Christmas music is inescapable in December. The list of holiday hits is not as deep as you might think, but the songs that get played are ingrained in our collective consciousness. So much so that some songs seem like sonic wallpaper. But as the old saying goes: if you’re bored, then you’re boring.
Béla Fleck and the Flecktones put on a masterclass in reimagining holiday music in a four-minute TV spot on Late Night with Conan O’Brien in 2008. They transformed “Sleigh Ride” from a ubiquitous, almost throwaway holiday standard into a virtuosic romp. While the song is musically challenging, it’s still listener-friendly.
The Flecktones are renowned for their use of complex rhythms, time signatures, and harmonic content. With “Sleigh Ride” and the music from their holiday album “Jingle All the Way,” they welcome casual listeners into the fold.
“Christmas music is inside everyone’s DNA,” banjoist Fleck explained to the Washington Post, adding that using recognizable songs “is an open doorway for listeners to understand the Flecktones’ music.”
Fleck road-tested the music as he arranged it.
“I have a habit of pulling out my banjo and playing holiday songs while waiting for flights in the airport, when traveling during the season,” he says of their origin. “These arrangements appeared and developed over the course of several years of airport holiday play. They always seemed to cheer up folks, and I love the tunes.”
Victor Wooten opens with beautiful bass chords, using his volume knob to create swells and set the ambience. Fleck joins in by playing the melody to another classic, “Christmas Time Is Here,” using harmonics and adjusting his tuning pegs.
Wooten then sets the breakneck pace with a chromatic bass line that ratchets up the tension as Futureman joins to keep time on the ride cymbal. Fleck plays the melody among his banjo rolls. Saxophonist Jeff Coffin then plays the bridge before Fleck rejoins to finish the main melody.
The quartet members then take turns soloing over the song’s form. The arrangement is similar to how most jazz musicians perform: play the melody, improvise over the song’s chord changes, then play the melody again to end the song.
As each member creates their own part, they listen and react to what their fellow musicians are doing. That mirrors part of Wooten’s philosophy on music.
“Improvising is your chance to say whatever you want or do whatever you want, and we’re all good at improvising,” he told Rick Beato in 2017. “It’s real, it’s raw, and your emotion is more pure than if it’s totally rehearsed. There are things that are nice, and maybe nicer when they’re totally rehearsed, but if you can improvise…you can speak your mind clearly and more honestly.”
If the Flecktones’ arrangement of “Sleigh Ride” is intriguing to you, be sure to listen to the rest of “Jingle All The Way” for musical adventures, like playing “12 Days of Christmas” in all 12 keys.
“If the Flecktones can turn a piece of seasonal wallpaper into a playground for ideas, you can too. Get the music for “Sleigh Ride” and build your own arrangement:
