Dec 17, 2011
We're getting a little funky today as we begin the last week of the Christmas countdown by bringing out Duke Pearson's aptly titled Merry Ole Soul. Backed by Bob Cranshaw,Mickey Roker,and Airto on the rhythm section, this one will certainly make you jingle them bells all the way to the big day. The album is a bit hard to find, but the good people at Mosaic Records have released Duke Pearson - Mosaic Select 8 that includes the album in its entirely.
The song "Jingle Bells" is not hard to find, though.It was written by James Lord Pierpont (1822–1893) and published under the title "One Horse Open Sleigh" in the autumn of 1857. Even though it is commonly thought of as a Christmas song, it was actually written and sung for Thanksgiving. And please note that he horse's name is not "Bobtails" or "Bob". The horse is described as "bobtail" or "bobtailed" which refers to the tail as being "bobbed": cut shorter or docked, which was commonly done to the tails of carriage horses to keep them neat and reduce the chance of the tail getting caught in the reins.