Bela Fleck's African Project
When it comes to banjo players, there is none who has pushed the instrument into more unusual and incredible places than maestro B�la Fleck. From his work with the astonishing Flecktones to his surprising 'Perpetual Motion', where he arranged a series of classical pieces for the banjo, Fleck has always moved the profile of the instrument onward and upward. In 2005, he journeyed to Africa to explore the African roots of the instrument, record an album with local musicians, and turn the whole exercise into a documentary called 'Throw Down Your Heart'. His journey took him to Uganda, Tanzania, the Gambia and Mali, and yielded a diverse array of musical collaborations, one of which he is bringing to Adelaide in April. "This project that I've been doing with African musicians started in 2005," Fleck explains, "and I ended up recording with a lot of great musicians. Sometimes out in the field, sometimes studios, sometimes people's houses, hotel rooms... fields or town squares... We made the whole project into an album, and I spent a few years editing the film and the music - it's been out a year or so now - and now I've been doing these different tours with different African musicians for the project. It's cool because it's yielded a lot of different playing situations that are unusual, and I like to put myself into unusual playing situations!" Bringing together the banjo with more traditional forms of African music was never going to be the easiest experience in the world, but Fleck obviously relished the challenge. More than anything else though, he obviously got a lot out of the experience. "It was awesome! I just loved it," he laughs. "Some of the music was very folky and rootsy, and some of it was amazing improvisers like jazz musicians, but on these ethnic instruments; it just ran the gamut. I would just always give it my best, and I think the cool thing is just throwing a modern banjo player into that world and what it brought out of me and what it brought out of them." "Some of it was like falling off a log, and some of it was a lot of work. If I didn't understand the music intuitively and couldn't just play along I would try to write it out in my own banjo notation until I could look at it. Then usually I would discover that what didn't make sense suddenly made sense because I could see where they were repeating things, and then you can tell whether it's in 6/8 or 9/8 or 4/4 and then once it repeats you can tell how much they're altering it each time it comes around." One of Fleck's great inspirations to explore African music was Malian Wassoulou singer Oumou Sangar�, and their subsequent collaboration is the show that Fleck is bringing to Adelaide in April. Since becoming a fan, Fleck had to go through a few hoops to actually meet the singer. "Oumou is one of the people that I was so inspired by, that I wanted to go to Africa in the first place." Fleck says. "Before I heard her music I knew, intellectually, that the banjo had come from there and I was interested in going someday, but when I heard her music I was like, "wow, I love that music, I wish I could play with those guys!" That was a different feeling than the intellectual curiosity - that was a heartfelt feeling. I tried to find out if she ever toured in the United States, and then I discovered that she was in the United States, and not only that, but the guy who was booking her tour was an old roommate of mine from when I was in a bluegrass band in the Seventies. He was able to tell me where she was, I was able to send her some music, she listened to it, agreed to meet with me... I went to Brooklyn where she was camped out with her band. I went and met her, talked to her, played her some things, and then she invited me to come back with them. She hosted me in her hotel - she's quite a superstar over there! "When I got to go to Mali and play with her she turned out to continue to be wonderful, and connected me with all of the musicians I was looking to play with in Mali, and when Oumou was calling, they showed up! Then she came over this summer, we did some touring and that went really well. That's what led us to coming to Australia - Jeff Lang had a lot to do with it. He saw the show and reported back home how special it was and all of a sudden there was this offer!" While this is the tail end of Fleck's African project, he has plenty of other irons in the fire, from a new Flecktones record to a collaboration with Indian tabla player Zakir Hussain, a banjo concerto and a film score. If you want variety, Fleck has it, and he continues to surprise, innovate and charm listeners with his varied and idiosyncratic take on the humble banjo. Bela Fleck's African Project featuring Oumou Sangare comes to the Festival Theatre on Friday 9 April.  |
Issue 490
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