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Béla Fleck: Perpetual Motion

 A l b u m   D e t a i l s


Label: Sony Classical
Released: 2001.10.02
Time:
 57:55
Category: Classic
Producer(s): Béla Fleck, Edgar Meyer
Rating: *********. (9/10)
Media type: CD
Web address: www.flecktones.com
Appears with:
Purchase date: 2001.10.18
Price in €: 18,99



 S o n g s ,   T r a c k s


[1] Scarlatti: Keyboard Sonata in C Major (K.159, L.104) - 2:19
[2] Bach: Two-Part Invention No. 13 (BWV 784) - 1:45
[3] Debussy: Doctor Gradus ad Parnassum from Children's Corner - 2:25
[4] Chopin: Mazurka in F-sharp Minor, Op. 59, No. 3 - 3:43
[5] Bach: Prélude from Partita No. 3 for Solo Violin (BWV 1006) - 3:47
[6] Chopin: Etude in C-sharp Minor, Op. 10, No. 4 - 2:13
[7] Chopin: Mazurka in F-sharp Minor, Op. 6, No. 1 - 2:24
[8] Bach: Three-Part Invention (Sinfonia) No. 10 (BWV 796) - 1:01
[9] Tchaikovsky: Melody in E-flat - 3:15
[10] Brahms: Presto in G minor I, after J. S. Bach - 1:49 - 2:17
[11] Bach: Prélude from Suite for Unaccompanied Cello No. 1 (BWV 1007) - 2:17
[12] Bach: Three-Part Invention (Sinfonia) No. 15 (BWV 801) - 1:14
[13] Paganini: Moto Perpetuo, Op. 11, No. 2 - 3:40
[14] Scarlatti: Keyboard Sonata in D Minor (K. 213, L. 108) - 4:51
[15] Bach: Two-Part Invention No. 6 (BWV 777) - 2:29
[16] Beethoven: Adagio sostenuto from Piano Sonata No. 14 in C-sharp Minor "Moonlight" - 5:07
[17] Bach: Two-Part Invention No. 11 (BWV 782) - 0:55
[18] Beethoven: Seven Variations on "God Save the King" - 9:06
[19] Bach: Three-Part Invention (Sinfonia) No. 7 (BWV 793) - 2:01
[20] Paganini: Moto Perpetuo, Op. 11, No. 2 (Bluegrass version) - 2:38

 A r t i s t s ,   P e r s o n n e l


BÉLA FLECK - Banjo, Arrangement, Liner Notes

JOSHUA BELL - Violin
GARY HOFFMAN - Cello
EVELYN GLENNIE - Marimbas
EDGAR MEYER - Bass, Piano, Arranger
BRYAN SUTTON - Guitar
CHRIS THILE - Mandolin
JAMES BRYAN STUTTON - Steel String Guitar
JOHN "Buddy" WILLIAMS - Guitar

ROBERT BATTAGLIA - Recording Engineer
RICHARD BATTAGLIA - Recording Engineer
STEVE ORCHARD - Recording Engineer
TODD WHITELOCK - Recording Engineer
JAKE JACKSON - Recording Engineer
JIM JANIK - Recording Engineer
RUTH DESARNO - A&R Manager
GLENN MEADOWS - Mastering
ROXANNE SLIMAK - Art Direction
FRANK W. OCKENFELS - Photography
TOBI CORNEY - Photography
GREG KESSLER - Photography
SACIE NEGAS - Product Manager
LAURA KSZAN - Editorial roduction
DAVID BENETT - Management

 C o m m e n t s ,   N o t e s


2001 CD Sony Classics 89610

Grammys Nos 6 & 7!

Double Grammy Award Winner! "Best Classical Crossover Album" and "Best Instrumental Arrangement"



Banjo player Béla Fleck has traveled all over the musical map, having explored jazz, bluegrass, pop, country, and world music. Now he adds classical music to his itinerary with Perpetual Motion, an album that's as fresh and fun as it is serious and sublime. First of all, Fleck's virtuosity is a marvel. The banjo isn't the easiest instrument to get around, but Fleck tosses off the quick, slithering tune of the title track (adapted from a violin showpiece by Paganini) with breathtaking dexterity. At least part of the album's success, though, is due to the clever arrangements. In an excerpt from Debussy's Children's Corner, violinist Joshua Bell plays the melody as Fleck takes on the busily rippling accompaniment - a beautiful effect. Bell performs on a number of tracks, and in fact the roster of guest artists could be considered an all-star band, including Edgar Meyer (bass and piano), John Williams (guitar), Evelyn Glennie (marimba), Gary Hoffman (cello), and Chris Thile (mandolin). The combination of instruments changes with every track, providing a wide variety of sounds and textures and revealing new aspects of familiar pieces. The mix of banjo, mandolin, and bass in a Bach Three-part Invention, for example, gives the music a jazzy, swinging feel, while the pairing of banjo and marimba in a Bach Allegro creates a thrillingly tactile sonority. A bluegrass version of Paganini's "Perpetual Motion," played as an encore, shows that as far as Fleck is concerned, just about any kind of music is ripe for the pickin'.

Andrew Farach-Colton
Copyright 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001 BarnesAndNoble.com llc



Bela Fleck is one of the greatest five-string banjo players performing today. Beginning in the 1970s, he honed his lightning-fast chops performing bluegrass, then moved on to contemporary jazz and fusion sounds. With this album, he broadens his horizons once again by performing an entire program of classical music transcriptions. Reminiscent of classical guitar albums by John Williams (who makes a guest appearance here), the disc traverses a wide range of repertoire-from Chopin mazurkas to Bach's Two and Three Part Inventions. Throughout, Fleck displays a feathery touch on his banjo, and his instrument offers a pleasant, brassy tone with very little twang. The technique he displays on Perpetual Motion is astounding and a refreshing change of pace from the smooth grooves found on the banjoist's Flecktones recordings. The arrangements are generally minimalist and understated, but violinist Joshua Bell, bassist Edgar Meyer, mandolinist Chris Thile, and percussionist Evelyn Glennie join in on this groundbreaking disc. Bluegrass purists may be disappointed (this is a far cry from the free-spirited, folksy abandon found on Sony's Short Trip Home and Appalachian Journey CDs), but classical fans will be astounded by how perfectly natural Fleck's banjo sounds on these works.

Jason Verlinde, Amazon.com



Eclectic banjo player Bela Fleck launches a month-long tour on Friday (10/5) in support of his Sony Classical debut album, "Perpetual Motion." The tour teams him with bassist Edgar Meyer. Fleck is best known for his work with his fusion band, the Flecktones, which won a Grammy this year for their most recent album, "Outbound." Fleck had won four previous Grammys. His Sony Classical album contains popular repertoire transcribed for banjo, including work by Bach, Beethoven, Chopin and Tchaikovsky. The album's supporting players are all major figures in the classical world, including violinist Joshua Bell, percussionist Evelyn Glennie, guitarist John Williams and bassist Meyer. Meyer is as well known for his country work as he is for his classical, having performed with Garth Brooks, Mary Chapin Carpenter, Hank Williams Jr., Lyle Lovett and others. He was a member of the bluegrass act Strength in Numbers, and has recorded with cellist Yo-Yo Ma, pianist Emmanuel Ax and violinist Bell. Fleck and Meyer will perform as a duo for the length of the tour, which ends on Halloween at Lincoln Center in Fleck's home town of New York City. A spokesperson said that approximately a quarter of the tour's set list is drawn from "Perpetual Motion." Fleck and Meyer, who was born in Oklahoma and lives in Nashville, appeared together earlier this year on the album "Heartland: An Appalachian Anthology," one of Sony Classical's several recent productions that meld classical and country music. Fleck also appeared on Meyer's 1997 album "Uncommon Ritual." Sony has a promotional websitefeaturing music and video from the "Perpetual Motion" project. As soon as the classical stint is completed, Fleck and his Flecktones head to Europe for a tour, through Nov. 11, after which they'll spend the remainder of the year in the studio, according to the band's website.

by Marc Weidenbaum - OCT. 5, 3:24 P.M. ET
Editorial Director, Music, citysearch.com



Expect something different from the reliable Bela Fleck

There is a saying Bela Fleck once picked up from a jazz musician that curiously defined the odd but unavoidable link between jazz and bluegrass.

"Bluegrass is jazz for the harmonically impaired."

Fleck can't help but laugh at the remark. A pioneering instrumentalist in both fields, the Grammy-winning banjo ace and one-time Lexingtonian has been a musical shape-shifter of sorts during the past 12 years with the Flecktones. His instrument may speak with an undeniable bluegrass accent, but the eclectic daring and improvisational prowess that have long been Flecktone earmarks lean undeniably to jazz.

"Bluegrass, as complicated as it gets, usually stays within certain sounds", said Fleck, who opens this season's Spotlight Jazz Series with the Flecktones on Saturday. "But once you get people like Sam Bush, Tony Rice, Jerry Douglas (all longtime pals who have similarly but respectfully bent bluegrass tradition) and myself involved, maybe some of those rules get broken. You start to play things that are kind of out of the box.

"But as you get to know jazz and more about different kinds of jazz, you find it actually stays within certain sounds, too. It's different music with different rules."

For the better part of his extensive career, Fleck has shown ample honor for such rules but a far greater desire to toy with them. To say Fleck is only obsessed with grass and jazz is a gross oversimplification of his vast musical profile. A native New Yorker named for composer Bela Bartok, Fleck will turn the tables again on expectations by reinventing the music of Bach, Beethoven, Debussy, Tchaikovsky and more for banjo, bass, cello, guitar and mandolin on his first all-classical disc. Titled Perpetual Motion, the album will hit stores Oct. 2.

On the surface, that might seem like an altogether unexpected follow-up to his last recording, a Flecktones record called Outbound. Awarded a Grammy last winter for best contemporary jazz album, the album sports such stylistically varied guests as Yes vocalist Jon Anderson, folk-pop sensation Shawn Colvin and Kentucky native/King Crimson guitarist Adrian Belew.

But if you trace Fleck's performance history in Lexington during the past three years, you will discover a rich fabric of contrasting but complementary musical situations that haven't sported a single repeat.

In May 1998, he performed a series of banjo duets with one of his primary instructors, Tony Trischka. That fall, he was at Rupp Arena with the Flecktones (bassist Victor Wooten, electronic percussionist Future Man and saxophonist Jeff Coffin) opening for, and later jamming with, the Dave Matthews Band. A year later, he was performing a mixture of chamber- and folk-inspired trios with bassist Edgar Meyer and mandolinist/guitarist Mike Marshall. Finally, last December, Fleck fronted an all-star bluegrass-based lineup that featured Bush, Douglas, fiddler Stuart Duncan and guitarist Bryan Sutton.

But aside from the banjo itself and Fleck's own sense of adventure, what ties these wildly different projects together?

"Basically, they are all things I can do", Fleck said. "It's all music that I'm comfortable playing, music that has a lot of energy. It's also music that has considerable complexity. In most cases, there is a lot of improvising, although in the classical stuff, there isn't. Instead, there are lots of technical challenges - probably more so than in the other music I do."

Though bluegrass ruled his formative years as a performer (including a 1979-81 stretch in Lexington with the band Spectrum), Fleck was exposed extensively to classical music during his childhood.

"The basic sensibility of classical music was always in my head. I'm certainly not any kind of classical expert. But I heard enough of it at an early age to wonder if there was something I could do with that music on the banjo."

It's an approach, at least in theory, similar to what Fleck has done with jazz in the Flecktones. But even though Outbound is laden with high-profile guests and his Flecktone performances often employ numerous synthesized and technological treatments for his tunes, Fleck said a recording is only as good as the core band that creates it and a concert has to emphasize a compositional sense equal to its creative spark.

"You have to be cautious", Fleck said. "I'm very attracted to technology. But you can be fooled by it. You can have all the crazy ideas you want for a song. But the trick is always to have a great song to begin with. If you combine a great song with a great idea ... that's when you get something really different."

"It's all music that I'm comfortable playing, music that has a lot of energy."

Walter Tunis - Sunday, September 9, 2001
The Lexington Herald-Leader, © 1999, 2000, 2001 Kentucky Connect and the Lexington Herald-Leader



Bela Fleck's newest album on the Sony label has wowed the world. Who could have ever imagined that music from Bach's Partita No. 3 for violin, Debussy's Children's Corner, Chopin's Etude in C-sharp minor, and Paganini's Perpetual Motion could sound so incredible on the banjo? It's a particularly exciting recording because Fleck is joined by an astounding cast of friends: violinist Joshua Bell, cellist Edgar Meyer, guitarist John Williams, and Evelyn Glennie on the marimba to name a few!

© 2001 WCPE. All rights reserved.



Bela Fleck isn't the first to perform Bach on the banjo - from Pete Seeger in the '50s to John Bullard in the '90s, pickers have been drawn to twist their fingers around the "classics." No banjo picker, however, has played Bach, and Scarlatti, Beethoven, Tchaikovsky, Chopin, Paganini or Debussy with the sensitivity and sheer artistry of Fleck.

David Royko - September 23, 2001
Chicago Tribune



Bach on banjo: Bela Fleck proves it's not just for bluegrass anymore

Back when Steve Martin did stand-up, he'd play the banjo for laughs.

"The banjo is such a happy instrument", Martin would say, wearing an exaggerated smile. "You just can't sing a depressing song when you're playing the banjo."

But there's more to the banjo than its bright, cheerful sound. Case in point: Bela Fleck, who's made a career of defying the instrument's presumed limitations. He's taken it beyond folk and bluegrass with his funked-up band the Flecktones and demonstrated the banjo's viability as a pop, rock and jazz ax.

Fleck's numerous Grammy nominations and five Grammy awards offer more proof of his and his instrument's versatility. Over the years he's been nominated in a record eight categories: jazz, pop, world music, Christian, spoken word, composition, country and, yes, bluegrass. This year he's been nominated in yet two more Grammy categories - Classical Crossover Album and Instrumental Arrangement - for his first classical solo album, "Perpetual Motion."

The idea of playing Bach, Beethoven and, yikes, Debussy on banjo, as Fleck does, seems like a Steve Martin laugh-getter. But double bass virtuoso Edgar Meyer - Fleck's performing partner on a tour that comes to Sanders Theater Thursday - encouraged him to take playing classical music on banjo seriously.

"There are people who would say, `I don't know if you can do this on banjo,' " Fleck says from his home in Nashville. "Edgar has never been that way. He says, `Of course you can do this.' Then it's push, push, push until we get it up to snuff. And we always do wind up satisfied in the end, even if we have to go through all sorts of contortions to do it."

"Perpetual Motion" mixes the expected and the unexpected. Arrangements of Scarlatti and Bach pieces for harpsichord, a plucked keyboard instrument, are naturals for the plucked banjo, but performing them with such players as mandolinist Chris Thile and percussionist Evelyn Glennie (on marimba) adds a twist.

Other choices look odd on paper - the first movement of Beethoven's "Moonlight Sonata" on banjo? - but, oddly, sound charming.

While known for his technical prowess and bluegrass-fast fingers, Fleck found recording "Perpetual Motion", and particularly the Paganini title cut, a challenge that could be met only by doing a lot of old-fashioned practicing.

"Bluegrass is just as fast, but it's simple", he says. "You don't have to play five minutes straight of written out 16th notes at 170 beats per minute. That's difficult."

Difficult enough that Fleck hired a masseuse to work on his arms before the recording session.

"Perpetual Motion" is not all about technique, it's about extending the expressive possibilities of banjo, a task made easier with the assistance of such top-shelf partners as violinst Joshua Bell and guitarist John Williams.

But Fleck isn't the first banjo player to pick on classical music. Classical banjo was hotter than Britney Spears during the banjo craze that swept the nation in the latter half of the 19th century. And Boston, with some half-dozen manufacturers, was the hotbed of the banjo industry.

This forgotten chapter in banjo history is revealed in fascinating detail in "The Banjo: The People and the Sounds of America's Folk Instrument", a free exhibit on display at the Museum of Our National Heritage in Lexington through Aug. 25.

Don't miss it. Banjo history is traced from its African origins through its development into the quintessential American instrument. The exhibit ends with a Grammy belonging to a musician who represents the banjo's present and future: Bela Fleck.

No surprise Fleck is looking ahead with his next projects. The Flecktones will release their first DVD, "Live at the Quick", with a companion CD of the same name on Feb. 26. It features Fleck's band with some extremely diverse guests, including steel drummer Andy Narell and Tuvan throat singer Congar ol'Ondar. Then Fleck wants to do a straight-ahead jazz album, something that would require the kind of concentrated study he needed to make a classical album. He's thinking of what he calls "an edgier" classical follow-up, too.

Does he think he was fated to play classical music when he was named after composer Bela Bartok?

Fleck laughs. "It's certainly peculiar. But no more peculiar than growing up in New York City and becoming a banjo player."

by Larry Katz - Tuesday, January 29, 2002
© Copyright by the Boston Herald and Herald Interactive Advertising Systems, Inc.



Perpetually Amazing

Ok, lets see here. Bela Fleck has mastered bluegrass, was one of the pioneers of newgrass, released a beautiful CD with Indian and Chinese musicians, and... oh yeah, all those records with the Flecktones crossing almost every genre of music.

Now we get to hear Bela take a serious look into classical music. I was a bit skeptical that he could pull this one off. Granted he has an amazing track record listed above, but that is exactly what made me skeptical. Classical music takes an entirely different approach then all of the other things he has played. Improv pretty much goes out the window, there is no "groove", and there is a much larger focus on the subtleties of dynamics and rhythm.

Needless to say, I was not disappointed. For what it is, this record is amazing!

I know some classical purists will not find this disc very interesting, as most of the works that were chosen for this disc concentrate more on technique and less on emotion, but as I said, for what it is, it is amazing.

This album is heavy on Bach, Chopin, and other composers whose works are very "symmetrical", for lack of a better term. These pieces are almost like technical exercises, with passages played in a very exact manner.

What makes the disc so strong is that Bela conquers the technique challenge so easily. The picking he displays is amazingly fluid, and bears with it a gorgeous tone. The name sake of the disc, a tune by Paganini, is jaw dropping. To hear a banjo rip through a million notes a second with such clarity is an absolute delight.

The second strength of the album is the arrangements of the pieces. The configurations of instruments are picked very well to create wonderful atmosphere. One of my favorite examples of this is percussionist Evelyn Glennie playing the marimba on a number of Bach Inventions. On some tracks the marimba brings almost a calypso feel, while other tracks, such as the Two-Part Invention No. 13, it is haunting when combined with the banjo.

I was very impressed to hear Chris Thile on mandolin. Knowing he is quite young, and from the "bluegrass side", I felt he did a very good job adding to the music. His role is similar to Mike Marshall's from Edgar Meyer's "Uncommon Ritual", and he plays just as well as Mr. Marshall.

Most of the tunes clock around or under 3 minutes, but there is one 9 minute tune of Beethoven's 7 variations of "God Save the King" with guitarist John Williams. To have some romance, there also is a nice take on Beethoven's "Adagio sostenuto" from "Moonlight" Sonata. There is also a little fun with a bluegrass version of Moto Perpetuo with the incredible guitarist Bryan Sutton

I think what Bela Fleck has done and is doing for the banjo and for music in general will be looked on in many years as some of the most imaginative and exciting work of our time. The chances he takes and the mastery in which he plays belongs only to the rarest of musicians. This album is another step in that amazing journey. Beautiful, hypnotic, and technically dazzling.

Andrew Kim from Minneapolis, MN United States, October 4, 2001



Mentions of eclecticism are a given in any reference to banjo player Béla Fleck, and it's easy to understand why. Fleck has been stretching the possibilities of the banjo for a couple of decades now, exploring fusions of bluegrass, rock, jazz and just about any other musical style you care to name - and he shows no signs of slowing down.Fleck may set a record for musical diversity. Last year, he and the Flecktones released Outbound, the group's widest-ranging recording ever. In addition to delivering the usual mix-and-match of styles on the banjo, Fleck plays an instrument that combines a banjo head with a sitar fretboard. As if band members Roy Wooten's bass, Jeff Coffin's horn attack and Victor "Future Man" Wooten's sci-fi drumitar weren't enough, Fleck added a grab bag of guests - ranging from ex-Yes vocalist Jon Anderson and singer Shawn Colvin to steel-pan drummer Andy Narell. Later this month, Fleck releases his first classical recording, Perpetual Motion, featuring banjo-driven takes on Bach, Beethoven, Chopin and Debussy - a brave move, but just because your label says you can make a recording of classical pieces on your banjo, and just because your band has the skill to play tunes that throw together a laundry list of world-beat sounds, does that mean you should? Only if the result is more than the sum of its parts. Fortunately, the Flecktones won't be dragging along a chamber orchestra, Jon Anderson or other musical baggage on Thursday night. It'll just be the four of them, doing what they do best - entertaining an audience, challenging each other and creating intriguing musical connections in the process.

By Terry Perkins - Thursday, Sept. 13
Copyright © 2001 New Times All rights reserved.



Schöner gehts einfach nicht. In gepflegten Kammer-Ensemble-Konstellationen widmet sich der Banjo-Viruose auf eine derart überzeugende Art der Interpretation klassischer Literatur, dass man aus dem Schwärmen nicht mehr rauskommt. Hielt ich anfangs noch den Gedanken, Bach, Scarlatti, Paganini auf Banjo zu spielen für eine eher « lustige » Idee, stellten schon die ersten Töne meine schnöde Ignoranz bloß, aber sein wir ehrlich: Wer ausser Fleck kann solch ein Vorhaben schon derart kunstvoll, einfühlsam, bewegend ins Leben rufen? Und dabei wirken die Preludes, Etuden und Inventionen wie für Banjo geschrieben, so selbstverständlich fließen sie aus Fleck’s Instrument. Einiges wird dabei solo gegeben, bei anderen Stücken begleiten den Banjo-Gott sowohl klassisch geschulte Musiker als auch uns bekanntere Namen wie Chris Thile (Mandoline) und John Williams (Gitarre). Besonders schöne Klang-Kombinationen ergeben sich, wenn Fleck sich mit der Marimba-Spielerin Evelyn Meyer duelliert. Großartig.
 

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