2024-02-03 15:25:00
Gershwin-Grass
Fleck recently recorded an arrangement of George Gershwin’s “Rhapsody in Blue” with the all-star band that the now 65-year-old originally put together for the album “My Bluegrass Heart” (Grammy for Best Bluegrass Album 2022). further signal that the style and instrumentation can also be suitable for large concert repertoire. The piece is also part of the program with which the band is now touring.
The native New Yorker was never particularly concerned with the rural image of country music – his father, a music professor, had literally given him advanced music in his cradle and called him “Béla Anton Leoš” (following the composers Béla Bartok and Anton Webern and Leoš Janáček). And yet he ended up picking up the banjo early on, and his heart for bluegrass never stopped beating.
“I have now returned to this music following over 20 years and wanted to bring in some of the concepts that I learned in other musical worlds,” explains Fleck in an email interview with KURIER. “Jazz, Indian and classical music have been strong focal points of my work and it was inevitable that some ideas would trickle down from there. But the musicians in bluegrass have also changed. There are a lot more of them playing at a very high level today and that allows me to implement my plans. Besides, I’m the old guy now and they need to listen to me!”
Fiddler & picker with a good reputation
Fleck’s fellow musicians – guitarist Bryan Sutton, mandolinist Sierra Hull and her partner Justin Moses (Dobro), violinist (still called “fiddler” in the genre) Michael Cleveland and bassist Mark Schatz – are all masters of their instruments and will play in theirs highly revered by their respective communities. Fleck had put together similar all-star bands in the past and recorded albums that are now considered milestones in the genre – especially the album “Drive” (1988).
“Drive” means the rhythmic idea that defines bluegrass as music even more than a specific instrument. “A friend explained it to me like this: six musicians are standing on the roof of six carriages of a moving train. In the middle is the center of the beat. When they go forward they are in front of the beat, when they go back they are behind it. But that doesn’t mean the train arrives sooner or later! Good bluegrass tends to lean forward – and when played correctly, the music never speeds up, even if it feels like it does.”
Challenge
The fact that Fleck’s compositions not only have a decent tempo but also have considerable complexity makes them a real challenge – crazy tempo changes or odd time signatures are often used stylistic devices, and it’s no coincidence that the album’s opener is called “Vertigo”. “This version of bluegrass has a lot of excitement built in – maybe because we’re in danger of falling off the bandwagon at any moment,” says Fleck, who also sees himself as a bit of an ambassador for a music that has many enthusiastic fans but finds little resonance in some parts of Europe .
“I’m excited to introduce this music here, where bands of this caliber rarely perform,” says Fleck. “You don’t have to be a country fan to like bluegrass – in fact, it seems that a lot of people who don’t like country love bluegrass. In many ways it’s closer to flamenco or Django Reinhardt – acoustic music at a high level, with a focus on improvisation and energy.”
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