| Jingle All the Way | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
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| Studio album by | ||||
| Released | September 30, 2008(CD) November 4, 2008(Vinyl) November 17, 2008(UK) | |||
| Genre | Jazz fusion,progressive bluegrass,pop,holiday music | |||
| Length | 61:01 | |||
| Label | Rounder Records | |||
| Producer | Béla Fleck with the Flecktones | |||
| Béla Fleck and the Flecktones chronology | ||||
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Jingle All the Way is aChristmas album and the thirteenth album overall byBéla Fleck and the Flecktones. Released in 2008 underRounder, it marks the band's first record since their departure fromColumbia.Jingle All the Way reached #1 on theTop Contemporary Jazz chart, the group's first album to do so since 1991.[1] It also won the2009Grammy Award for Best Pop Instrumental Album.
The band's rendition of "Sleigh Ride" was nominated forBest Country Instrumental Performance.It was performed on the December 22, 2008 edition ofLate Night with Conan O'Brien. This is also the last studio album to feature saxophonistJeff Coffin before his departure in 2009 to join theDave Matthews Band.
In an interview withBillboard,Béla Fleck described the band's desire to record Christmas songs:
One of the album's most ambitious tracks, "The Twelve Days of Christmas," builds up to 12 different keys and 12 differenttime signatures over the course of the tune.Jingle All the Way also features amedley 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.[2] Guests on the album includeAndy Statman,Edgar Meyer, and theAlash Ensemble, who specialize inTuvan throat singing.[3]
Fleck also described toThe Washington Post, who named the band Editors' Pick in December 2008, how the Flecktones wanted to avoid holiday music clichés:
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'sDNA" and that it creates a doorway for them to understand the Flecktones' unique music.[4]
A U.S. tour intended to highlight much of theJingle All The Way material began November 15, 2008 inSpokane, Washington and concluded with a four-night run at theBlue Note inNew York City.
| Review scores | |
|---|---|
| Source | Rating |
| AllMusic |   [5] |
| PopMatters | [2] |
| Washington Post | (favorable)[4] |
Critically,Jingle All the Way is widely praised as a unique and engaging jazz-infused twist on classic holiday songs. Juli Thanki ofPopMatters praisedJingle 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."[2]
Despite his criticism of the album's uncreative title and photography,AllMusic's James Christopher Monger consideredJingle 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."[5]
The Flecktones were namedThe Washington Post Editors' Pick in December 2008.Post writerGeoffrey 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."[4]
| Year | Chart | Position |
|---|---|---|
| 2008 | BillboardTop Contemporary Jazz Albums | 1 |
