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.
Email to a friend
Print this page- Rangers run into the ground as furious HMRC battles to claw back tax
- Broken Rangers: Club signals intention to go into administration
- Rangers: ‘Crisis will soon be over and Rangers FC will survive’
- Scottish independence: David Cameron set to snub Alex Salmond’s separation talks bid
- Rangers blame HMRC for driving club to brink of administration
- Scottish independence: David Cameron offers a deal to reject independence
- Devo-max merely a dodgy back-up plan to save SNP, says Jim Sillars
- Scottish independence: No breakthrough in talks between Alex Salmond and Michael Moore
- The Rumour Mill: Thursday’s football news and gossip
- Scottish independence: David Cameron set to snub Alex Salmond’s separation talks bid
Looking for...
Featured advertisers
Jobs
Search for a job
Motors
Search for a car
Property
Search for a house
Weather for Edinburgh
Friday 17 February 2012
Today
Light rain
Temperature: 5 C to 10 C
Wind Speed: 22 mph
Wind direction: South west
Tomorrow
Cloudy
Temperature: -1 C to 6 C
Wind Speed: 24 mph
Wind direction: West
