Béla Fleck, Edmar Castañeda and Antonio Sanchez Defy Genres on "BEATrio"

 

BEATrio-Béla Fleck, Edmar Castañeda and Antonio Sanchez- Fleck Productions

The American Banjo master Béla Fleck was born in New York City in 1958. His full name, Béla Anton Leoš Fleck, is a combination of three of his father’s favorite classical composers, the Hungarian Béla Bartok, the Austrian Anton Webern, and the Czech Leoš Janacek. With such a namesake imposed on the young Fleck, there is no wonder why he has found his path creating a new level of respectability for his unlikely instrument through his inventiveness, imagination and virtuosity.

Fleck didn’t take up the banjo until he was fifteen, after a failed run at mastering the French horn. He was initially inspired by the bluegrass sounds of Earl Scruggs that he heard on the theme of the show The Beverly Hillbillies which ran on national television from 1962 through 1971. The song “Dueling Banjos” which was played for the 1972 film Deliverance by Eric Weissberg and Steve Mandell also made its impression.

Never satisfied with just brilliant mastery of his six-string acoustic/electric banjo, or with the artificially created boundaries that limit the banjo to its bluegrass roots, the genre-bending Fleck has envisioned expanding the possibilities where his instrument could be creatively used and succeeded.

Over the years, Fleck went beyond his bluegrass projects that included his groups like Tasty Licks, Spectrum and New Grass Revival, and his duet project with mandolinist Chris Thile. In 1988 he formed his jazz/fusion/Americana inspired group Béla Fleck and the Flecktones with Howard Levy, Victor Wooten and Roy Wooten. Despite many sojourns along the way, the group is reuniting this season, now celebrating close to forty years of collaboration. Fleck would create classical projects, like his double concerto for banjo and bass with bassist Edgar Meyer, where the two played their debut with the Nashville Symphony Orchestra. Béla also created a trio concerto for the Nashville Symphony Orchestra, this time with bassist Meyer and the late table master Zakir Hussain. Insatiably driven to create for his instrument and to obliterate boundaries, Fleck collaborated and toured with the late piano master Chick Corea on three duet albums, "The Enchantment", the live recording "Two" and "Remembrance" between 2015 and 2024. With all this on his plate and an astounding nineteen Grammy awards under his belt, Fleck has time to have a continuing banjo duet collaboration with his wife and fellow banjo player/singer-songwriter Abagail Washburn. These two artists are also parents and are raising two sons in the Nashville area.

Antonio Sanchez, Edmar Castañeda, Béla Fleck 

Fleck’s newest group collaboration BEATrio is an acronym for the members first names, Béla, Edgar, and Antonio. Edgar is the Colombian harpist Edgar Castañeda whose has leant his brilliant virtuosity on this instrument to jazz and pop projects that featured Wynton Marsalis, Paquito D’Rivera, John Scofield and Sting. His heavenly harp work can also be heard on the Disney animated film Encanto from 2023.

Antonio Sanchez is a fluid drummer/percussionist, originally from Mexico City, whose work has previously been seen as a member of guitarist Pat Metheny’s Trio with bassist Christian McBride between 2005 through 2008. He has also worked with the late pianist Chick Corea, with rockers Trent Reznor and Dave Mathews, and has composed and played the drum-based musical score for Alejandro Iñárritu’s 2014 film Birdman.

This latest project, BEATrio, is just one more piece in the genre-defying puzzle that seems to drive Fleck’s musical aspirations. He has said that it is often rhythm that drives his playing, and he is often aware of how an orchestral scope to his work makes it more expansive. These elements are clearly on display on this collaborative album.

There is a global feel to this album. The three instruments seem to melt together in a symbiotic, organic way. There are elements of bluegrass, jazz, fusion and world music on display on this album. It’s a cultural feast of styles, sounds and colors that can’t be ignored.

The opener “Archipelago” sways with a Latin inspired feel. The rhythmic drive comes from a bass line that is maintained by Castañeda’s facile left hand and Sanchez’s deft percussive accompaniment. Fleck’s melodic banjo weaves in and out like a hummingbird quickly hovering over the nectar flower of the enticing melody. Just beautiful.

The group got a chance to work out some of the kinks on this mostly collaborated music when they performed at NYC’s Blue Note Jazz Club in 2024. “Each night felt like an adventure,” says Castañeda, “and it was special to see the audience experience the music’s evolution.”

“Pellucidar” is a stop/ start piece that seems to have the feel of theme to a detective mystery. Sanchez’s cadenced drum work and Castañeda’s harp create the stepped rhythm as Fleck’s banjo dances across the floor. Castañeda’s harp has a weightless feel as he explores the tonal possibilities of his instrument. Sanchez is particularly creative in his rhythmic magic that he skillfully manipulates seamlessly.

“Kaleidoscopes” is exactly that, a rhythmic and tonal Kaleidoscope that has an Afro-Caribbean dance feel. The trio move in synch with virtuosic sections that show joyous and impossibly fleet lines from three artists at the top of their game. Fleck’s Banjo lines are clean, precise and Castañeda’s harp hums with celestial buzz. Sanchez’s trap work is perfectly timed and explosively expressive. If this doesn’t raise your pulse, then see a doctor.

“Countryside” perhaps comes the closest to Fleck’s bluegrass roots, but even with a name like Countryside, Castañeda’s harp, Sanchez’s drum work and Fleck’s otherworldly banjo makes you believe this music is at home at a location that could be anywhere in the world. A feast of music cultures, colors and ideas combined so skillfully that it is a class by itself.

“Cloak and Dagger” is the most cinematic of the compositions. The music walks you through a scene of suspense and mystery. You feel you are sneaking around trying your best not to being discovered by the evil forces. Fleck spells out the theme and Castañeda has the dual role of bass lines from his left hand and harmony with his right hand. Castañeda eventually gets a chance to show his own expressiveness when he trades ideas in a give and take with Fleck. Sanchez takes his turn to make his own percussive statement close to the coda. This one is fun!

“Whispers of Resilience” opens with some slow, softly played string sounds from Castañeda before being matched by Fleck’s banjo strings. The trio create a wispy, hushed approach to creating the almost whispered, repeating melody. The three slightly intensify their playing in a sustained tonal approach to a simple melody. The cut seems to strangely end abruptly on my copy.

The album continues with “Coda” and its repeated, descending Banjo lines that send us to a peaceful place with sensitive playing by Fleck and some shimmering cymbal work by Sanchez. Castañeda maintains a steady bass line that anchors the piece.

“Walnut and Western” could easily be a theme song to a whimsical spaghetti western. Castañeda’s harp projects with sounds that seem to be from a fairy tale and Sanchez’s adds propulsion and fire. Fleck’s banjo creates a sustained whirl of sound, the armature of this song’s structure.

As the title implies, “Three Is Not a Crowd” is almost like a proclamation about how these guys feel playing together. The three work in synch, repeating each other’s line like musical Swiss movements. They change up the rhythmic time effectively always keeping the listener on their toes. Fleck and Castañeda exchange improvisational ideas like they share the same mind and Sanchez maintains a rhythm that just ebbs and flows as the music requires.

The album ends with “Hooligan Harbor” a stirring collaboration that has a driving beat that has some of the audaciousness of Irish folk music. You feel yourself getting up and doing a jig. Castañeda’s harp almost does a bass solo before allowing the higher register of his instrument to cover you with a blanket of joyous plucked notes. Fleck, always at his best when in his element, plays with vigor and panache that often accompanies Irish folk or dancelike bluegrass style music. Sanchez offers a powerful solo with rolling tom-tom and splashing cymbal work that just kills it.

“Touch and Go” is a bluegrass inspired hootenanny. Castañeda creates waves of flourishing notes against Fleck’s bubbling banjo and Sanchez creates the percussive counterpoint. Get ready to kick up your heels.

"Two": The magic of Bela Fleck and Chick Corea comes to Emory's Emerson Hall October 3, 2015

Two BelaFleck & Chick Corea Concord Music

On Saturday night, in the magnificent crimson and cream surroundings of Emory’s  Emerson Hall, two magicians of music came to play- Chick Corea and Bela Fleck

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 Pianist Armando Antonio Zacone “Chick” Corea, now a spry seventy-four years old, has been stunning the world of jazz and fusion music since the release of his seminal recording Now He Sings Now He Sobs in 1968 with bassist Miroslav Vitous and drummer Roy Haynes.  Corea has long been a restless innovator. He has explored avant garde jazz with collaborators like saxophonist Anthony Braxton, bassist Dave Holland and drummer Barry Altschul in the group  Circles and  joined  in  on iconic trumpeter  Miles Davis’ seminal jazz fusion recordings Bitches Brew and In a Silent Way.  His collaborations with vibraphonist Gary Burton on such albums as Crystal Silence, could be considered a foray into jazz influenced chamber music.

 In the early seventies, swayed in part by his admiration for fellow Miles Davis alumnus John McLaughlin’s fusion group Mahavishnu Orchestra, Mr. Corea started Return to Forever, a rock/jazz fusion band that featured electronic music played at incredible speed , with stunning virtuosity and uncanny synchronicity.  Mr. Corea’s music has always had a Latin flavor, influenced by his ethnicity and his early association with Latin players like Mongo Santamaria and Willie Bobo. His musical compositions are a complex amalgam of Latin rhythms, European classically influenced lyricism and complex improvisations taken from the jazz canon. During his long and illustrious career Mr. Corea has been nominated for over sixty Grammy awards and has won the prestigious award twenty-two times.

Bela Anton Leos Fleck is perhaps the world’s most preeminent banjo player. He has mastered his instrument to previously unseen levels of proficiency  and has been able to expand the possibilities of the sound he can create far beyond the traditional confines of Bluegrass music. His full  name is an  honorific to three classical composers- Hungarian Bela Bartok, Austrian composer Anton Weber and Czech composer Leos Janacek. With this legacy it is not hard to imagine his fascination with classical music  and his goal to somehow want to expand the boundaries of his instrument into this musical realm.

 Mr. Fleck’s first exposure to the banjo was listening as a child to the great Earl Scruggs play the theme to the television show The Beverly Hillbillies. He was smitten by Scruggs and he remains one of Mr. Fleck’s acknowledged influences along with bebop saxophonist Charlie Parker and his current collaborator Mr. Corea.  Mr. Fleck’s  contributions to the Bluegrass canon  include his  participation in  such groups as Spectrum and New Grass Revival.

Always looking to push artificial boundaries,  Mr. Fleck formed the successful crossover group The Flecktones with bassist Victor Wooten and drummer Roy Wooten and the multi-instrumentalist Howard Levy.  The Flecktones emerged as a super group in the late 1980’s bridging the gap between progressive bluegrass, jazz and fusion and garnered several Grammy awards in the process.  When not working with the Flecktones Mr. Fleck has continued his pursuit of expanding his musical pallet. Following  his muse into classical music, Mr. Fleck won a Grammy in 2002 for best Classical Crossover Album for his work Perpetual Motion, a collaboration with the double bassist Edgar Meyer. 

Eventually  Mr. Corea and Mr. Fleck’s  paths crossed in 2006 and they recorded an album titled The Enchantment from that collaboration which led to an international tour. Fast forward to 2015 and Mr. Corea and Mr. Fleck have  recently  released a “live” album capturing  some memorable moments culled from those concerts. The album is simply titled Two. 

The casually dressed duo made their way onto the stage  in front of a capacity crowd. The mood was exhilarating as the set started off with “Senorita”, a Corea composition and  the first cut on the new album. The two men had sheet music on their respective stands but it was obvious it was more about unspoken communication right from the start. This was especially evident on the lead in to the songs.  Mr. Fleck would throw out a phrase and Mr. Corea would answer it, neither quite knowing where the other would take them until they settled into the prepared music. The duo cruised through complex passages, building on a flurry of notes, navigating the shoals of their musical  jet-stream,  but  somehow always ending precisely in unison and to the admiring astonishment of the audience who responded with appreciative applause. 

Mr. Fleck’s “Menagerie” came next . The complexity of the music and its polished execution could not entirely mask the distinctive sounds coming from their respective instruments, sounds that have  identifiable roots. Mr. Fleck’s banjo with its bluegrass inflections and Mr. Corea’s piano with his classical flourishes and Latin inspired  rhythmic approach come from two  vastly different musical worlds, but these two wizards made these variants work for the most part to a surprising degree. 

Mr. Fleck’s “Waltse for Abbey”  was written for Mr. Fleck’s wife Abigail , her self an accomplished banjo player. Mr. Corea starts out with an elegant introduction to the piece, itself was a beautiful pianistic miniature that commanded attention.  The two are most lyrical here, playfully dancing around  each other’s musical ideas on this Americana inspired melody. 

Some of the most daring musical excursions of the evening came when the two delved into the classical repertoire.  Mr. Corea went to exaggerated lengths to erect a cardboard and ductape music stand  above on his piano as Mr. Fleck entertained the audience describing the timeline of the next piece of music- a Sonata by  Domenico Scarlatti. It was here where Mr. Fleck most impressed, as he showed his amazing ability to make his banjo conform and actually flourish within the rigors of this complex classical piece. Mr. Corea is an accomplished classical player, but to see a banjo being utilized in such an unorthodox way was a delicious treat. Mr. Fleck’s technique magically transformed his sound into that of a harpsichord, lending  to the baroque sound of the piece that could hardly be imagined if not seen for oneself.

The set ended with a rendition of Mr. Fleck’s  bluegrass  staple “Mountain.”  Here the tables were turned. Mr. Fleck was clearly in his wheelhouse  performing with  fluidity and  appropriately emphasizing the rough and tumble,  unpolished twang of this roots music.. Mr. Corea, venturing into somewhat unfamiliar territory, seemed less at ease, doing his best to achieve the rootsy  feel of this music. Mr. Corea’s approach seemed more formulaic  and for the most part lacked that genuine, honky-tonk feeling one comes to expect out of Bluegrass music. 

 

The duo called for an intermission before returning for a second set. In between Mr. Corea changed into a more relaxed red-plaid shirt, perhaps feeling the need to help get himself into mood of the bluegrass  part of the program. 

The two played an engaging Fleck composition before surprising the audience with a more familiar tune Stevie Wonder’s “Overjoyed.”  Played with sensitivity and without too much embellishment, Mr. Corea  commented after the piece “I don’t know anyone who doesn’t love Stevie Wonder’s music?”It is good to see that more and more prominent artists are incorporating some of Mr. Wonder’s vast treasure trove of material into their repertoire, recognizing his music as a natural progression from the Great American Songbook. 

Returning to the Classical realm Mr. Corea demonstrated why he is one of the most captivating pianists on the planet as he introduced a beautiful composition by the relatively unknown French composer Henri Dutilleux, whom he likened to Ravel and Debussy. The work titled Prelude en Berceuse (Lullaby) is also on the album Two. The audience was enthralled by the beauty of this short but powerfully melodic piece of music.  Mr. Fleck started off with an ostinato line on his banjo that Mr. Corea played counter to in a delicate dance of notes. It was a tour de force in genre bending neo-classical music for banjo and piano. 

The set continued with a Fleck Composition titled “Juno.” Mr. Fleck related how about two years ago he was traveling and stranded in a Dallas airport when his son was born and so unable to attend the birth chose to compose this song, named for his son,  to mark the event. 

Mr. Corea created a gorgeous introduction to his composition “The Enchantment” which captivated the audience with its cascading harmonies. Throughout the evening you could see the mutual respect  the artists shared,  Mr. Corea often standing up and clapping in acknowledgment of Mr. Fleck’s performance and Mr. Fleck seated, equally acknowledging his admiration of Mr. Corea’s playing. 

There was no doubt the audience came to hear some of Mr. Fleck’s bluegrass influence and he brought it all to bear on the finale,  a rendition of “Bugle Call Rag”  Starting off the familiar three finger picked banjo part slowly, Mr. Corea’s piano surprisingly took on the sound of a calliope. Mr. Corea encouraged  the audience to clap to the easy beat, but when the two started to accelerate  the tempo to a more rapid pace the two speedsters left the audience in the dust. While bluegrass is not Mr. Corea’s forte, he was clearly more at ease on this piece adding notes and chords that gave the  tune authenticity. After a thunderous applause the duo returned with an encore of two more songs. 

After playing with a few musical ideas from the stage, the duo  settled in on a sauntering, bluesy rendition of Mr. Fleck’s “Sunset Road” where their jazz inclinations were most on display.

 Mr. Corea’s “Armando’s Rhumba.” was the parting finale with its swinging vibe and Latin inspired rhythms leaving the audience in a satisfied state of delight having witnessed a truly unique concert going experience.  For those who missed this once in a lifetime event , the one consoling grace is that you can experience some of this magic on the duo’s “live” performance on their latest two disc CD Two.