• March 2

Bela Fleck announces new tour dates

In conjunction with the release of his Throw Down Your Heart album, Bela Fleck has announced new tour dates. If you haven’t heard about this project it is really cool. Fleck visits Africa to discover the origins of the banjo and as he travels he plays with all sorts of musicians.

So from the later part of this month to mid April he’ll be promoting this new album. During late summer he will be going on a tour with Edgar Meyer and Zakir Hussain. Check out the dates and locations.

I have been fortunate enough to see Fleck twice in concert and both times they were simply spectacular. I saw him was when he had just released his Music for Two album and he was touring with Edgar Meyer. Their skill really cannot be put into words. They played Bach, jazz, an insane canon, bluegrass and then even switched up instruments. Meyer played the piano for several songs and on one song Fleck played a guitar. If you have the opportunity to see them play it is extremely inspirational and enjoyable to watch.

I was also able to see Fleck play with the Flecktones. Again, phenomenal. Victor Wooten is one of the best electric bassists in the world. Future Man and his instrument, the Drumitar are insane (literally). Then the world renowned Jeff Coffin on the sax. It was an awesome show and afterwords I got to shake Bela’s hand! When I shook it I also asked him if he could check out my transcription of Sinister Minister but I don’t know if he ever did :( .

Have any of you guys see Bela in concert? Who was he playing with? I have always been curious as to how many people he has played with over the years. It would be interesting to see the breadth of the styles of musicians that he’s been in concert with.




Comments

  1. Matt November 1st

    Comment Arrow

    I’ve seen Bela about 18 times now, with a variety of people. He does a fair amount of work with international artists (unless you’re totally into that scene, which I’m not, you’ll probably never hear about these folks).

    He’s great with the Flecktones, but often plays smaller venues like at Jazz clubs with different artists. You gotta go to one of those shows as they’re much more personal and usually involves him playing something new. And I personally think Bela plays best when he’s doing something completely new and different.


Add Yours

  • Author Avatar

    YOU


Comment Arrow




About Author

mike

I have been playing banjo, on and off, for 4 years now. I love indie/alternative music and also loved to play it. When I first got my banjo there weren't any tabs out there for Sufjan or Iron and Wine, so I tried to figure them out. Thus, the birth of alternativebanjo.