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As he toweled off after the show, Fleck outlined
his upcoming schedule. It became clear
that while the Flecktones have served as Fleck’s
primary musical vehicle for the past 20 years, he
is moving in so many new musical directions
these days that the quartet has almost become a
side project. (In fact, the Flecktones’ only 2009
touring plans come with a small tour at the end
of the year.)
As soon as he finished the Flecktones’ tour
last winter, he recorded his new album with
bassist Edgar Meyer and tabla player Zakir
Hussain. Then he went back out on the road
with the Sparrow Quartet, the chambermusic/old-time
string band led by Fleck’s girlfriend,
Abigail Washburn.
When that ended at the end of February, he
went into rehearsal for his March/April tour with
some of the African musicians on his new
album, Throw Down Your Heart (Rounder). At
the same time he had to prepare the theatrical
release of the documentary film of the same
name about his 2005 trip to Africa. In June and
July, he will tour again with a different set of
African musicians. In September and October,
he’ll hit the road with Meyer and Hussain to
support their album with shows as a trio and
with local orchestras.
Having rattled off this schedule, Fleck
seemed more tired than before. But when he
talked about the prospect of playing with
Hussain, Washburn and the South African
singer Vusi Mahlasela, his weary grin spread
wider. It was as if he couldn’t believe what he
had gotten himself into but couldn’t wait to do it.
“There’s such pleasure in learning new
music,” he said. “I love busting my ass and feeling
like I’ve got it. It’s hard for me to turn down
the opportunities that come my way.
“I’m choosing battles that I think I have a
chance to win. I try to pick things that are just
beyond my reach rather than things that are way
beyond my reach that I’ll never grasp. If there
are rhythms or melodies that I can acquire that
are related to what I’m already doing, I’ll go for
it. If they’re unrelated or beyond my scope, I’ll
leave them alone.
“At least for the time being.”
When Fleck answered the phone at his
Nashville home in early January, he
said, “I can only talk for 45 minutes,
because Edgar and Zakir are coming over to
record some tracks for the new album. And I
can’t talk tomorrow because we’re flying to
Detroit to record the rest of the album with the
Detroit Symphony.”
The full orchestra will be featured on the 30-
minute “Triple Concerto” that forms the core of
the forthcoming album, which comes out in
August on Koch. The trio tracks will fill out the
CD by further exploring themes from the concerto.
The most recent album that Fleck has
released is Throw Down Your Heart: Tales
From The Acoustic Planet Vol. 3—The Africa
Sessions. This audio documentary of his collaborations
with African musicians—on that continent
and in North America—kicked off a year of
African-related activity. He followed up the CD
with his “Africa Project” tour that featured four
musicians from the album: Malian kora player
Toumani Diabaté, Mahlasela, Tanzanian
singer–thumb pianist Anania Ngoglia and
Madagascar guitarist D’Gary. He’s also performing
some shows with only Diabaté.
It’s a full agenda, but that’s the only way
Fleck knows how to live. Turning over so much
of his calendar to these African collaborations
shows his commitment to the project.
“There were several factors pulling me
toward Africa,” he said. “One big factor was the
history of the banjo. The Africans had brought it
over here during the slave trade, and I wondered
if there was still a banjo or a banjo-like instrument
being used over there. But more than that,
I’d been interested in African music from way,
Basekou Kouyate
and Fleck
way back. I knew there was great music, but
before the world-music explosion it was hard to
find. Every once in a while, a friend would show
up with a recording of Pygmies playing flutes or
something. You couldn’t tell where the one was,
but you couldn’t stop listening.
“The breakthrough moment came around
2002 when Jeff [Coffin] played an Oumou
Sangare CD on the Flecktones bus,” he continued.
“It hit me like hearing Earl Scruggs or
Ralph Stanley for the first time. I went out and
bought all her CDs, and every party I’d have, I’d
put Oumou’s music on. Everyone would love it
because it’s great party music. I immediately
wanted to hear her in person.”
Nichole Smaglick, who organizes tours of
Africa, contacted Fleck around the same time
and proposed a banjo safari, where Fleck would
come along and teach banjo around the campfire
each night. “I was unenthusiastic,” he admitted,
“because if I went to Africa, I’d want to play
with Africans, not teach banjo to banjo players
from the U.S.”
Smaglick understood and began sending
Fleck music from the countries she visited. This
whetted his appetite even more, and he began
doing serious research on African musicians and
instruments—including the two most likely
ancestors of the banjo: the Bambara tribe’s
ngoni and the Mandinka tribe’s akonting.
The Flecktones had decided to take 2005 off,
so that seemed the year to put his African fantasies
into action. As often happens when Fleck
hatches a plan, a modest project soon becomes
an immense undertaking. It wasn’t enough, he
decided, to just go over there and play with
some African musicians. If he was going to
devote that much time and money, he might as
well tape the collaborations for a possible CD.
And if he was going to create an audio document,
he might as well create a film document as
well. His younger half-brother, Sascha Paladino,
is an accomplished filmmaker who had already
made a short documentary called Ostinato,
about Fleck’s collaborations with Meyer.
Sony Classical, Fleck’s label at the time, got
excited about the project and promised some
money. By the end of 2004, a film crew and
music engineer were hired, plane tickets were
bought and an itinerary was arranged. They
were all set to leave in late January and stay until
early March. Then things started falling apart.
“In December Sony backed out, and I was
left without any funding,” Fleck recalled. “At
the same time a friend of mine had IRS problems
and I was told if I didn’t show up as a witness
at his trial I would be arrested as a felon
when I reentered the country. I said, ‘You know
what I’m going to go. If I have to empty my
personal savings, so be it. If I have to go to
prison for a while, so be it.’”
He didn’t go to prison (the trial was postponed),
and he didn’t lose his house (although
he did lay out a lot of money). He spent five
weeks in Uganda, Tanzania, Gambia and Mali
and came home with 250 hours of film and
more than 40 pieces of music. Because he was
so invested financially and musically, Fleck got
heavily involved in editing the film and the
music. The movie version of Throw Down Your
Heart won five awards as it made the rounds of
the film festivals last year.
COURTESY BÉLA FLECK
30 DOWNBEAT June 2009