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Bela Fleck and the Flecktones at The Town Hall

Bela Fleck and the Flecktones
The Town Hall
New York, NY
November 16

At the regal, intimate Town Hall Theatre in Times Square on a rainy night in November, Victor Wooten took to the stage under a single spotlight and started playing. The Tennessee native, who has virtually redefined the bass guitar, worked in the looping pedal to create more depth, only then turning it on the audience: Wooten humored the crowd – who slowly caught on – by pretending to play during the looped part and then discretely adding on to the loop. This escalated into a chaotic though hilariously well executed mess of sounds.

As Wooten slowed down, Béla Fleck (banjo), Roy “Future Man” Wooten (drumitar – an instrument of his own invention) and Howard Levy (piano, harmonica) joined Wooten on the stage and launched into an incredibly impressive and well-executed show in the “banjo capital of the world” and Fleck’s hometown, New York City.

The crowd was silent throughout the majority of the show, only erupting into applause between songs and after impeccable solos, but careful not to intrude on the music. It was so quiet that the squeaks from Fleck’s fingers sliding up and down the neck of the banjo were audible, as were the little sighs and moans as the musicians hit or missed difficult notes.

Though the Flecktones released Rocket Science in May of 2011, the band’s first release in 20 years with the original lineup, they decided to perform material largely from the late 1980s and early 1990s. Fleck opened the fourth song with a several minute solo, going into “Sunset Road” from the band’s 1990 self-titled album. The rest of the band joined in, with Future Man supplying a few verses of vocals to the often entirely instrumental piece. The song, like the band itself, pulls from jazz influences while also tying in traditional bluegrass. Fleck’s multi-genre playing is innovative, having been nominated for Grammys in more categories than any other musician in Grammy history (“That’s more than Lady Gaga and Justin Beiber combined!” laughed Victor Wooten).

Levy, who hasn’t been with the Flecktones since 1992, stepped out from behind the keys and kicked off the next song with a nearly five minute harmonica solo, beginning quietly and then growing loud and rowdy. Casey Driessen, a bluegrass fiddler who has worked with John Mayer, Jerry Douglas, Chris Thile, and many others, joined the Flecktones before the end of the first set.

Following a brief set break, the Flecktones launched into “Blu-Bop,” the apt title for the blues–bluegrass fusion tune, the Latin-flavored “Saresta.” “Sweet Pomegrantes,” from the band’s newest album, closed the show and had Driessen come out for another dose of fiddle, but the show wasn’t complete without another round of playfulness from Wooten.