Bela Fleck and the Flecktones
Greg H
If your not familiar, its a 4 piece group consisting of Banjo (often
electric and midi), sax, electric bass, and synth drums. The music is
all over the place jumping from jazz to bluegrass to world to anything
you can think of. The music is defnitely unique. Fleck is probably the
best banjo player on the planet and his electric banjo sounds are
great for jazz. I often wish my guitar sounded like it.
The group really impresses me in the way they mix composition with
improvisation. They are by far the tightest band I have ever heard.
If you ever get the chance to see them in concert I highly suggest
doing so as they are absolutely fabulous live. Great entertainers and
world class musicians.
Lineup:
Bela Fleck (banjo)
Victor Wooten (basses)
Jeff Coffin (saxes)
Futureman (synthaxe Drumitar, also claims to be from the year 2050
when everyone apparently will dress like pirates)
They have also done stuff with Branford Marsalis and Chick Corea.
Jack A. Zucker
"Greg H" <eggh...@earthlink.net> wrote in message
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Margaret Wilson
Acoustic Planet" and "Perpetual Motion." Good stuff! Classical music on a
banjo took some getting used to though. :-)
Regards,
Margaret
"Greg H" <eggh...@earthlink.net> wrote in message
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S7343
and harmonica like a mo fo. Anybody know where he is now?
EHHackney
Bela Fleck (banjo)
Victor Wooten (basses)
Jeff Coffin (saxes)
Futureman (synthaxe Drumitar, also claims to be from the year 2050
>Bela Fleck (banjo)
>Victor Wooten (basses)
>Jeff Coffin (saxes)
>Futureman (synthaxe Drumitar, also claims to be from the year 2050
>when everyone apparently will dress like pirates)
I have some of their older stuff and think they're great. I don't have
anything with Jeff Coffin, though. Which of their new CDs should I start with?
Thanks,
Hack
--//--
Tom Lippincott
>A few years ago, I saw them with Howard Levy. He's incredible. Plays piano
>and harmonica like a mo fo. Anybody know where he is now?
>
>
I heard that he quit the group so he could spend more time with his family.
Not that I know where he is now.
Tom Lippincott
Guitarist, Composer, Teacher
audio samples, articles, CD's at:
http://www.tomlippincott.com
8 string guitar audio samples at:
http://www.soundclick.com/bands/3/tomlippincottmusic.htm
Greg H
> anything with Jeff Coffin, though. Which of their new CDs should I start with?
I must say I really enjoy the impact Coffin had on the group. I would
suggest "Left of Cool" or the live release "Live at the Quick." They
are also on the verge of releasing a new (3 disc!!) album, which I
imagine will be fantastic.
I should also note that they have borrowed something from the jamband
culture and allow their concerts to be taped from the audience and
freely distributed. This is entirely legal so long as none of the
taped material is used to make a profit. This is how I originally
discovered the band.
If you are interested in checking them out at no cost, head on over to
www.archive.org and go into the audio section. The concerts are
generally encoded in shn or flac format. More information on these
formats can be found at www.etree.org. You will probably need a high
speed connection as the files are large due to use of a lossless
compression scheme. I should also add that there is a large collection
of Charlie Hunter and probably some Scofield as well.
I am curious as to why many jazz artists do not allow their shows to
be taped. I suppose many fear that it would impact record sales, but I
personally do not feel this to be the case. There are many jambands
and cross-genre artists that have developed a large grass-roots
following due to allowing live material to be freely spread. It seems
only to have made them more popular which increased record sales, and
more importantly to them, ticket sales.
The only current jazz (loosely speaking) groups I know of that allow
taping are:
Flecktones
Charlie Hunter
Soulive
Medeski, Martin, and Wood
John Scofield
None of these play traditional jazz and many don't even consider it
jazz (can you say Wynton). I think it would give the jazz genre a huge
boost if more artists allowed taping. If nothing else, every jam-band
fan would immediately give any new music they could get their hands on
a try. Undoubtedly this would help record sales and ticket sales.
Consider the above acts that do allow taping. They are some of the
most popular acts out there.
For more information on taper friendly artists and this whole topic in
general, check out www.etree.org. I'd like to hear what you all think
about it.
Greg H
> I have two of their CDs that I picked up a while back. "Tales from the
> Acoustic Planet" and "Perpetual Motion." Good stuff! Classical music on a
> banjo took some getting used to though. :-)
I believe those albums are both Bela Fleck solo albums. Excellent
stuff, but the Flecktones group itself is very very different. If you
like Fleck's playing, I highly suggest checking the out the Flecktones
to hear him apply his skills a little differently.
Margaret Wilson
Regards,
Margaret
"Greg H" <eggh...@earthlink.net> wrote in message
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Tom Lippincott
>suggest "Left of Cool" or the live release "Live at the Quick." They
>are also on the verge of releasing a new (3 disc!!) album, which I
>imagine will be fantastic.
If it's the same Jeff Coffin, I went to college with that guy. I didn't know
him all that well but remember he was a good player.
Brian D
Dennis Chambers a while ago. Vic Stole the show. Also I highly
reccomend the Perpetual motion solo CD. Bela really takes the banjo
to amazing new places on that CD.
Walter Campbell
I've been lucky enough to see them live (in their trio phase, without
the sax player) in a small theater environment (the Crest in
Sacramento, for those familiar with the area <g>). They were
phenominal!!
The show was long, varied and included solo excursions by all three
(Bela, Victor and a solo by "Futureman" too!), an acoustic
(non-electric set) where Victor played a small upright bass and
Futureman played a collection of cardboard boxes. Great music then
too!
Bela and Victor played with wireless inputs and roamed through the
theater seats on a couple of ocassions so I got treated to an extended,
upclose view of Bela playing his main Banjo about two feet from me.
Late in the show Bela and Victor got into a "can you top this" kind of
duel between Bela on his main Banjo and Victor on a 5-string electric
bass that ended with Bela surrendering to Victor when Victor started
playing the Waltz of the Sugar Plum faires, flawlessly, with both hands
tapping on the strings on his 5-string bass. It brought the house
down.
Generally great music, often very avant guard and ocassionally
unapproachable and unlistenable (to me, not very often though) and a
*real* treat to see live!
If you get the chance to see 'em in person, grab it.
Walt
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Blkojo
> Victor started
>playing the Waltz of the Sugar Plum faires, flawlessly, with both hands
>tapping on the strings on his 5-string bass.
Sat about three feet from him at a music store clinic...I kept looking for
another player or a recording device but none to be seen. He's that amazing.
Blkojo
>Lineup:
>Bela Fleck (banjo)
>Victor Wooten (basses)
>Jeff Coffin (saxes)
>Futureman (synthaxe Drumitar, also claims to be from the year 2050
>when everyone apparently will dress like pirates)
"Futureman" being Roy Wooten, one of Victor's brothers. Another brother, can't
remember the name, is supposed to be a great guitar player...I don't doubt it.