All posts tagged: Bela Fleck

Sleep is Overrated When You’ve Got Music to Fuel the Soul

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At the end of a busy first day at the National Preservation Conference in Nashville, I took off to the Grand Ole Opry House with about 20 close friends for the taping of a PBS special celebrating 40 Years of Rounder Records.  (Look for the show on March 10, 2010.)  While it started late and ended even later, it was an amazing evening of music. Here’s just a few highlights: Nathan and the Zydeco Cha Chas playing that great accordion-driven dance music from Louisiana, where the “crawfish got soul and the alligators got the blues.”  My accordion-playing friend Jim Harrington would have loved it.  As my colleague and seatmate  Caroline Barker said, “If I could move my feet like Nathan and the Zydeco Cha Chas I’d be a dancer instead of a preservationist (perhaps).” Bela Fleck and Abigail Washburn singing and playing Keys to the Kingdom.  I heard them do the tune at Merlefest, but it was even better in the controlled setting of the Opry House.  Then Bela and Jerry Douglas played a duet …

Conversation with Fleck (Continued)

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On the day after I posted the note about an online conversation between Bela Fleck and Earl Scruggs, our local public radio station – WAMU FM – features an interview with Bela on the Kojo Nnamdi Show.  Bela was there to promote his new album Throw Down the Heart which traces his explorations of the banjo’s roots in Africa.  Click on the link above to listen to the full interview. More to come… DJB

A conversation with Fleck (not Flatt) and Scruggs

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Thanks to the wonderful Bluegrass Blog for highlighting a recent online interview between banjo masters Earl Scruggs and Bela Fleck.  Scruggs (photo below) was the inventor of the three-fingered picking style that is integral to the bluegrass sound, and Fleck (photo top) is the banjo innovator who has won 11 Grammy awards and – with his 27 nominations – has the distinction of being nominated in more Grammy categories than any other musician. The interview took place on BMI.com and covers — in just a few short questions — a variety of topics.  Here’s an exchange on their first meeting: BF: Do you remember when John Hartford introduced us by any chance? I’m not expecting you to, but you came over to his place, and he invited me over…I played rhythm guitar, and then at the very end of the session, John said, “Oh, Béla plays a little bit of banjo,” and you said, “Oh, well get it out,” and then I played something for you. I remember, because I thought it was so sweet of …

Watching the Grammy’s

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Andrew and I have been watching the Grammy Awards show together…a little father/son bonding.  He’s helping me understand the genius of Radiohead and I’m helping him understand why Paul McCartney was such a seminal bassist in pop/rock music.  Seems like a fair trade to me. Of course, the categories I care about never get face time in prime time.  Wouldn’t you have loved to see Dr. John sing from his Grammy award winning City That Care Forgot album?  I know that they had to bring out Lil Wayne for the masses as part of their New Orleans tribute, and it was good to see Allen Toussaint, so I’ll take what I can.  Thank God some people still care about New Orleans.  In the Bluegrass category, Ricky Skaggs won for the terrific Honoring the Fathers of Bluegrass, while banjo player Bela Fleck won best pop instrumental album.  (Isn’t this the category that would have included Walk Don’t Run and other pop instrumental classics?  That’ll teach all those folks who make banjo jokes!) In the folk category, …

O’Connor, Fleck to Play Inauguration Event

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Thanks to the Bluegrass Blog for passing along the news that Mark O’Connor and Bela Fleck will be playing next Monday at the Kennedy Center’s Eisenhower’s Theatre as part of the Let Freedom Swing concert.  The evening’s program of jazz music is in honor of the life of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and in anticipation of the inauguration the next day of President-elect Barack Obama.  While O’Connor and Fleck made their name in bluegrass, they routinely cross musical genres and have the musical chops to join host Wynton Marsalis. While tickets are by invitation only, the event is to be televised, so be on the lookout for this mix of terrific musicians. More to come… DJB