08/10/2007

Good pickin'

Bela Fleck strums his banjo's past

By
Record-Eagle staff writer

Special to the Record-Eagle
Béla Fleck and the Flecktones play at Interlochen Sunday.

INTERLOCHEN — It's purely coincidence that Interlochen's College of Creative Arts is offering a handmade gourd banjo workshop the same week banjo virtuoso Béla Fleck performs there.

But you can bet Fleck is going to check it out.

"I have a gourd banjo, and it sounds cool,” said Fleck, who returns to Kresge Auditorium with his group, the Flecktones, at 8 p.m. Sunday.

The gourd banjo is an early version of the instrument that originated in Africa five centuries ago and journeyed to America with the slaves. For the past year, Fleck has been exploring some of the places it came from for a film and recording project. The "Africa project,” featuring musicians from Uganda, Tanzania, Gambia and Mali, is expected to be released early next year.

It's just one of several unusual collaborations Fleck has undertaken this year, including a duo tour with jazz pianist Chick Corea — their first album, "The Enchantment,” was released in May on Concord Records — and a recording project with opera soprano Renée Fleming. Meanwhile, he's also finding time to travel with the Flecktones, whose latest CD, "The Hidden Land,” won the 2007 Grammy Award for "Best Contemporary Jazz Album of the Year” in February.

Fleck said the album, which critics have called "explosive” and a "new creative peak,” is a return to the group's roots.

"After several albums that featured a lot of collaboration with other artists, it seemed like time to see what we could do with just the four of us again,” he said, referring to himself, bassist Victor Wooten, percussionist Future Man and saxophonist Jeff Coffin. "This led to a concerted creative effort and it yielded 'The Hidden Land.' Whether it is explosive or a new peak, I will leave to the critics and fans.”

The banjo leader and his group have been perfecting a dynamic hybrid of bluegrass, jazz and pop for over 15 years. This year they ventured into new territory with their first tours to Mexico, South America and Hungary, where Fleck has said there were "about six guys named Béla” in attendance at each sold-out show.

Fleck said the band's growing international audiences are especially satisfying because for so long success eluded them overseas.

"For a long time, we could not get concert work overseas, and if we did, it paid so poorly that it would cost us tons to go,” he said. "Something has shifted, and things have gotten really good for us. Crazy how things go.”

Crazy, too, some might say, that Fleck is a such a big draw at Interlochen, where banjo instruction isn't even offered. When he appeared there in 2004 with The Yonder Mountain String Band, the show turned into a four-hour marathon of nonstop music.

Fleck isn't offended that the instrument gets short shrift at conventional music schools.

"Banjo is not considered a 'real' instrument,” he said. "But that's OK. It just makes it that much more special.”

Tickets for Sunday's concert are $29.50 at the Interlochen box office, online at tickets.interlochen.org, by phone at 276-7800 or 800-681-5920, or by fax at (231) 276-7444.