Béla brings back Africa

Béla Fleck is doing a tour for his new album and African project called Throw Down Your Heart. Basically he went to Africa to study the origins of the banjo, met some amazing African musicians, made an album and brought them back for a tour. Robin and I went last night to check it out. 

Back in the day concerts used to cost about $20. Lesser known and regional bands would be between $10 - $20 and the tour of the year might be $25. We used to think $25 was expensive. Then reunion tours started coming around for $30 and $40. Craziness right? That was in the 90’s and now it’s not uncommon for some group to charge $80. Well anyway I was not happy about shelling out $50 for a ticket to see Béla and friends but I figured it was a unique experience and I was curious about these musicians.

It wasn’t the normal scene at the State Theater. I usually show up right before the main act with the place relatively full but a few open tables as most people are standing around the stage. For Béla the old crowd came out and came early. Every table was full and every seat in the balcony was taken. Robin and I had to dance in front of the stage all night and that was OK with us.

Béla played a few songs solo first. His routine was to let a musician come out and play solo and then Béla would join him for a song or two. D’Gary from Madagascar came out first. He has an incredible fingerstyle guitar technique that really impressed me. It was as if he would play a whole scale in one or two beats. He was accompanied by a percussionist who played basic rhythm but was supposed to be a hotshot himself. Vusi Mahlasela played guitar but it was his voice that was memorable. He was all over the place and quite versatile in his range. Anania Ngoglia came out next with some odd thing called a thumb piano. It was basically a small wooden box in his lap played with his thumbs (of course). Anania sung in either a very high or very low voice which was sorta amusing.

Toumani came out last with the most interesting instrument called a kora. This thing was like a sitar but it stands straight up with the strings facing the musician. It has 21 strings on a short neck, they are all different lengths so there is no fretting like on a guitar. You play by plucking the strings with your thumbs and index fingers. Playing 21 strings with four fingers this guy was able to play the bass, melody, and solo at the same time. Toumani apparently is considered one of the best kora players in the world. He would whip through a scale in no time with all those strings.

It was interesting to hear Béla play with each musician. It is not everyday you see the world’s best banjo player jam with the world’s best kora player. There was some good instrumental interaction between Béla and his guest artists. He said the most interesting part of the tour is hanging out with everyone on the bus and getting to know the different musicians from the different cultures.