It's that time of year again, when certain local stations put all those secular Christmas songs into rotation, some of the stations do that 24/7 through until the end of the year.

Every once in a while, ya gotta tune one of those in when driving.

And every year, one in particular puts a big gtin on my face, but likely not for reasons of sentiment, or not Christmas sentiment anyway.

You see, there is one secular Christmas song that has become just about an international standard this time of year, and that would be Bobby Helm's recording of "Jingle Bell Rock".

But for a geek like I am, who also remembers the days when session players ruled the charts with the frontman "star" -- it is often the performances and lore of those old session cats that is the interest.

Man name of Hank Garland played those sparse lines in Jingle Bell Rock.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hank_Garland

After playing a tribute quote to the Jingle Bells riff as an Intro (and paying tribute to the Jazz greats while doing so, echos of Charlie Christian, hints of Kenny Burrell's inimitable sparse use of 4ths and the tritone, etc.) and then plays those two-note stabs off of the melody.

But it is the Bridge that really brings the big grin here.

He sits out.

That's right, does not play a single note for the entire Bridge.

Both times the Bridge is played.

If you're thinking that he really did play during the bridge but the missing guitar part is due to a mix engineer just turning down the track during the Bridge, here's a headsup, they didn't record multitrack like that back then. There would have been no way to have his track that isolated.

Layin' back, sittin' out, time to get a drink o' that coffee before I have to play again, man, that's the stuff of session man LEGEND.

In case someone isn't sure of what the recording in question sounds like, here's a link to youtube:


Hank Garland's Christmas Tune, Man.

It is equally important to be able to know when it is time NOT to play.

Walter Louis Garland -- "Have L-5CES, Will not travel"


Fast Gun For Hire


--Mac

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