Jazz review: Bella Fleck&The Flecktones: Jingle all the Way
BÉLA FLECK & THE FLECKTONES: JINGLE ALL THE WAY
ROUNDER DECCA, 10.99
THIS may be the most unusual Christmas record around this year (although that is never a safe prediction). As usual with the banjo virtuoso Bla Fleck and his eclectic band, this could equally have been the folk or world selection, and begins with the slightly disconcerting sound of Jingle Bells sung by a group of Tuvan throat singers.
If you are still on board after that slice of culture shock (and there is more to come from the Tuvans), the players settle down to their expected instrumental wizardry on a varied selection of seasonal material that also dips into the world of Klezmer in The Hannukkah Waltz and a haunting banjo version of Joni Mitchell's River.
The unusual sonorities and fresh combinations give even the hoariest classics a new sheen, and the music has a sense of fun that is hard to resist.
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Monday 28 May 2012
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