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Béla Fleck: Tales from the Acoustic Planet

 A l b u m   D e t a i l s


Label: Warner Bros. Records Inc.
Released: 1995.04.11
Time:
 58:50
Category: Bluegrass, Progressive Jazz
Producer(s): See Artists ...
Rating: ******.... (6/10)
Media type: CD
Web address: www.flecktones.com
Appears with:
Purchase date: 2001.11.09
Price in €: 18,99



 S o n g s ,   T r a c k s


[1] Up and Running (Béla Fleck) - 4:26
[2] First Light (Béla Fleck) - 2:41
[3] The Great Circle Route (Béla Fleck) - 4:23
[4] Circus of Regrets (Béla Fleck) - 4:09
[5] Three Bridges Home (Béla Fleck) - 5:17
[6] The Landing (Béla Fleck) - 3:55
[7] Arkansas Traveler (Traditional) - 3:06
[8] Backwoods Galaxy (Béla Fleck) - 4:23
[9] In Your Eyes (Béla Fleck) - 5:09
[10] System Seven (Béla Fleck) - 4:17
[11] Cheeseballs in Cowtown (Béla Fleck) - 4:51
[12] Bicyclops (Béla Fleck) - 4:16
[13] Jayme Lynn (Béla Fleck) - 5:28
[14] For Sascha (Béla Fleck) - 2:34

 A r t i s t s ,   P e r s o n n e l


BÉLA FLECK - Banjo, String Arrangements, Liner Notes, Interior Photo-snapshots

JERRY DOUGLAS - Guitar
TONY RICE - Guitar
SAM BUSH - Mandolin
EDGAR MEYER - Bass, Piano
BRUCE HORNSBY - Piano
GRACE BAHNG - Cello
CHICK COREA - Piano
STUART DUNCAN - Fiddle
CONNIE HEARD - Violin
KENNY MALONE - Percussion, Drums
BRANFORD MARSALIS - Tenor Saxophone
PAUL MCCANDLESS - Bass Clarinet, Oboe, Alto Saxophone
MATT MUNDY - Mandolin
DENNIS SOLEE - Clarinet
GEORGE TIDWELL - Trumpet
MARY KATHRYN VANOSDALE - Violin
KRISTIN WILKINSon - Viola
VICTOR LEMOTE WOOTEN - Fretless Bass
ROY "Future Man" WOOTEN - Percussion, Drums, Woodwind
ROBERT BARRY GREEN - Trombone

BILL VORNDIK - Engineer
BERNIE KIRSCH - Engineer
DAVE SINKO - Engineer
KEN HUTTON - Second Engineer
ROBERT REED - Second Engineer
DON COBB - Editing
FRANK WELLS - Editing
DANNY PURCELL - Mastering
LAURA LIPUMA-NASH - Art Direction
GARETT RITTENBERRY - Design
MARK TUCKER - Photography
RICHARD BATTAGLIA - Interior Photo-snapshot
BOB JAMES - Illustrations
EVANGELIA PHILIPPIDIS - Illustrations

 C o m m e n t s ,   N o t e s


1995 CD Warner Brothers 45854
1995 CS Warner Brothers 45854



Fleck's first solo outing since 1989 is the best jazz album I've heard all year. After one listening of "Bicyclops", a weird little duo featuring Chick Corea on piano and Fleck on banjo, you'll realize that things just `clicked' in the studio. The virtuosic performance by both masters could have been enough, but the song is imbued with a depth and warmth usually lacking from such whimsical pieces by other, lesser artists. Besides Corea, this disc reads as a Who's Who in bluegrass and jazz as old pal Tony Rice shows up for some tasty guitar solos (check out his work on "Up and Running"), Matt Munde plays the simple, but beautiful melody of "The Landing", and the Flecktones provide backup on several cuts. Besides "Bicyclops", Corea shows up on "Backwoods Galaxy", a tune that allows him to jam for a while with Branford Marsalis on tenor sax, and "In Your Eyes", a haunting and lovely song, that features Edgar Meyer on acoustic bass. Not to be missed is Fleck's and Meyer's arrangement of "Arkansas Traveller", a rendering that takes this traditional work and leaves us with a nifty jazz piece. For bluegrass lovers there are two cuts that prominently feature Sam Bush (mandolin), Stuart Duncan (fiddle), Kenny Malone (drums) and Jerry Douglas (resophonic guitar), though you should never expect just traditional bluegrass from Fleck. Douglas' work on "Cheeseballs in Cowtown" is nothing short of spectacular as the tune weaves through several basic bluegrass and blues themes with Fleck's own unique embellishments. This is essential to anyone's collection, as Fleck is doing more than most to break down the boundaries of categorization.

James Morman (Ashland, KY) - August 1, 1995
Dirty Linen



Tales From The Acoustic Planet finds banjoist Bela Fleck firmly establishing himself in the jazz idiom. Billed as a "return to his acoustic sound," this record is more of a continuation of what Fleck's been doing all along--pairing himself with different combinations of musicians to get a fresh, new sound. For this he invited some of his influences ( Chick Corea , Tony Rice ), jamming buddies ( Sam Bush , Stuart Duncan , Jerry Douglas , Bruce Hornsby , Kenny Malone, Branford Marsalis , Edgar Meyer ), and new friends (oboist Paul McCandless , mandolinist Matt Mundy) to join his bandmates Victor Wooten and Future Man in a loose studio situation based around his compositions. This record sounds more like the material Fleck recorded with Strength In Numbers (no wonder--that band included Bush, Douglas and Meyer) than his last few records. The arrangements vary as Fleck experiments with musical styles and rhythms. Recorded live in the studio, Tales is an attempt to "reconcile diverse [influential] elements... and find ways for them to co-exist in harmony (and rhythm)," according to Fleck. In that respect, fans of Fleck's bluegrass and Flecktone work should enjoy this outing. The appropriately-titled opener "Up And Running" sets the stage--Fleck leads off a round of soloing in the jazz style, returning to tie it up at the end. Slower numbers, some of which Fleck wrote on the piano and guitar, feature Oregon's McCandless and a small horn section of clarinet, trombone and trumpet. "Cheeseballs In Cowtown" combines newgrass rhythm with hot bluesy riffs from Douglas and Bush, and the traditional "Arkansas Traveler" gets a bebop treatment unlike any you've ever heard. Corea and Marsalis collaborate for the first time on Fleck's "Backwoods Galaxy," a funky number filled with peaks of intense interplay. Fleck's fast-paced duet with Corea, "Bicyclops," which features juxtaposed 6/4 and 4/4 timings and a long finale played in unison, is a masterpiece of musicianship. Fleck said the tunes on this record, written over a 20-year period, were ones that he "liked almost too much to record up until now." This combination of talents turned out to be a winning combination.

Todd Denton - September 1, 1995
@country



"My plan was to introduce my favorite musicians and best musical friends to each others and take a trip to the musical well together," says Bela Fleck in the liner notes for this Warner Brothers project that combines bluegrass and jazzers: Sam Bush , Jerry Douglas , Stuart Duncan , Kenny Malone, Edgar Meyer , Tony Rice , Bruce Hornsby , Victor LeMonte Wooten, Future Man, Branford Marsalis , Matt Mundy, Paul McCandless , Chick Corea , and of course Fleck himself. All cuts are original, except for a trio production of "Arkansas Traveler" on banjo, plucked cello and drumitar.

IBMA International Bluegrass - July 1, 1995



Bela Fleck has completely transcended any and all expectations we have for the banjo. Having spent the better part of five previous years exploring a variety of formal and improvised designs with his virtuoso ensemble, Bela Fleck & The Flecktones, this banjo innovator chose to celebrate a variety of musical friends and influences on this homey, elegant, immaculately recorded aural novella--one that clearly links him to such progressive jazz/fusion forebears as Return to Forever and Oregon (not to mention Bill Monroe & His Bluegrass Boys). While a manic hoe-down like "Cheeseballs in Cowtown" illustrates his command of post-modern bluegrass, his freeform duet "Bicyclops" (with mentor Chick Corea) is indicative of this great musician's astonishing technical and emotional range. Elsewhere tunes such as "Up and Running," "The Great Circle Route," and "System Seven" seem to reconcile his complex rhythmic inclinations with stately folkish themes, mixing traditional bluegrass instrumentation with the likes of electric bass, drums, piano, and oboe. And on extended forms such as "Circus of Regrets" and "Jayme Lynn," Fleck showcases his ever-expanding breadth and range as a modern composer.

Chip Stern - Amazon.com



The Flecktones mit ihrer außergewöhnlichen Bluegrass-Funk-Jazz-Space-Fusion hatten mit dem Weggang des Pianisten und Mundharmonika-Virtuosen Howard Levy merklich an Seele verloren. Flecktones-mastermind Béla Fleck gönnt sich nun nach zuletzt eher mäßigen Gruppenplatten als Solist eine Auszeit vom Bandgeschehen und legt mit den "Tales From The Acoustic Planet" ein akustisches Album der Sonderklasse vor. Mit hochkarätigen Gästen wie dem Pianisten Chick Corea und dem Jazz-Saxophonisten Branford Marsalis gelang ihm eine leise, aber nicht minder dynamisch interpretierte Songsammlung zwischen Folk und Jazz und mit kammermusikalischer Note. Es ist faszinierend zu beobachten, wie vielseitig und auch virtuos er das Banjo in diesem Kontext einsetzt und diesem Un-Instrument ein ganz neues Profil verpaßt. Das Banjo im Mittelpunkt einer Kammermusik zwischen Folk und Jazz.

© HIFI Test - Detlef Kinsler



The hardest working man on the banjo, Bela Fleck, has given the lovers of jazz banjo bluegrass another reason to smile. Fleck's latest offering for the discriminating ear is Tales From The Acoustic Planet. This solo project has given Fleck the opportunity to work with a variety of musicians from a variety of musical backgrounds. From Chick Corea and Branford Marsalis to Bruce Hornsby and Edgar Meyer the record is a power combination of talents. In the liner notes Fleck claims that these songs are from his own private stash over the last 20 years and some he has saved because he liked them too much to record until the Acoustic Planet sessions. "First Light" is a touching and soothing track featuring Edgar Meyer on acoustic bass and Paul McCandless on the oboe. The scene of early morning tranquillity with the oboe is remarkable.
"Backwoods Galaxy" is the first time Marsalis and Corea have ever played together and the chemistry is obvious. The Flecktones cover the rhythm and Marsalis and Corea do the rest. Fleck says, "Chick Corea stunned me when he agreed to play on this album. When I told Bruce (Hornsby) that Chick was gonna play Bruce said, "You'd better start practicing now." The real beauty of the project is that these talented musicians played live together with no overdubs. The spontaneity of Acoustic Planet is inspiring. The musicians learned all the music together in one room. When the song came together the moment was recorded for our enjoyment. Tales From The Acoustic Planet could be Fleck's best work to date. Listen to some of Fleck's other recordings like UFO TOFU and Flight of the Cosmic Hippo and compare them. Don't miss Fleck on the Acoustic Planet world tour since many of these amazing musicians will be joining him on most dates. If you want to keep up to date on-line with Bela's work, check via e-mail at Flecktone@aol.com or in the newsgroup alt.music.bela-fleck.

Kelley Crowley - Consumable Online



This version of the Acoustic Planet is a very bluegrassy one indeed, with four classics of the genre, including Earl Scruggs' "Foggy Mountain Special." And 14 original tunes. On these TALES, Fleck takes the opportunity to integrate his explorations into new age, jazz, and world music with traditional bluegrass. Celtic riffs enliven "Plunky's Lament," and there's a string-band air to "The Overgrown Waltz," while jazz finds a home at "Spanish Point." The tight supporting ensemble includes Sam Bush on mandolin, Mark Schatz on bass, Dobro ace Jerry Douglas, and guitarist Tony Rice -- all outstanding instrumentalists with their own solo careers who together attack tunes such as "Blue Mountain Hop," "Buffalo Nickel," and "Katmandu" with rough 'n' tumble energy. With this return to his native ground, Fleck solidifies his reputation as the banjo's foremost virtuoso

© Copyright 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001 barnesandnoble.com



For most of its history, the banjo has been associated with only two kinds of American music: Dixieland jazz and bluegrass. Of course, there have may have been a few minor departures, and to be technically accurate, variations of the banjo have turned up in folk cultures around the world. But for the most part the banjo has meant Dixieland or bluegrass, depending on whether it's the four-string or five-string variety.

If you have listened to enough of these album reviews, you have probably guessed by now that I'm just setting the rhetorical scene for banjo music that defied the stereotype. And any banjo fan knows that the artist who has, by now, done more to explode banjo stereotypes than any one in musical history, is Béla Fleck, who has just released the most remarkable album in his extraordinary career, entitled Tales from the Acoustic Planet.

Fleck, since his teenage days attending New York's High School of the Performing Arts, has always been a standout musician. He was winning bluegrass banjo contests in at age 15 or 16, and not long afterward finding fast friends in the world of so-called New Acoustic Music as it was taking fire in the 1980s. Pioneered by musicians such as David Grisman and the band New Grass Revival, the New Acoustic style took the instrumentation of bluegrass and began combining the complex harmonic approach and swing-influenced rhythm of jazz along with the free-wheeling instrumental improvisation that is shared by both bluegrass and jazz. The result was some of the freshest music of the era to come along. Fleck did play a lot of straight bluegrass, but on his debut solo album, recorded at the age of about 21, he included a bluegrass version of Chick Corea's jazz fusion classic Spain, played on his banjo. Recording an impressive series of albums for Rounder Records all along, Fleck eventually joined New Grass Revival and spent eight and a half years with the group, who had no compunctions about playing reggae, R&B or Irish traditional tunes. At the same time, he kept busy with solo albums, serving as a record producer for artists like Maura O'Connell, and being a Nashville studio musician extraordinaire.

In 1988, through what Fleck still remembers as very unlikely circumstances, he received a call from a young African-American bass player from Virginia who auditioned for him over the phone. Fleck was immediately drawn to Victor Wooten's style as doing on the electric bass what Fleck had been doing on his banjo, with the same level of skill and eclecticism. Victor's brother, Roy who was working on playing percussion by using a guitar-like synthesizer controller connected to the sound-generator of a drum machine, was also recruited along with keyboard man and harmonica iconoclast Howard Levy to form the Flecktones, still one of the most interesting and unusual instrumental groups around. Levy left a couple of years ago, but Fleck has been applying his banjo to this extremely eclectic and otherwise electric band and wowing audiences with their albums and extensive touring.

For me, the most exceptional thing about Béla Fleck is not that he is taking the banjo to stylistic places it has never been -- and in 15 years of recording he has certainly crashed through more genre barriers with his instrument than any banjo player before him, or that his skill and facility on the banjo is prodigious, but rather, that Béla Fleck is one of the most creative composers and arrangers in contemporary instrumental music, regardless of instrument. He just happens to be a banjo player. Over the years, he has composed a large body of work that is as musically sophisticated as anything from the world of jazz or fusion, and remarkably diverse in influences, cheerfully borrowing from almost any style that moves him, from funk to New Age. The fact that he does all this as a banjo player makes it all the more fascinating.

Tales from the Acoustic Planet gives Béla Fleck an opportunity to highlight both his ability as a composer and his remarkable ease in moving among styles in a series of collaborations with some blue-chip musicians from some of those various genres. The guest list includes pianist Chick Corea, bluegrass and New Acoustic guitar virtuoso Tony Rice, jazz saxophonist Branford Marsalis, oboe player Paul McCandless, one of the founders of the seminal group Oregon who were an influence to many a New Age artist, rock pianist and on this album non-vocalist Bruce Hornsby, a string quartet, and the Wooten Brothers, his rhythm section with the Flecktones. By the way, since this is an acoustic album, Roy "Future Man" Wooten played a lot of the percussion using his hands and sticks on the resonator portion of different banjos.

This is a generous hour-long album that doesn't waste a moment with filler material. Fleck, in his typically friendly liner notes, says the album was recorded in a series of sessions between January and March of last year, in both Nashville and on the West Coast. The material ranges from a duo with Chick Corea to larger groups with added strings or horns. Just about every piece is different stylistically. Fleck writes that the album "revolves around several interlocking musical relationships... My plan was to introduce my favorite musicians and best musical friends to each other and take a trip to the musical well together." He continues that "the tunes were written over the last 20 years. A lot of them were from my private stash, the ones I liked almost too much to record up until now (if that makes any sense). I suppose I was waiting for the just the right setting for them."

The album begins with a fine example of its joyful eclecticism. Up and Running, first of all, is one of those mind-bogglingly complex pieces of writing with constantly shifting time signatures including sections in seven, four, and six-beat meters, and yet it all sounds quite appealingly melodic. Notable guests include guitarist Tony Rice, who plays with his customary level of taste, Paul McCandless who overdubs bass clarinet and soprano sax, and mandolinist Matt Mundy of the Aquarium Rescue Unit, along with the Flecktones rhythm section.

That segues into First Light, which I suppose could be called New Age banjo. It's a pretty piece with McCandless' plaintive oboe, joined by some of Fleck's old friends, dobro maven Jerry Douglas and bassist Edgar Meyer, both of whom were part of an all-star New Acoustic quintet called Strength in Numbers with Fleck back in the late 1980s.

With a similarly melodic sound is The Great Circle Route, which features Bruce Hornsby on piano, sounding a bit like Chick Corea at times.

Perhaps the closest to the sound of the Flecktones is the track Backwoods Galaxy. Branford Marsalis appeared on the last Flecktones album, and the Wooten Brothers provide their trademark sound in the rhythm section. What makes the track especially interesting is the fact that it's the first time Branford Marsalis and Chick Corea have played together on record. Fleck writes that after they finished recording the piece and went to hear it back, Corea and Marsalis continued to jam in the studio.

One of the most interesting compositions by Fleck on the album is called Circus of Regrets. It's a melancholy piece that the banjo man said was one of only two he has written at the piano. Bassist Edgar Meyer does the keyboard honors. Fleck writes that the title was provided by Larry Harmon, better known as Bozo the Clown. The Flecktones appeared on the Bozo the Clown show, and they have been friends since. Despite the connection with Bozo, the piece has an introspective sound and a curious arrangement with trumpet, clarinet and trombone.

Over his career, Chick Corea has recorded some amazing duets with such people as vibist Gary Burton and fellow jazz pianist Herbie Hancock. Corea and Fleck have at it on an original by the banjo man called Bicyclops. Even as remarkable a musician as Béla Fleck went into the session with a little trepidation. He was told by Bruce Hornsby, when informed of the planned encounter with Corea "You better start practicing now." Despite Fleck's liner notes saying "No amount of practicing could prepare me for the shock of hearing him in the [studio] for the first time," Fleck more than holds his own in a wonderful exchange by the two disparate virtuosos. It's the highlight of this brilliant album. <<>> After it's all over, Corea can be heard playfully saying "I won!"

Just to prove that Fleck hasn't totally abandoned bluegrass, the album contains a version of the old traditional tune Arkansas Traveller. But of course, it's done with a kind of 50s cool jazz beat, with Edgar Meyer playing the acoustic bass. It's just a trio with banjo, bass and the drums of Nashville session man Kenny Malone.

Actually, Fleck does get back to his I guess you could say "New Acoustic roots" on a piece called Cheeseballs in Cowtown, which features his old New Grass Revival bandmate Sam Bush on the mandolin, plus Jerry Douglas on Dobro, and fiddle player Stuart Duncan of the Nashville Bluegrass Band.

For fifteen years, Béla Fleck has been creating some of the most interesting, intelligent and joyously eclectic contemporary instrumental music on record. The fact that he has been doing it as a banjo player, and in the process taking his chosen instrument to entirely new realms is all the more exceptional. His new album Tales from the Acoustic Planet is a kind of pinnacle to which his career has been leading. It's an extraordinary series of musical collaborations that embody some of the various influences upon which Fleck has been drawing, from bluegrass to jazz to Celtic even to New Age. The result is superb listening, and an album that's destined to become a milestone.

Sonically, the album is up to its musical value. The mix is clean and virtually free of electronic effects. Especially pleasing is the lack of compression. The average volume on the CD is softer than typical for most rock albums which tend to have their dynamic range decimated by compression in mixing and mastering. But this recording preserves the dynamics of the acoustic instrumentation, and a wide dynamic range was the reason compact discs were invented in the first place.

All in all, Béla Fleck's Tales from the Acoustic Planet will stand as one of the year's finest albums.

© Copyright 1995 George D. Graham
The Graham Weekly Album Review #986



...[Fleck] plays through a constellation of styles--a meld of soft jazz in the Oregon zone, relaxed acoustic folk a la David Grisman, mainstream jazz and straight ahead bluegrass. All the while, Fleck stays close to his country-acoustic roots bolstered by an all-star supporting cast...

Down Beat (6/95, p.53) - 3.5 Stars - Good Plus
 

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Instrumental Album!

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