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First Take
By Jason Koransky
Curiosity Creations
I first met Béla Fleck in 2000, around midnight
at a hotel lobby in Vitoria-Gasteiz, Spain. The
Flecktones had headlined the evening concert at
the Vitoria-Gasteiz Jazz Festival, and the postshow
festival “hang” was in full swing, with
Christian McBride and Russell Malone fronting
their respective groups in two separate rooms at
the festival’s official hotel. Being Spain, the
music would last until near dawn.
Fleck had played a long show, but this did
not stop him from delving into more music. Not
long into our conversation, the banjoist told me
that he had recently started to learn about Indian
classical music, studying the complex tala rhythmic
patterns and raga melodies. Next thing I
knew, I was counting and clapping along with
Fleck in 5, 7, 9, 15—honestly, I can’t recall the
specific patterns, but they weren’t your standard
4/4 swing. Fleck had such enthusiasm about the
new music he was learning, as this helped to
stoke the fire of his immense musical curiosity.
This sense of exploration is a trademark of
Fleck’s music—you never know what direction
the Flecktones may go in, or what guest instrumentalist
will appear on their album or at one of
their concerts. This month’s cover story on
Fleck by Geoffrey Himes (Page 28) emerges
from new musical directions apart from the
Flecktones that Fleck has veered toward because
of his curiosity. Most prominently, his travels to
Africa resulted in an album and documentary,
and he has recently toured the U.S. with a number
of the African musicians from the album.
His relentless search for new music has helped
him produce one musical surprise after another.
“There’s such pleasure in learning new
music,” Fleck told Himes. “I love busting my
ass and feeling like I’ve got it.”
Fleck’s openness to new music stands as a
good example to all of the winners and entrants
of this year’s 32nd Annual Student Music
Béla Fleck: African collaborations
Awards. Once again, the judges did amazing
work listening to the boxes of entries that we
received. They had hundreds of difficult decisions
to make to cull the best from this magnificent
batch of entries and pick the winners, which
shows the amazing level of student talent that
exists around the world. The complete list of
winners, and stories on some of the winners, can
be found on Page 75.
Besides prodigious chops, a willingness to
explore music beyond standard jazz fare makes
the SMA winners stand out from the pack. They
have open minds, and exhibit the potential (and
ability) to create individual sounds on their
instruments or with their voices. They can look
to Fleck as an example of someone who, even
though he has is a virtuoso on his instrument,
never rests in his laurels. I know that the some of
the winners in this year’s Student Music Awards
will be making music as adventurous as Fleck’s
in the not so distant future.
Other artists featured in this issue, including
twin brothers guitarist Nels and drummer Alex
Cline (Page 40) and multireedist Ken Vandermark
(Page 46), have also built their reputations
by smashing musical boundaries and engaging
in pursuits of new musical frontiers.
Marcus Roberts has taken a slightly different
route. As Howard Reich explains in his story on
the pianist on Page 34, Roberts delves into the
repertoire of the jazz and classical masters (his
new album, after all, is called New Orleans
Meets Harlem, Vol. 1, and features the music of
the likes of Jelly Roll Morton, Duke Ellington
and Fats Waller). His goal is to fully explore the
work of the past masters.
“Genius is a timeless thing,” Roberts said
“It’s never a question of looking back to
something.”
That sure sounds like another valuable lesson
from a master to the SMA winners.
DB
COURTESY BÉLA FLECK
8 DOWNBEAT June 2009