the Volta Graphophone Company...

. Jingle All the Way reached #1 on the Top Contemporary Jazz chart, the group's first album to do so since 1991. It also won the 2009 Grammy Award for Best Pop Instrumental Album
Grammy Award for Best Pop Instrumental Album
The Grammy Award for Best Pop Instrumental Album is an award presented at the Grammy Awards, a ceremony that was established in 1958 and originally called the Gramophone Awards, to recording artists for quality instrumental albums in the pop music genre...

.

The band's rendition of "Sleigh Ride
Sleigh Ride
"Sleigh Ride" is a popular light orchestral piece composed by Leroy Anderson. The composer had the original idea for the piece during a heat wave in July 1946; he finished the work in February 1948. Lyrics, about a person who would like to ride in a sleigh on a winter's day with another person,...

" was nominated for Best Country Instrumental Performance
Grammy Award for Best Country Instrumental Performance
The Grammy Award for Best Country Instrumental Performance was awarded from 1970 to 2011. Between 1986 and 1989 the award was presented as the Grammy Award for Best Country Instrumental Performance ....

.
It was performed on the December 28, 2008 edition of Late Night with Conan O'Brien
Late Night with Conan O'Brien
Late Night with Conan O'Brien is an American late-night talk show hosted by Conan O'Brien that aired 2,725 episodes on NBC between 1993 and 2009. The show featured varied comedic material, celebrity interviews, and musical and comedy performances. Late Night aired weeknights at 12:37 am...

.

Overview

In an interview with Billboard
Billboard (magazine)
Billboard is a weekly American magazine devoted to the music industry, and is one of the oldest trade magazines in the world. It maintains several internationally recognized music charts that track the most popular songs and albums in various categories on a weekly basis...

, Béla Fleck
Béla Fleck
Béla Anton Leoš Fleck is an American banjo player. Widely acknowledged as one of the world's most innovative and technically proficient banjo players, he is best known for his work with the bands New Grass Revival and Béla Fleck and the Flecktones.-Early life and career details:Fleck was born in...

 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 signature
Time signature
The time signature is a notational convention used in Western musical notation to specify how many beats are in each measure and which note value constitutes one beat....

s over the course of the tune. Jingle All the Way also features a medley
Medley (music)
In music, a medley is a piece composed from parts of existing pieces, usually three, played one after another, sometimes overlapping. They are common in popular music, and most medleys are songs rather than instrumental. A medley which is a remixed series is called a megamix, often done with tracks...

 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
We Wish You a Merry Christmas
"We Wish You a Merry Christmas" is a popular secular sixteenth-century English carol from the West Country of England. The origin of this Christmas carol lies in the English tradition where wealthy people of the community gave Christmas treats to the carolers on Christmas Eve such as 'figgy...

,” “Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer,” and “My Favorite Things
My Favorite Things (song)
"My Favorite Things" is a show tune from the 1959 Rodgers and Hammerstein musical The Sound of Music.-The Sound of Music version:The song was first introduced by Mary Martin in the original Broadway production, and sung by Julie Andrews in the 1965 film.In the musical, the lyrics to the song are a...

” and has been performed at Flecktones concerts for years prior to its 2008 studio recording. Guests on the album include Andy Statman
Andy Statman
Andy Statman is a noted Klezmer clarinetist and bluegrass/newgrass mandolinist.Andy Statman was born in Brooklyn, New York City. He first gained acclaim as a mandolinist in pioneering bluegrass bands Country Cookin' and Breakfast Special. Statman, who grew up in a traditional but secular Jewish...

, Edgar Meyer
Edgar Meyer
Edgar Meyer is a prominent contemporary bassist and composer. His styles include classical, bluegrass, newgrass, and jazz. Meyer has worked as a session musician in Nashville, part of various chamber groups, a composer, and an arranger...

, and the Alash Ensemble
Alash Ensemble
The ensemble Alash is a throat singing band from Tuva that performs traditional Tuvan music with some non-traditional influences.- History :The musicians of Alash are Nachyn Choodu, Bady-Dorzhu Ondar, Ayan-ool Sam, and Ayan Shirizhik...

, who specialize in Tuvan throat singing
Overtone singing
Overtone singing, also known as overtone chanting, or harmonic singing, is a type of singing in which the singer manipulates the resonances created as air travels from the lungs, past the vocal folds, and out the lips to produce a melody.The partials of a sound wave made by the human voice can be...

.

Fleck also described to The Washington Post
The Washington Post
The Washington Post is Washington, D.C.'s largest newspaper and its oldest still-existing paper, founded in 1877. Located in the capital of the United States, The Post has a particular emphasis on national politics. D.C., Maryland, and Virginia editions are printed for daily circulation...

, 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
Tony Bennett
Tony Bennett is an American singer of popular music, standards, show tunes, and jazz....

, Willie Nelson
Willie Nelson
Willie Hugh Nelson is an American country music singer-songwriter, as well as an author, poet, actor, and activist. The critical success of the album Shotgun Willie , combined with the critical and commercial success of Red Headed Stranger and Stardust , made Nelson one of the most recognized...

, 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
DNA
Deoxyribonucleic acid is a nucleic acid that contains the genetic instructions used in the development and functioning of all known living organisms . The DNA segments that carry this genetic information are called genes, but other DNA sequences have structural purposes, or are involved in...

" and that it creates a doorway for them to understand the Flecktones' unique music.

A U.S. tour intended to highlight much of the Jingle All The Way material began November 15, 2008 in Spokane, Washington
Spokane, Washington
Spokane is a city located in the Northwestern United States in the state of Washington. It is the largest city of Spokane County of which it is also the county seat, and the metropolitan center of the Inland Northwest region...

 and concluded with a four-night run at the Blue Note
Blue note
In jazz and blues, a blue note is a note sung or played at a slightly lower pitch than that of the major scale for expressive purposes. Typically the alteration is a semitone or less, but this varies among performers and genres. Country blues, in particular, features wide variations from the...

 in New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...

.

Reception

Critically, Jingle All the Way is widely praised as a unique and engaging jazz-infused twist on classic holiday songs. Juli Thanki of PopMatters
PopMatters
PopMatters is an international webzine of cultural criticism that covers many aspects of popular culture. PopMatters publishes reviews, interviews, and detailed essays on most cultural products and expressions in areas such as music, television, films, books, video games, comics, sports, theater,...

 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
The Washington Post
The Washington Post is Washington, D.C.'s largest newspaper and its oldest still-existing paper, founded in 1877. Located in the capital of the United States, The Post has a particular emphasis on national politics. D.C., Maryland, and Virginia editions are printed for daily circulation...

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
Silent Night
"Silent Night" is a popular Christmas carol. The original lyrics of the song "Stille Nacht" were written in Oberndorf bei Salzburg, Austria, by the priest Father Joseph Mohr and the melody was composed by the Austrian headmaster Franz Xaver Gruber...

' 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."

Track listing

  1. "Jingle Bells
    Jingle Bells
    "Jingle Bells" is one of the best-known and commonly sung winter songs in the world. It was written by James Lord Pierpont and published under the title "One Horse Open Sleigh" in the autumn of 1857...

    " – 3:30
  2. "Silent Night
    Silent Night
    "Silent Night" is a popular Christmas carol. The original lyrics of the song "Stille Nacht" were written in Oberndorf bei Salzburg, Austria, by the priest Father Joseph Mohr and the melody was composed by the Austrian headmaster Franz Xaver Gruber...

    " – 4:41
  3. "Sleigh Ride
    Sleigh Ride
    "Sleigh Ride" is a popular light orchestral piece composed by Leroy Anderson. The composer had the original idea for the piece during a heat wave in July 1946; he finished the work in February 1948. Lyrics, about a person who would like to ride in a sleigh on a winter's day with another person,...

    " (Leroy Anderson
    Leroy Anderson
    Leroy Anderson was an American composer of short, light concert pieces, many of which were introduced by the Boston Pops Orchestra under the direction of Arthur Fiedler...

    , Mitchell Parish
    Mitchell Parish
    Mitchell Parish was an American lyricist.-Early life:Parish was born Michael Hyman Pashelinsky to a Jewish family in Lithuania. His family emigrated to the United States, arriving on February 3, 1901 on the SS Dresden when he was less than a year old...

    ) – 3:29
  4. "The Christmas Song
    The Christmas Song
    "The Christmas Song" is a classic Christmas song written in 1944 by musician, composer, and vocalist Mel Tormé and Bob Wells. According to Tormé, the song was written during a blistering hot summer...

    " (Mel Tormé
    Mel Tormé
    Melvin Howard Tormé , nicknamed The Velvet Fog, was an American musician, known for his jazz singing. He was also a jazz composer and arranger, a drummer, an actor in radio, film, and television, and the author of five books...

    , Bob Wells
    Robert Wells (songwriter)
    Robert Wells was an American songwriter, composer, script writer and television producer. During his early career, he collaborated with singer and songwriter Mel Tormé, writing several hit songs, most notably "The Christmas Song" in 1945...

    ) – 3:01
  5. "The Twelve Days of Christmas" – 5:19
  6. "J.S. Bach's Christmas Oratorio: Ich Will Nur Zu Ehren Leben
    Christmas Oratorio
    The Christmas Oratorio BWV 248, is an oratorio by Johann Sebastian Bach intended for performance in church during the Christmas season. It was written for the Christmas season of 1734 incorporating music from earlier compositions, including three secular cantatas written during 1733 and 1734 and a...

    " – 4:26
  7. "Christmas Time is Here" (Vince Guaraldi
    Vince Guaraldi
    Vincent Anthony "Vince" Guaraldi was an Italian American jazz musician and pianist noted for his innovative compositions and arrangements and for composing music for animated adaptations of the Peanuts comic strip...

    , Lee Mendelson
    Lee Mendelson
    Lee Mendelson is an American television producer. He is best known as the executive producer of the many Peanuts animated specials....

    ) – 2:21
  8. "Linus and Lucy
    Linus and Lucy
    "Linus and Lucy" is a popular jazz piano tune written by Vince Guaraldi appearing in many of the Peanuts animated television specials. Named for the fictional siblings Linus and Lucy van Pelt, it was released in 1964 on the Vince Guaraldi Trio's album Jazz Impressions of a Boy Named Charlie Brown...

    " (Vince Guaraldi
    Vince Guaraldi
    Vincent Anthony "Vince" Guaraldi was an Italian American jazz musician and pianist noted for his innovative compositions and arrangements and for composing music for animated adaptations of the Peanuts comic strip...

    ) – 2:54
  9. "Jingle Bells (Reprise)" – 3:13
  10. "The Hanukkah Waltz" – 2:34
  11. "Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairies
    The Nutcracker
    The Nutcracker is a two-act ballet, originally choreographed by Marius Petipa and Lev Ivanov with a score by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky. The libretto is adapted from E.T.A. Hoffmann's story "The Nutcracker and the Mouse King". It was given its première at the Mariinsky Theatre in St...

    " (Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky
    Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky
    Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (Russian: Пётр Ильи́ч Чайко́вский ; often "Peter Ilich Tchaikovsky" in English. His names are also transliterated "Piotr" or "Petr"; "Ilitsch", "Il'ich" or "Illyich"; and "Tschaikowski", "Tschaikowsky", "Chajkovskij"...

    ) – 3:29
  12. "What Child is This/Dyngyldai" – 5:08
  13. "O Come All Ye Faithful" – 2:12
  14. "Medley: We Wish You a Merry Christmas
    We Wish You a Merry Christmas
    "We Wish You a Merry Christmas" is a popular secular sixteenth-century English carol from the West Country of England. The origin of this Christmas carol lies in the English tradition where wealthy people of the community gave Christmas treats to the carolers on Christmas Eve such as 'figgy...

    /It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas
    It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas
    "It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas" is a classic Christmas song written in 1951 by Meredith Willson. The song was originally titled "It's Beginning to Look Like Christmas"...

    " (Meredith Willson
    Meredith Willson
    Robert Meredith Willson was an American composer, songwriter, conductor and playwright, best known for writing the book, music and lyrics for the hit Broadway musical The Music Man...

    ) – 5:38
  15. "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas
    Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas
    "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas" is a song introduced by Judy Garland in the 1944 MGM musical Meet Me in St. Louis. Frank Sinatra later recorded a version with modified lyrics, which has become more common than the original. The song was written by Hugh Martin and Ralph Blane...

    " (Ralph Blane
    Ralph Blane
    Ralph Blane was an American composer, lyricist, and performer.-Life and career:Born Ralph Uriah Hunsecker in Broken Arrow, Oklahoma, Blane was the son of grocery store owners. He attended Tulsa Central High School...

    , Hugh Martin
    Hugh Martin
    Hugh Martin was an American musical theater and film composer, arranger, vocal coach, and playwright. He is best known for his score for the 1944 MGM musical Meet Me In St...

    ) – 5:48
  16. "River" (Joni Mitchell
    Joni Mitchell
    Joni Mitchell, CC is a Canadian musician, singer songwriter, and painter. Mitchell began singing in small nightclubs in her native Saskatchewan and Western Canada and then busking in the streets and dives of Toronto...

    ) – 3:46

Personnel

Béla Fleck and the Flecktones
  • Jeff Coffin
    Jeff Coffin
    Jeff Coffin is an American jazz and alternative rock musician best known as the saxophonist for Dave Matthews Band and Béla Fleck and the Flecktones. In addition to the saxophone, he plays clarinet, flute and oboe.-Biography:...

     – soprano
    Soprano saxophone
    The soprano saxophone is a variety of the saxophone, a woodwind instrument, invented in 1840. The soprano is the third smallest member of the saxophone family, which consists of the soprillo, sopranino, soprano, alto, tenor, baritone, bass, contrabass and tubax.A transposing instrument pitched in...

    , alto
    Alto saxophone
    The alto saxophone is a member of the saxophone family of woodwind instruments invented by Belgian instrument designer Adolphe Sax in 1841. It is smaller than the tenor but larger than the soprano, and is the type most used in classical compositions...

    , and tenor
    Tenor saxophone
    The tenor saxophone is a medium-sized member of the saxophone family, a group of instruments invented by Adolphe Sax in the 1840s. The tenor, with the alto, are the two most common types of saxophones. The tenor is pitched in the key of B, and written as a transposing instrument in the treble...

     saxophone
    Saxophone
    The saxophone is a conical-bore transposing musical instrument that is a member of the woodwind family. Saxophones are usually made of brass and played with a single-reed mouthpiece similar to that of the clarinet. The saxophone was invented by the Belgian instrument maker Adolphe Sax in 1846...

    , flute
    Flute
    The flute is a musical instrument of the woodwind family. Unlike woodwind instruments with reeds, a flute is an aerophone or reedless wind instrument that produces its sound from the flow of air across an opening...

    , clarinet
    Clarinet
    The clarinet is a musical instrument of woodwind type. The name derives from adding the suffix -et to the Italian word clarino , as the first clarinets had a strident tone similar to that of a trumpet. The instrument has an approximately cylindrical bore, and uses a single reed...

    , keyboard
    Keyboard instrument
    A keyboard instrument is a musical instrument which is played using a musical keyboard. The most common of these is the piano. Other widely used keyboard instruments include organs of various types as well as other mechanical, electromechanical and electronic instruments...

    , D and low D whistle
    Whistle
    A whistle or call is a simple aerophone, an instrument which produces sound from a stream of forced air. It may be mouth-operated, or powered by air pressure, steam, or other means...

  • Béla Fleck
    Béla Fleck
    Béla Anton Leoš Fleck is an American banjo player. Widely acknowledged as one of the world's most innovative and technically proficient banjo players, he is best known for his work with the bands New Grass Revival and Béla Fleck and the Flecktones.-Early life and career details:Fleck was born in...

     – acoustic and electric banjo
    Banjo
    In the 1830s Sweeney became the first white man to play the banjo on stage. His version of the instrument replaced the gourd with a drum-like sound box and included four full-length strings alongside a short fifth-string. There is no proof, however, that Sweeney invented either innovation. This new...

    s, guitar
    Guitar
    The guitar is a plucked string instrument, usually played with fingers or a pick. The guitar consists of a body with a rigid neck to which the strings, generally six in number, are attached. Guitars are traditionally constructed of various woods and strung with animal gut or, more recently, with...

    , banjitar
  • Roy "Future Man" Wooten
    Future Man
    Roy Wilfred Wooten , also known as "RoyEl", best known by his stage name Future Man , is an inventor, musician, and composer...

     – Synth-axe drumitar, acoustic percussion
    Percussion instrument
    A percussion instrument is any object which produces a sound when hit with an implement or when it is shaken, rubbed, scraped, or otherwise acted upon in a way that sets the object into vibration...

    , Zendrum
    Zendrum
    A Zendrum is a hand-crafted MIDI controller that is used as a percussion instrument. It is the commercially available version of the Drumitar, invented by Future Man. There are two Zendrum models that are well-suited for live performances, the ZX and the LT...

  • Victor Wooten
    Victor Wooten
    Victor Lemonte Wooten is an American bass player, composer, author, and producer, and has been the recipient of five Grammy Awards....

     – bass guitar
    Bass guitar
    The bass guitar is a stringed instrument played primarily with the fingers or thumb , or by using a pick....

    s


Additional musicians
  • Alash Ensemble
    Alash Ensemble
    The ensemble Alash is a throat singing band from Tuva that performs traditional Tuvan music with some non-traditional influences.- History :The musicians of Alash are Nachyn Choodu, Bady-Dorzhu Ondar, Ayan-ool Sam, and Ayan Shirizhik...

     – Tuvan throat singing, igil
    Igil
    An igil is a two-stringed Tuvan musical instrument, played by bowing the strings. The neck and lute-shaped sound box are usually made of a solid piece of pine or larch. The top of the sound box may be covered with skin or a thin wooden plate...

    , doshpuluur
    Doshpuluur
    The doshpuluur is a long-necked Tuvan lute made from wood, usually pine or larch. The doshpuluur is played by plucking and strumming....

    , byzaanchy
    Byzaanchy
    The byzaanchy is a four-stringed vertical spike fiddle used in the traditional music of Tuva. It is similar to the Chinese sihu. However, the byzaanchys soundbox is generally made of wood whereas the sihu usually has a metal soundbox...

    , kengirge and shyngyrash
  • Edgar Meyer
    Edgar Meyer
    Edgar Meyer is a prominent contemporary bassist and composer. His styles include classical, bluegrass, newgrass, and jazz. Meyer has worked as a session musician in Nashville, part of various chamber groups, a composer, and an arranger...

     – double bass
    Double bass
    The double bass, also called the string bass, upright bass, standup bass or contrabass, is the largest and lowest-pitched bowed string instrument in the modern symphony orchestra, with strings usually tuned to E1, A1, D2 and G2...

  • Andy Statman
    Andy Statman
    Andy Statman is a noted Klezmer clarinetist and bluegrass/newgrass mandolinist.Andy Statman was born in Brooklyn, New York City. He first gained acclaim as a mandolinist in pioneering bluegrass bands Country Cookin' and Breakfast Special. Statman, who grew up in a traditional but secular Jewish...

     – clarinet
    Clarinet
    The clarinet is a musical instrument of woodwind type. The name derives from adding the suffix -et to the Italian word clarino , as the first clarinets had a strident tone similar to that of a trumpet. The instrument has an approximately cylindrical bore, and uses a single reed...

    , mandolin
    Mandolin
    A mandolin is a musical instrument in the lute family . It descends from the mandore, a soprano member of the lute family. The mandolin soundboard comes in many shapes—but generally round or teardrop-shaped, sometimes with scrolls or other projections. A mandolin may have f-holes, or a single...


Chart positions

Year Chart Position
2008 Billboard Top Contemporary Jazz Albums 1
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