Artist: Bela Fleck
Record Review from web archive March 10, 2009
Bela Fleck
When Bela Fleck released the first two volumes of Tales From The Acoustic Planet, the idea was merely to differentiate these returns to his newgrass and bluegrass roots from the electric jazz fusion of his work with the Flecktones. Now, for the third volume, Fleck realizes that the planet stretches well beyond just the United [...]
Record Review from web archive November 25, 2008
‘Tis The Season
One of the categories I have in my mega-CD changer – it’s a 400-CD jukebox – is for holiday music. I have about 20 discs in there that I listen to on shuffle-play, usually when company is here, from Thanksgiving to New Year’s Day. Every November, I take out the ones I’m tired of, and [...]
Waxed - Record Review from Issue #62 Mar-Apr 2006
Bela Fleck & The Flecktones – The Hidden Land
Classifying the music of Bela Fleck & the Flecktones has always made for some interesting arguments. The band features a banjo, so it must be country, or is it folk? But hold the phone, the tempo and structure of many of Fleck’s songs lend credibility to those who contend this is a jazz quartet. Ask [...]
Not Fade Away - Reissue Review from Issue #27 May-June 2000
Bela Fleck – Natural Bridge
Bela Fleck was a young man — just 24 — when he made Natural Bridge in 1982, but it wasn’t his first album, nor even his first solo album. Young though he was, the New York native was already something of a veteran. From virtually the beginning of his career, he was determined to do [...]
Waxed - Record Review from Issue #23 Sept-Oct 1999
Bela Fleck – The Bluegrass Sessions: Tales From The Acoustic Planet, Vol. 2
Bela Fleck says everything he plays is “colored by the bluegrass heartland,” which would seem a self-evident statement for a banjo player. But since the early 1990s, Fleck and his band, the Flecktones, have repeatedly taken the banjo to uncharted realms, from Chick Corea-inspired chord-change exercises to performing with the Boston Symphony. On his new [...]
Waxed - Record Review from Issue #6 Nov-Dec 1996
Bela Fleck & The Flecktones – Live Art (2-disc set)
Bela Fleck & the Flecktones have accomplished a singular feat, that of creating an entirely new genre. A fan called it Blu-bop, which seems appropriate. Their music combines the familiar sounds of bluegrass with whatever else comes along, be it jazz, classical, rap or “The Ballad of Jed Clampett”. In lesser hands, these combinations would [...]
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