Come and listen to a story about a man named Béla. Fifteen years ago, he threw together a dream team of Boston-area musicians for a PBS television special. All four members vigorously pursued their new project, with the first recordings released before the special had even aired. In the years since they first began their critically acclaimed creep up the charts, Béla Fleck and the Flecktones have released 10 albums that have come to totally redefine the roles of several fundamental instruments in fusion.
Bluegrass fusion, that is.
With "Live at the Quick," they bring a touch of big band to their bizarre little niche. In addition to the four core musicians, no less than five honorary Flecktones were recruited for an expanded live lineup. This, of course, altered the ensuing record's sound.
The overall mood here is a bit busier than usual, with thicker layers of instrumentation and even more Asian overtones - the latter a result of the Indian tabla player and Mongolian vocalist added to Fleck's preexisting tendency towards banjo-based sitar mimicry. Past albums have typically been somewhat heavier on the ambiguously blended duo of bluegrass and jazz, but the country twang is much more subdued on "Quick." This is in part due to the fact that Béla's banjo is decidedly harsher this time around, baring more of its teeth than usual. There also are vocals, a fairly rare offering from the 'Tones, and a few songs that threaten to get genuinely heavy.
|
|
|
Elsewhere, Fleck's banjo quite literally quacks its way through seven minutes of "Scratch and Sniff" in a delightful mix of Herbie Hancock and Earl Scruggs. There's even a bit of banjo Bach. Many record stores continue to file Fleck under "Bluegrass," but in light of these progressive changes, that decision makes less sense than ever before.
Béla clearly has not forgotten his roots, though. "Big Country" is frontier music, and unapologetically so. Surprisingly, though, it manages to practically scream "Go west, young man!" while retaining a contemplative quality usually forgotten in similar attempts by other artists. For the album's finale, the grandeur of Aaron Copeland's "Hoedown" is ruthlessly subverted, and the remnants are flung deeper into the Heartland than ever before. The revised roster certainly changes things, but this is still very much a Flecktones record and is instantly identifiable as such.
The percussion supplied by Roy "Future Man" Wooten continues to present a bit of a conundrum. On one hand, his playing complements that of the other band members well. The dips and rises in intensity are always perfectly timed, either casting the spotlight on another musician or leading the group into a collective climax. Unfortunately, he still plays it all on a bizarre guitar-shaped drum synthesizer of his own invention, with only the occasional use of real drums and cymbals. His drum tracks hint at skill, but the fake, produced sounds come off as too canned and processed to really get the blood flowing. On "Quick," his reliance on this Frankenstein of a drum kit remains a necessary evil for Flecktones fans.
Thankfully, his big brother is more than able to compensate. Fellow rhythm section member Victor Wooten may be the most skillful groove pilot ever to touch a bass. The most recent incarnation of "Amazing Grace," his jammed-out solo of a calling card, is one of his best yet. You may not have thought you'd ever bob ya head to a rendition of a classic hymn played on an unaccompanied bass guitar, but you just might catch yourself at it here. Wooten is unilaterally impressive throughout the album, providing scores of delectable fills and searing solo runs that will have you dashing for the rewind button in disbelief. In his lightning-fast hands, the bass has become another full-fledged instrument instead of simply the foundation upon which the other band members elaborate. Nobody plays bass like Victor Wooten. Nobody.
"Quick" is a live album, but you wouldn't know it from most of the songs. There's plenty of well-deserved applause at the end of each track, but very little else by way of audience interaction. Instead, live Flecktones material sells itself based on the presence of an unrestricted improvisational element. Since instrument parts are not mapped out as strictly as they are on studio recordings, the music drives forth with an understated but undeniable ferocity, all the while boasting melodic passages that seem to be summoned with the greatest of ease. The music remains positively liquid.
"Live at the Quick" isn't anything special as far as Flecktones records are concerned. One has to remember, though, that Fleck and Co. have been a few steps above everyone else from the very beginning. If they push this envelope any farther they're going to rip it in half.
Read More
The best albums of 2014
By Noah Zeidman | December 4, 2014Across genres, it has been a pretty great year in music.
Top 10 movies of 2014
December 4, 2014This has been an excellent year for film, offering everything from gripping blockbusters to innovative personal films.
Iggy Azalea is “Reclassified”
December 4, 2014It has become common practice among music artists to repackage their albums in an effort to simultaneously boost single sales and dish out new content by slightly renaming the album or slapping “Deluxe” onto the title.
