A Concert Review: Bela Fleck & Abigail Washburn at MIM
"For artists who do touch us personally, we will see only a tiny handful of them perform in a proper venue that maximizes the experience for both artist and audience."
By Kyle Harris
FFor observers of American music trends, especially of those true fusion ensembles that leave conventional description behind, Bela Fleck’s banjo is found in more such genre bending groups than any other musician on earth. As Abigail Washburn put it, “people say he is the best banjo player in the world, but I say he is one of the best musical minds in the world”. This is much closer to the truth.
As is so often the case, we build opinions, good or bad, about artists based on their recorded output and popular culture musings, which generally do an excellent job of trivializing both art and culture. For artists who do touch us personally, we will see only a tiny handful of them perform in a proper venue that maximizes the experience for both artist and audience. Last night at the Music Instrument Museum in Phoenix, such a confluence of art and audience in a superb listening space is exactly what occurred.
Bela Fleck is a global phenomenon unconstrained by language, cultural roots, time, or distance. He is a pure musical force who occupies a truly unique position in the world of music. Abigail Washburn, Mrs. Fleck and mom to their 11 month old son Juno, is not only a very talented musician, songwriter and vocalist; she is unabashedly intellectual, witty, and charming, doing a superb job of inviting the audience into their world.
The music performed, of course, was eclectic and flowed seamlessly from Appalachian roots featuring Abigail’s wonderful clear vocal tones, to Bela exhibiting the technique that seems to be a disconnect between the eyes and ears. His hands move effortlessly up and down the banjo neck with uncompromising precision executing notes that are virtually perfect in tone and dynamics. Old-Time, American Roots, Blues, Jazz, original compositions and even a lovely Chinese song performed by Abigail in Chinese made for a thoroughly entertaining evening. In addition to the music, this duo brought something very, very special to their performance.
Both Bela and Abigail are musicians in constant high demand as individuals and also in any of their many ensemble forms. What is special about their current tour is they have chosen to travel with their new son and maximize their time as musicians and as a family. At one exquisite point in the performance Abigail and Bela shared a sincere spoken “I love you”.
So do we.
May 11, 2014
Contact the editor at Editor@MusicAndMoreAZ.com.