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