A Historical Bluegrass Background to Jingle bells
By John Baldry

Here is a great jam session tune for the Christmas period, especially good for those pub audiences who want something seasonable! Jingle Bells has quite a respectable bluegrass pedigree, having been recorded ages ago by Don Reno on a Christmas album, and also by Roger Sprung (on Vol 4, Grassy Licks, Folkways FTS 31036, still available from Folkways on cassette). Currently the most easily obtained recording is by Red Cravens and the Bray Brothers, on 419 W. Main, Rounder 0015, recently reissued on CD. This is a wonderful taste of the early days of bluegrass, and the sooner that its companion disc, Prairie Bluegrass, Rounder 0053, also re-appears, the better - but more of this later.

Jingle Bells works well in the key of G on both banjo and mandolin. It’s really a banjo tour de force, and coasts along nicely at a medium to medium-fast speed. The mandolin break offered here sets the chorus in harmony, using double stops which take you around the neck. You really have to learn these positions and develop confidence in shifting from one to the next. Practise!

The verse is a kind of ornamented melody, with the main ideas borrowed from Nate Bray’s mandolin playing on the 419 W. Main recording. The Bray Brothers play their version in the key of E. I can only think that Harley Bray is playing his banjo in open D tuning, capoed 2 frets. He plays a lovely arrangement, using harmonics in the chorus, with brother Nate playing harmony notes on the mandolin - wonderful! They take the tune at moderate speed, crotchet ‘d’=120. I’ve also borrowed their title, Jingle Bells Breakdown, as the shuffle rhythms and syncopations create that special bluegrass effect and enhance the original tune.

Nowadays I’m a bit wary of recommending particular recordings, as I’ve had people come back to me and say they didn’t share my enthusiasm - after going out and spending their money on discs I’ve recommended!* So maybe I should say, “Don’t waste your money on this one,” to satisfy the Trade Descriptions Act, before offering a personal opinion. For my money the above-mentioned pair of discs by Red Cravens and the Bray Brothers are essential items in any traditional bluegrass collection. For more info on this band, see the excellent interview with Harley Bray in the August 1997 issue of British Bluegrass News. 419 West Main was the band’s address in Urbana, Illinois, and most of the tracks on the Rounder discs seem to have been made either in the band’s apartment or at a radio station in nearby Clinton - I’m not exactly clear on the details of this. Naturally the recording quality does not compare with modern studio recordings. However, this music was at the cutting edge of bluegrass in the early 60s - and this was out west in Illinois, for goodness sake (Alison Kraus country, incidentally, though a good many years before Alison was even born!). Their music falls into the ‘they don’t make them like this any more’ category. Nate Bray was the complete bluegrass mandolin player, steeped in Bill Monroe’s music but clearly having integrated ideas from Bobby Osborne and Jesse McReynolds, to name but two. It was a tragedy that he should have died so young, in 1970, from a form of cancer. His brother Harley is still playing, fifty years after starting to pick the banjo in 1947! See the BBN interview for more details.

Another old timer who is still out there picking is Roger Sprung - a great pioneer and experimenter with the five string banjo, based in the New York/Connecticut region. I suspect Roger’s achievements and influence have not been sufficiently widely recognised. I’ve always loved the recordings he made on Folkways in the early 60s, especially the first three volumes, though the recording and transfer quality on disc vary from mediocre to atrocious. Volume 1 has Doc Watson, no less, while Volumes 2 and 3 feature the appearance of Jody Stecher on mandolin and a young Jon Sholle on guitar. The Grassy Licks disc mentioned above is Volume 4, slightly less distinguished but the version of Jingle Bells is well worth a listen - there are also tracks like Muskrat Ramble and Hava Nagila, which gives you an idea of Roger Sprung’s range of musical tastes. He must have been the first to record Sweet Georgia Brown in bluegrass style at least a decade before it became fashionable to do this sort of thing. Perhaps one day Folkways will put out a CD of the best of Roger Sprung’s recordings - is anyone out there listening?

John Baldry, Crawley, Sussex, UK.

* But see ‘Caveats’ Ed.

Jingle Bells for Banjo
Arranged by Pete Ainsworth

Hello! I thought I’d get into the Christmas spirit with this offering. Most people find this arrangement fairly easy to learn, perhaps because they already know the tune!

It has a variety of lick styles that add colour and interest for player and listener alike. For example, the chorus (Part A) is based largely on Scruggs forward rolls, whereas the verse is more biased towards “alternating” picking (double-thumbing).

The right-hand fingering is unambiguous, I hope!

Happy Christmas

Pete Ainsworth, Leamington Spa.

Updated 23rd Jan 1999