Béla Fleck(www.belafleck.com)可谓是世界班卓琴王，别人称赞他说：他通过许多很有特色和风格的演出、录音重新塑造了班卓琴的音色和形象。如果你熟悉他的音乐，你会知道他是一个酷爱班卓琴，并致力于把它放在独特的音乐环境中的人。他前后获得20次“格莱美奖”提名，并九次获得该项大奖，而且获得奖项涉及到现代爵士、流行乐器曲、世界音乐、新约、现代古典、乡村乐器曲、现代民谣、蓝草、作曲等多个不同领域。这在“格莱美奖”历史上是绝无仅有的。在近30年的音乐生涯中，他能演奏包括蓝草、爵士、流行、摇滚、世界音乐等不同的音乐形式。虽然他的名字是来自三位古典音乐作曲大师的名字：巴托克（Bartok）、德沃夏克（Dvorak）和杨纳切赫（Janacek），但他最近才开始涉及古典音乐。在第44届“格莱美奖”年度颁奖中，他第一次创作的古典音乐：2001年的《永动》荣获了2项格莱美奖。
最初他学习音乐是从吉他开始的，一次偶然在电视上看到的传统歌曲使他充满了兴趣，自此他转而开始弹奏班卓琴。由于生活在纽约，Béla Fleck能接触到风格各异的音乐，包括爵士乐。于是后来他开始用班卓琴演奏爵士乐 —— 一种前所未闻的音乐的融合。上个世纪八十年代，大部分时间Béla Fleck是在一个充满创新的蓝草乐队New Grass Revival中演奏，他们的音乐结合了蓝草，摇滚和乡村音乐。同时New Grass Revival的器乐专辑将班卓琴提升到了一个更加广泛的领域中。
1990年，New Grass Revival解散后，我们的班卓琴巫师组建了由爵士钢琴家Howard Levy, funk贝斯演奏家Victor Wooten和鼓手Roy Wooten组成的The Flecktones乐队。在当时，看起来他们只是田纳西州众多new-acoustic组合中不起眼的一员，或许很快就会昙花一现的被潮流淹没。然而，让人们吃惊的是，这个四重奏表现出了与众不同的活力，接二连三的出了好几张专辑。
1999年，Béla Fleck & the Flecktones与华纳分手后，与Sony's Columbia Records签订了5张唱片的合约。
在这张专辑里，Fleck独创性的用班卓琴演奏了20首古典音乐名曲，包括巴赫、肖邦、贝多芬以及帕格尼尼的作品。他的班卓琴演奏可以用神乎其技来形容。评论界对这张专辑评价极高。蓝草和爵士乐迷恐怕对这张专辑兴趣不大，不过对于古典乐迷，这将是你不得不听的一张作品。
Chris Thile (曼陀铃), Evelyn Glennie (木琴), Joshua Bell (小提琴), Gary Hoffman (大提琴), John Williams (古典吉他大师), Edgar Meyer (贝斯和钢琴)以及James Bryan Sutton (钢弦吉他)参与了录制。两首为Béla Fleck独奏。
该专辑获得2001年格莱美“Best Classical Crossover Album”奖。
There are relatively few true "giants" among players of the 5-string banjo in the 3-finger fashion. Most notably, Earl Scruggs stands out as the one player who has done more than anyone else to shape a style of playing and so popularize it that his name is practically synonymous with the instrument. And there are a few other greats - Bill Keith, Ralph Stanley and Doug Dillard come immediately to my mind. The other name I feel belongs in this very elite group is Béla Fleck.
Béla is still a young man, yet I feel he has done more to expand the horizons of this humble instrument than anyone. His playing is rooted in the traditional bluegrass style that many of us learned from the playing of Earl, Bill, Ralph, Doug and a myriad of other proponents. But early in Béla's development, he studied with an inventive and experimental banjo player named Tony Trischka, and perhaps Tony's influence spurred Béla into looking for new and unusual ways to branch out from the traditional. His work with The New Grass Revival demonstrated Béla's ability to innovate within the loose confines of bluegrass, blended with a rock sensibility.
In recent years Béla has produced his own brand of music that defies classification. He leads a group called the Flecktones, and their music is unique and unusual to say the least. I can only describe it as "5-string banjo meets jazz, funk, hard rock and world music."
Frankly, I am not all that fond of most of the Flecktones' music, although no one can deny that it is extremely creative and executed with a great deal of skill. But through it all, Béla has kept a hand in the more conventional bluegrass domain, and has produced or appeared on several great albums working with such veteran bluegrass icons as Sam Bush, Tony Rice, Jerry Douglas, Roland White, Stuart Duncan, and many others. He has also teamed up with musicians specializing in other genres, such as Chick Corea, Branford Marsalis, and, very notably, Edgar Meyer.
Which brings us to the principle topic of this review, the Perpetual Motion album. Edgar Meyer is a renowned classical bassist. Béla and Edgar have formed a strong friendship, and at Edgar's urging, Béla has developed an incredible repertoire of classical pieces arranged for the 5-string. This might sound an unlikely match although it is worth noting that a great deal of classical music was played on the banjo back in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. There are some practitioners of this craft playing today, but I dare say nothing in my experience prepared me for what I felt the first time I played this album.
Perpetual Motion includes 20 tracks ranging from a delicate rendition of Bach's "Two-Part Invention No. 13" through a dizzying, bluegrass-driven version of "Moto Perpetuo," the intricate tune by Paganini from which the title of the album is derived. Most of the cuts are duets or trios; Béla is joined by Chris Thile (mandolin), Evelyn Glennie (marimba), Joshua Bell (violin), Gary Hoffman (cello), John Williams (classical guitar), Edgar Meyer (bass and piano), and James Bryan Sutton (steel-string guitar) in various combinations. Two of the tracks are solo Béla on the banjo.
This is one of the few banjo-centric albums I don't hesitate to play for people who are not aficionados of bluegrass or old-time mountain music. It is breathtaking, and haunting, and intellectual, and gloriously emotive. You owe it to yourself to give this album a listen. I actually purchased a second copy so that I can keep one in my office at work, and for the last year or so, this has been my most-played CD. Even though I know virtually nothing about classical music, I know a masterpiece when I hear one.
---------------------------------------------------------------- Russ Sprouse
The range of creativity that Bela Fleck possesses and displays on a continual basis is truly staggering. Few artists can claim to truly be original, but Fleck is one of them. From acoustic to electric, with harmonica (Howard Levy) or piano (Bruce Hornsby) or saxophone (Jeff Coffin & Paul McCandless), pure bluegrass to pure Bach, covering a multitude of musical categories inbetween, Fleck just produces great music, whether live or in the recording studio. Following his career has been like riding a roller coaster.
This latest effort is no exception. Long-time Fleck & Flecktones fans might be surprised (although we shouldn't be), and classical purists will be very surprised, but he has devoted his latest project to the works of traditional classical composers; they are well represented: Scarlatti, Bach, Debussy, Chopin, Tchaikovsky, Brahms, Paganini, and Beethoven. He had done one Mozart piece on a compilation CD, A Different Mozart, so this didn't come out of nowhere. He also enlisted some great help on other instruments: Joshua Bell on violin, Edgar Meyer on bass and piano, John Williams on guitar, Gary Hoffman on cello, Evelyn Glennie on marimba, among others.
Fleck's playing is crisp and clean throughout the CD, and his interplay with the other artists seems to be very instinctive and natural, even within the confines of traditionally-structured pieces. I would have thought that he would sound stifled in this environment, but I guess I underestimated him--big mistake! Improvisation seems to be his forte, but interpretation ranks right up there. The arrangements are incredible, as well, and Fleck explains in the liner notes about the difficulty not only in finding pieces that would suit banjo but in writing them out on paper for banjo, as well. The liner notes were superb, offering great insight to the whole process of initiating the project, finding the right pieces, arranging them for the various instruments, his work to practice and prepare them, and then the recording of them. Most classical artists just give you the product, good though it might be; Fleck takes you through the process in the liner notes and photographs, then gives you the product on the disc.
I'll let the more informed classical reviewers break down the CD piece by piece. I think he chose a great variety and range of composers and works, and he plays them incredibly well--I never thought I'd enjoy listening to anybody playing anything on a banjo, much less playing Bach, Beethoven, and Brahms!
Fleck fans should appreciate this foray into previously unexplored territory, even though it is well outside of his traditional realm, as undefined as that may be (you'll find his CDs in the Jazz section at Border's, but some of what he plays sure isn't jazz. . .). Classical fans should appreciate the workmanship of a fine musician, untraditional though he may be.