Bela Fleck (on Tonight Show)
mill...@handel.cs.colostate.edu
butts off. I was wondering if the rest of the album is as good. Would some
one be so kind as to post a mini-review?
Thanks
Kerry Yackoboski
The new album is called "Flight of the Cosmic Hippo", and in
a nutshell the answer is YES, the rest of the album is as good as "Blu-Bop",
the song they performed on the Tonight Show. If you think they
"played their butts off" on TV last night, you should see them live.
There is no comparison - the live show is a jaw-dropper if there ever
was one. Even non-musicians in the audience when I saw them were
asking "how do they *do* that"? Why have I never heard of them?".
A highlight that elicited gasps from the crowd came in the bass/drum solo,
when bassist Wooten was whacking a fast, intricate passage from his
instrument as he walked across the stage. He nonchalantly threw his
bass over his left shoulder and the strap made it swing around his
back and into his hands in a fraction of a second, and if you
weren't looking you couldn't tell - that's how smooth his playing was.
I can't really review the album too well - suffice to say the
band consists of Bela on banjos, Howard Levy on keys and harp, Victor
Wooten on bass, and Roy Wooten (Future Man) on an unusual guitar-triggered
drum kit. Their music is a smooth fusion of bluegrass, jazz, and funk,
and it's not easy to describe. Fleck plays the banjo unlike most
banjo players and often it doesn't really sound like a banjo at all.
For me, their music has all of the dynamics and subtlety of the best
jazz coupled with the energy and punch of the best instrumental rock.
Sort of like a Gil Evans leading the Dregs, if you can picture that.
I'd highly recommend both this album and their debut (I've forgotten
the name of that one - it might be eponymous). Strangely enough, I decided
to buy their album after seeing them on MuchMusic!!! Chalk one up for
video TV, I guess.
--
Mysterious Moon Man of Manitoba <yac...@eeserv.ee.umanitoba.ca>
The Canadian Scanning Tunneling Microscopy Lab
Nathan Torkington
info on the albums if you want to buy them is :-
BELA FLECK AND THE FLECKTONES (eponymous)
Warner 9 26124-2
Sea Brazil 3:41
Frontiers 6:10
Hurricane Camille 2:34
Half Moon Bay 5:10
The Sinister Minister 4:38
Sunset Road 5:01
Flipper 4:19
Mars Needs Women
Space is a Lonely Place 4:00
They're Here 4:28
Reflections of Lucy 3:38
Tell it to the Gov'nor 4:06
(all tracks written by Bela Fleck, except Reflections of Lucy
which is marked (Fleck/Lennon/McCartney))
BELA FLECK AND THE FLECKTONES "Flight Of The Cosmic Hippo"
Warner 7599-26562-2
Blu-bop 4:22
Flying Saucer Dudes 4:51
Turtle Rock 4:12
Flight of the Cosmic Hippo 4:29
The Star Spangled Banner 2:31
Star of the County Down 4:21
Jekyll and Hide (and Ted and Alice)
7:04
Michelle 5:10
Hole In The Wall 4:40
Flight of the Cosmic Hippo (reprise)
2:14
(Some tracks written Fleck, some by all of the crew, and Michelle
by the Beatles, with this arrangement by Fleck)
These are the CD numbers, as recorded on my cassette dub of the CDs
(I don't have a Discman yet). I can particularly recommend:
The Sinister Minister
Sunset Road
Turtle Rock
Flight of the Cosmic Hippo
Star of the County Down
Jekyll and Hude (and Ted and Alice)
Hole in the Wall
Flight of the Cosmic Hippo (reprise)
I think they have gotten better on their second release, with the
greater prominence of the electric banjo. Apparently they do a
rap song live, which I can't wait to see (I am planning a trip to
the US soon specifically to see BF&TF). If anyone taped the
"The Tonight Show" on which they performed, I am willing to pay
shipping, etc, to get a copy.
If anyone out there has /any/ idea of the chords on "The Sinister
Minister", I'd be grateful for a tip ...
Nat the Fleckling-in-training
(gn...@kauri.vuw.ac.nz // Nathan Torkington \\ CSC MS-DOS + etext archive admin)
(C/- Computing Services Centre, P.O. Box 600, Wellington, New Zealand )
It has been said that man is a rational animal. All my life I have
been searching for evidence which could support this.
-- Bertrand Russell