Live at the Quick
Béla Fleck's music is a three-ring circus of stylistic outreach, rooted in folk musics from around the globe, yet tethered to an American improviser's sensibility. Here, the composer and banjo virtuoso is captured in full flight at a concert venue with his core band of collaborators, the Flecktones, featuring multi-reedman Jeff Coffin and the charismatic Wooten Brothers, bassist Victor and percussionist Roy (better known as Futureman). The emotional and technical range the Flecktones routinely explore is showcased in a series of adventurous solo spots: Futureman's sampled percussion and evocations of African vocal traditions on "Ovombo Summit"; Victor's rapid-fire percussive techniques and masterful use of harmonics in a moving improv based on "Amazing Grace"; and Béla's crystalline adaptation of the prelude from Bach's Violin Partita No. 3. Better yet, Fleck augments his presentation with a Justice League of America-styled cabal of master musicians, who, like himself, push the envelope on instruments all too infrequently represented in jazz. Thus, we experienceAndy Narell's lithe, sparkling steel drum harmonies on the Americana-inflected pathways of Béla's "Big Country" and on his gorgeous solo turn, "Interlude";Paul McCandless's airborne, lyric oboe on the reggae changes of "Lover's Leap"; the funky facility of Paul Hanson on "Scratch and Sniff" (as he transforms his bassoon with wah-wah effects until it suggests a synthesizer); and the uncanny emotional impact of Tuvan throat singer Kongar-ol Ondar, who trumps any synth player you've ever heard through his use of multiphonics in the Mongolian vocal tradition.--Chip Stern