Bela Fleck and the Flecktones

"Flight of the Cosmos Hippo" is their audiophile warhorse from the early part of the last decade.

If you like Bela Fleck, look up his recordings with guys like Edgar Meyer, Mike Marshall, and Sam Bush. They pioneer a music genre called "Clasical Grass" that was featured on Peter Jennings ABC Prime Time News recently. Among the "Classical Grass players are Joshua Bell and Yo Yo Ma. Great stuff. Bela also did stuff with Indian and Chinese musicians (Water Lilly label) that are excellent. Also, Victor Wooten, the Flecktones bassist has several recordings that are worth checking into. For live recordings, check the "Live Art" album by the Flecktones. Also check www.flecktones.com for info on their concert tours. They tour about 50 weeks a year. If you like "Outbound", wait until you see them live in concert.

In addition to the above recommendations, try "Strength IN Numbers" from the telluride sessions with Bela, Sam Bush, Jerry Douglas, Mark O'Connor, and Edgar Meyer. A recent release the "Bluegrass Sessions" is also recommended.

Great band great musician and very good recordings. The UFO_TOFU is a good system tester. Tales from acoustic planet,live art, left of cool, to name a few. Very musically satisfying even if you dislike country or bluegrass

If you like the more "classical grass", I just picked up Uncommon Ritual (Fleck, Meyer, Marshall) on Sony Classical. Claims 20 bit processing - may be dithered down - doesn't say. Hi Snooky.

Bela also did an album where he performed acoustic duets with a bunch of Jazz monsters including chick corea. I forget the name of the disk..most of the time I'm lucky to remember my own it seems. .i'll try to remember to look it up when i get home. Not the same idea as the flecktones or the bluegreass theme but it shows you how scary talanted the guy is.

I second Vtvu: see the Flecktones live. Bela and Victor, especially, are amazing.

I'm planning on seeing the Flecktones in Feb., my only exposure to Bela fleck has been bluegrass. Which one flecktone cd would you recommend prior to the concert. Just saw Mark O'Connor, he's great live. Three recommendations: the Tone Poem series, Rob Wasserman's Trios and Billy Novick and Guy Van Dusser.

I second Sndsel on "Uncommon Ritual". I had the good fortune to see those three live on their tour. Defintely the best acoustic concert I have ever gone to. Listening to track #7, and seeing Edgar Meyer on the bass live, you can understand how he won a fiddle contest playing the double bass!!! Swallace, check out the "Live Art" CD if you want to hear them live. One more thing, every concert I have gone to, they always have had a special guest. Used to be Paul McCandless of Oregon, and now Jeff Coffin (he may be counted as a regular now), but the last one I saw, there was this guy from Mongolia singing "tuvan throat singing" (he sings duet by himself) that was quite a site. He is featured on track #3 of "Outbound". My only objection to Bela concerts is that they play very loud (all concert soundmen are deaf I think) and some unruly fans occasionally. And my only regret is that I never got to see Howard Levy (of the original Flecktones).

I have seen Bela with the Flecktone a couple times and they are great. Its amazing to watch Futureman play the drums with such "feel" on that machine {SynthAxeDrumitar}. "Flight of the Cosmic Hippo" is a classic. Strenght in Numbers is a favorite also, I saw the Flectones do an electric version of "Locks of Dread", very cool. Have not heard thier last disc, glad you brought it up.

I second Sndsel on "Uncommon Ritual". I had the good fortune to see those three live on their tour. Defintely the best acoustic concert I have ever gone to. Listening to track #7, and seeing Edgar Meyer on the bass live, you can understand how he won a fiddle contest playing the double bass!!! Swallace, check out the "Live Art" CD if you want to hear them live. One more thing, every concert I have gone to, they always have had a special guest. Used to be Paul McCandless of Oregon, and now Jeff Coffin (he may be counted as a regular now), but the last one I saw, there was this guy from Mongolia singing "tuvan throat singing" (he sings duet by himself) that was quite a site. He is featured on track #3 of "Outbound". My only objection to Bela concerts is that they play very loud (all concert soundmen are deaf I think) and some unruly fans occasionally. And my only regret is that I never got to see Howard Levy (of the original Flecktones).

I believe the disk Piezo refered to is the aforementioned "Tales from the Acoustic Planet", w/ Corea, B. Marsalis, et. al.

I still occaisionally use the Flight of the Cosmic Hippo to show off my system. It's a lot of fun to listen to.