Bela Fleck
When Bela Fleck released the first two volumes of Tales From The Acoustic Planet, the idea was merely to differentiate these returns to his newgrass and bluegrass roots from the electric jazz fusion of his work with the Flecktones. Now, for the third volume, Fleck realizes that the planet stretches well beyond just the United States, as he travels to three African nations to perform in a wide variety of musical formats.
Fleck has never been one to steer away from a challenge, but the idea of working up banjo contributions to so many disparate cultural approaches must have been one of his most daunting. And yet he assimilates so well, whether accompanying a Tanzanian thumb piano player or the giant marimba crew of Uganda, that you’d swear he has been playing these styles all his life.
For those in the west, there is a lot to learn from this incredibly beautiful record (and, presumably, from the documentary of the trip, which will be released on DVD soon). While much music has been released in the U.S. from Mali including material from kora genius Toumani Diabate (heard on this disc) and the magnificent vocalist Oumou Sangare the countries of Tanzania, Uganda, and Gambia have not been well-represented in world music circles. (There are also cuts recorded in the U.S. with D’Gary from Madagascar, and Vusi Mahlasela from South Africa.)
It’s no surprise that there are more intricate rhythms and richly evocative soundscapes to discover than we might have thought. Still, nothing could prepare us for the stunning power of a 15-foot marimba stretched over a resonating deep hole in the ground played by eight musicians. Or the closest thing to the original version of the banjo, the Gambian instrument known as the akonting.
Track for track, Throw Down Your Heart stretches our understanding of musical possibilities, strengthens our sense of connection to other cultures, and delivers joyously evocative delights.