Bela Fleck & Edgar Meyer CD

Music For Two

Sony Classical  SK 92106

      Whenever banjo virtuoso Bela Fleck records an album, it's usually award winning. Whenever double bassist extraordinaire Edgar Meyer records, it's usually to critical acclaim. Bring these two monster musicians together to record on the same album, and the results are nothing less than magical.

The two multi-Grammy Award-winning artists have paired up to offer Music For Two, on Sony Classical. The seventeen-track disc is a compilation of live recordings stemming for two years of touring together. While the repertoire leans heavily more toward the classical vain (from such standard bearers as Bach and Eccles to Fleck and Meyer), elements of bluegrass and jazz are also evident, maintaining ample space for improvisation.

Selections such as Woolly Mammoth combine the classical with some good old fashion "hoe-down-picking," while the Dynamic Duo's up-tempo interpretation of Miles Davis' Solar, is done with frantic precision. Meyer also lays down his bass on occasion to tickle the ivories on the piano while Fleck plucks on the banjo in symbiotic counter-point.

Humor is well-represented on this album as noted on Meyer's jovial Pile Up, written especially for the tour and named for his son, George; and on another Fleck-Meyer composition, Wrong Number. What made this roots-flavored piece so delightful came as a result of a frustrating situation. At one point during the show, an audience member's cell phone kept ringing and eventually stopped after about the twelfth ring. A few bars later, just at the appropriate spots in the piece where silence by the musicians was mandated, continued rings from that same cell phone filled those silenced measures perfectly, as if on cue, much to everyone's laughter  -  even Fleck and Meyer themselves. It was indeed a Wrong Number!  That song was taken from a concert at Laxson Auditorium at California State University, Chico, on Oct. 19, 2001.

The 47-year-old Fleck is often considered the premier banjo player in the world today. A seven-time Grammy winner, Fleck has virtually reinvented the image and sound of the banjo. His band, the Flecktones, formed in 1989, has won two Grammy Awards. The group made its self-titled debut recording in 1990 playing a "blu-bop" mix of jazz and bluegrass. Fleck is the only musician to be nominated for Grammy's in jazz, bluegrass, pop, country, spoken word, Christian, composition and world music categories.

Meyer, a classical bassist, has made a fruitful collaboration in cross-over music. In 1999, he joined forces with violinist Joshua Bell and bluegrass musicians Sam Bush and Mike Marshall to record the CD, A Short Trip Home. The album was nominated for a Grammy in the category of Best Classical Crossover. Meyer has performed with Fleck on numerous occasions in the past and can be heard on Fleck's CD, Perpetual Motion. Meyer has also recorded with classical cellist Yo-Yo Ma as well as an assortment of recording artists such as Garth Brooks, Mary Chapin Carpenter, Hank Williams, Jr., Emmylou Harris, James Taylor, Reba McIntyre, the Indigo Girls, Travis Tritt and the Chieftains.

Music For Two showcases the duo's vivid imagination, impeccable artistry and tight musical camaraderie. A bonus DVD chronicling the pair's collaboration is also included.

Track selections:  Bug Tussle, Invention No. 10, Pile-Up, Prelude No. 24, Solar, Blue Spruce, Canon, The One I left Behind, Menuett I-II From Partita No. 1, Prelude No. 2, Palmyra, The Lake Effect, Largo From Sonata, Allegro Vivace From Sonata, Wrong Number, Wooly Mammoth, Wishful Thinking.  (74: 01)

Recorded live during three two-week tours from October 2001 to September 2003.

- Stephen Fratallone/Jazz Connection Magazine

Rating:  *****

*****