Béla Fleck, Zakir Hussain and Edgar Meyer don’t look particularly impressive when they stand onstage. In fact, they give the impression of a trio of middle-aged guys about to grab a beer after work, or maybe play a game of pickup basketball.
But when they start playing, something changes. The air turns electric, the music stirs something essential within the audience and the performers’ faces contort with “the ecstasy of discovering the sameness in ourselves,” as Hussain put it.
Turns out, these aren’t your average Joes. Fleck is, without exaggeration, the best banjo player in the world. His genre-bending body of work ranges from bluegrass to jazz to classical to world music and spans more than three decades. Hussain is world renowned for his work with the tabla — a pair of Indian hand drums — and Meyer is a legendary bassist.
The trio takes listeners on an intense, virtuosic musical journey that spans genres from around the world. They’re set to hit the stage at the Rialto Center for Performing Arts April 2.
The music varies so much from song to song — and often within pieces — that it almost eludes definition. It’s at times playful, gorgeous and intense, and sometimes all three. The tabla drives the music forward, while the bass gives it body and depth. Atop it all is the banjo, bright with “metallic fluency,” in Fleck’s words, and blindingly fast.
The sense of melody is impeccable, and the rhythm is both complex and utterly intuitive. It’s challenging music, yes, but it’s also a delight to listen to. Seeing it performed live only adds to the experience; the men play so fast, it almost seems like you’re witnessing an optical illusion.
Even though they hail from different cultures and areas of the world, all the boundaries fall down when Fleck, Hussain and Meyer perform. It’s genuinely difficult to wrap your head around how three individuals can play so cohesively. What’s even more remarkable is the fact that much of it is improvised.
“You have certain ideas that you walk onstage with, but how you develop those ideas and how you interact is something of a spontaneous nature,” Hussain said. “Even though we play music that we have some composed elements to, we’re still looking to find a way to make it fresh and new every time we play, so that it excites us and keeps us interested.”
When they perform, they look almost unaware of the audience. Their eyes might be closed, maybe a little smile playing across their faces, but ultimately, they’re lost in the music.
“It’s a funny thing, but when the show is really going well — it’s like no one is home,” Fleck wrote in an email to The Signal. “I can’t remember much of what happened musically, afterward, if it went well. It’s a sort of a flow situation. If I can remember what was played, usually it is because of mistakes!”
Although their reasons for starting to play music differ — for Fleck, it was hearing Earl Scruggs for the first time, and for Hussain, it was following in the footsteps of his father, the legendary tabla player Ustad Alla Rakha Qureshi — it’s clear these artists continue to play because of a shared love for their craft, their instruments and for music as a whole. Fleck in particular said he hopes that he can continue to improve as a musician and that his career can serve as an inspiration.
“Outside of myself, I am hopeful that what I do can be a positive thing for people,” Fleck wrote. “Sometimes it’s good to see someone pursuing their dreams and it can inspire folks.”
Hussain spoke eloquently when he described what he hopes to achieve through his live performances.
“Everybody has these lofty ideas: ‘I want to make the world a better place to be, and I want to through music achieve world peace,'” he said, gently scoffing. “We are a small part of what goes on in the world. … But if for that moment that the audiences are in the theater, if we can get it to a point where they can forget their worries, leave all their tensions and nervousness outside the theater, and for that moment slide with us into a zone that is a world of pristine energy, that’s enough.”
