Bela
Fleck and the Flecktones
The Ocean, Hackney, London
May 4th 2001
The short review -
AWESOME! AMAZING! FANTASTIC!
The longer review…
At face value BF&TFT could appear of little interest to the
average rock fan. Led by a banjo player, no guitarist and recent
winners of Grammy's in the bluegrass and jazz categories (Bela
also makes classical albums on banjo). So it's a jazz / bluegrass
crossover right? Well wrong actually, the Flecktones somehow
manage to fuse elements of jazz, country, rock, jam, funk and
even classical music into a glorious whole that pretty much
transcends genre, defies categorisation and in a live setting at
least (prior to this gig I had only heard one album about ten
years previous and at the time of writing haven't heard any more
although that will soon change) is truly wonderful. Their latest
album 'Outbound' includes such apparently disparate collaborators
as Shawn Colvin, Adrian Belew, John Medeski of jazz jammers MMW (see
elsewhere on BoA for a review of their recent London gig) and Jon
Anderson, loony new-age vocalist from prog rock antiquities Yes.
Also of course the band have been known to jam with my favourites
Phish with Bela himself appearing on several albums (Hoist and
Farmhouse come to mind).
The band consists of Bela himself on acoustic and electric (also MIDI I believe) banjo, Victor Lemonte-Wooton on bass guitar, Jeff Coffin on saxes and flute and from the year 2050 Future Man on Synthaxe Drumitar (a Synthaxe guitar synth used to trigger percussion samples) and various 'real' percussion. Amazing musicians all, but with Victor taking the award for 'jaw droppingly good musician of the night', this guy is in the Jaco category I kid you not.
Not owning any
albums I can't provide a set list although they did finish up (prior
to a final solo sport by Bela) with a version of Aaron Copeland's
'Hoedown' which made ELP sound like a bunch of amateurs. As I
have said previously the music was an amazing mix of styles, one
minute infectious funk grooves, the next intricate composed fugue
like sections (a bit like some of Phish's earlier work but I
would have to admit rather more accomplished), and the next
exciting whole band improvisation. Much of the gig was spent
firmly in the 'zone' (difficult to explain this one but if you
have been there you'll know what I mean) which is the key factor
that for my friends and I sets them apart from most of the jazz /
rock / fusion type acts I have seen (and I have seen quite a few).
The Dead and Phish go there, MMW and the Disco Biscuits go there
(albeit in very different ways) and of course Gong have their
home planet there. The obligatory drum and bass solos went on a
little too long of course although both were vastly more
entertaining than most I have seen. The bass solo in particular
contained an element of musical humour that was hilarious. I must
also mention Bela's electric banjo sound which if you closed your
eyes would have been hard to identify, a bit like the clean
precise guitar work of Jerry Garcia, unbelievably intricate,
exciting, and again nothing like the sterile exercises of so many
'fusion' twiddlers.
So there you are, music so good that it transcends boundaries,
nearly three hours of musical bliss. Bela mentioned that they may
be back in the UK in November, be there or miss something really
special.
For sound samples
and further information visit www.flecktones.com
Why don't we have any bands this good in the UK?
The Ocean
The Ocean is a new venue in East London, custom converted with
three performance areas. This gig was in the Ocean two, a really
nice space with great acoustics, well designed and clean, a real
contrast to the usual scruffy, dirty, toilet type environments
offered by some London venues. Recommended.
David
Weston May 2001
Digipix bya Ian Oakley
Copyright Bathtub of Adventures 2001
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