Béla Fleck & the Flecktones

Béla Fleck is often considered the premiere banjo player in the world. A New York City native (named after composer Béla Bartok), he picked up the banjo at age 15 after being awed by the bluegrass music of Flatt & Scruggs. While still in high school he began experimenting with playing bebop jazz on his banjo, and in 1980, he released his first solo album, Crossing the Tracks, which ranged from straight ahead bluegrass to Chick Corea’s jazz opus “Spain.” In 1982, Fleck joined the progressive bluegrass band New Grass Revival, and he has made a name for himself on countless solo and ensemble projects ever since as a virtuoso instrumentalist unbounded by genre.

In 1989 Béla Fleck formed the Flecktones, with members equally talented and adventurous as Fleck himself. They made their recording debut in 1990, playing a “blu-bop” mix of jazz and bluegrass that has become both critically acclaimed and wildly popular. Béla and the Flecktones have received 18 Grammy® awards between them, and perform before over 500,000 people yearly. Béla has received more Grammy® nominations in more diverse categories than any other musician in history.

The Flecktones – Victor Wooten on electric bass, Jeff Coffin on sax and flute, and Future Man on percussion, including his custom synth-axe drumitar – are much more than just a backing band. Each member is given space in the arrangements to put his own stamp on each tune, and each takes turns supporting and trading off with the other instruments as in the best jazz combos. Their ability to solo as well as their in-the-pocket ensemble playing make them a breathtaking as well as groundbreaking band.

Since their 1990 debut Béla Fleck & The Flecktones have released a string of Grammy® award-winning albums and delighted audiences around the world with their unique combination of musical creativity, technical prowess, and occasional zaniness. All three facets of the band are on full display on their new CD Jingle All the Way, an album chock full of Christmas and holiday music as it’s never been heard before. Though the melodies may be familiar, the varied tonal textures (banjo, Tuvan throat singing, funky electric bass and percussion, klezmer mandolin) and rhythmic interplay make every measure new.

The CD opens with “Jingle Bells,” but as Monty Python would say, not that “Jingle Bells.” The Flecktones’ arrangement begins with exotic chant singing (from the Tuvan ensemble Alash), a repeated chromatic riff on banjo and bass, and a very truncated flute melody before breaking into the verse with some full bore banjo. Following that comes a “Silent Night” in 5/4 time that features Victor Wooten’s nimble up-the-neck bass runs, evoking Jaco Pastorius and Stanley Clarke. “Sleigh Ride” opens with a beatnik jazz cymbals-and-bass groove, followed by a breakneck banjo and saxophone duet.

Victor Wooten steps out front for a lyrical solo arrangement of Mel Torme’s “The Christmas Song (Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire)” which is simply a pleasure to listen to (as well as technical tour de force). The full band returns for a fun call-and-response “Twelve Days of Christmas” with Jeff Coffin evoking Paul Desmond (Dave Brubeck’s sax man on the epochal “Take Five”) and guest Edgar Meyer bowing his double bass.

After a relatively straightforward reading of Bach’s “Christmas Oratorio,” Béla and the ’Tones pay tribute to Vince

Guaraldi with two pieces from A Charlie Brown Christmas, “Christmas Time Is Here” (featuring Béla’s lovely statement of the melody in ethereal harmonics) and the boppin’ “Linus and Lucy” featuring more textured bass grooves from Victor Wooten (and some cool drum breaks from Future Man).

After a reprise of “Jingle Bells” (as a duet between Alash’s Ayan-ool Sam’s vocal harmonics and Béla’s banjo) the album takes a detour to Eastern Europe for a klezmer arrangement of “The Hanukkah Waltz” featuring clarinet master Andy Statman’s stunning and deeply rooted playing. Next stop, Russia, for Tchaikovsky’s “Danse of the Sugar Plum Fairies” from the ballet The Nutcracker Suite, with Béla’s theme conjuring a whole string section of violins.

Statman (on mandolin) and Edgar Meyer (on bowed acoustic bass) combine for a beautiful rubato rendering of O Come All Ye Faithful, which segues into a “name that tune” medley in which the already no-holds-barred Flecktones lose any remaining musical inhibitions. This medley plays one X-mas tune against another, culminating with 5 tunes being played simultaneously, to create a surprisingly satisfying counterpoint. The loose feel continues for a feel-good romp through “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas” with Statman’s mandolin tremoloes offsetting Coffin’s sax honks.

The album closes with Béla’s elegiac reading of “River,” with Fleck coaxing all the beauty, tenderness and melancholy of Joni Mitchell’s original out of his instrument and his piano, played simultaneously in real time.

Steve Futterman of Entertainment Weekly said: “Heavyweight players who make an endearing fusion, the Flecktones have a fine time roaming all over the musical map…it’s hard to resist a band that draws on bluegrass, funk, world music, pop and jazz with such glee and blissful lack of pretension.” Jingle All the Way is all of that, with bells on.