SOUNDTRACK: BELA FLECK, EDGAR MEYER, ZAKIR HUSSAIN-Tiny Desk Concert #70 (July 26, 2010).
Bela Fleck is a rather legendary musician, and yet I realized I don’t really know that much about him. And somehow I never knew he was a banjo player (that’s a pretty serious omission on my part). I had never heard of the other two musicians, although they are apparently world-class masters of the bass fiddle and the tabla.
I also didn’t expect this Tiny Desk Concert to be so interestingly world-musicy.
This set is only two songs but each is about 7 minutes long and they are both very cool (and from the album The Melody of Rhythm).
Fleck’s playing is amazing, with a tone that is often unlike a standard banjo sound. And I absolutely love the tabla–I am fascinated by this instrument. The first song, “Bubbles” is an amazing demonstration of Fleck’s banjo. About midway through he is playing in a decidedly middle eastern style (which works great with the tabla). And when the bass starts getting bowed around 1:50, it adds an amazing richness to this already cool song. There’s a cool bass solo (I love that the tabla pauses a few times during the solo). The ending is just wonderful.
Before the second song, “Bahar” (which means “springtime”) they talk about being nervous, which is pretty funny. This song opens with the bass fiddle’s bowed notes (including a very very high note). This one seems to be a more solo-centered, with some elaborate work from Fleck after the introduction. And the tabla solo, while brief, is really cool to watch. I prefer the first song, but the more traditional nature of the second song is a nice counterpart to the first.
[READ: August 24, 2015] Grantland #12
I enjoyed this issue as well. This was mostly the spring and summer of 2014, which sounds so long ago, and yet so many things seem so current.
CHUCK KLOSTERMAN-“The Life and Times of Kiss”
I love this article about Kiss. And I wrote about it back here.
WESLEY MORRIS-“Poison Candy”
This is about the disastrous state of female comedies. It focuses on the movie The Other Woman which is ostensibly a female centered comedy but is entirely other.
BILL SIMMONS-“Sterling’s Fold”
A drumming down of Donald Sterling. It’s hard for me to believe that this happened over a year ago.
ZACH LOWE-“Building the Brow”
An article about Anthony Davis of the Pelicans, who is proving to be better than anyone imagined. (more…)
Read Full Post »
We went to Newport Folk Festival in 2019. We’ve had a kind of understanding that we would try to go again. So this year, when tickets were announced I jumped online and managed to score four of them!
I Just Read About That... 