Bela Fleck takes old approach on new album

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Interviews, performances

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Fleck: They liked the idea that I was a good player and everything but they thought I had a lot to learn. They didn't think I had a good sound, they thought I was tasteless. But they liked my enthusiasm and my youthful thinking and my technical ability. They respected enough about me that we became really good friends.

Question: You came to Nashville to join New Grass Revival and stayed in that group about nine years before forming the Flecktones. What did you learn from that experience?

Fleck: They were a great band, very progressive. It was a quantum leap for me, like going to the big leagues from the medium leagues. New Grass Revival encouraged long soloing and different time signatures. So I started writing things with compound time signatures and trying to get them to play it.

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Question: Why did you decide to leave?

Fleck: What was happening through the `80s is my music was getting more complex and I was trying to drag all these great bluegrass musicians into it with me. At a certain point I was feeling like I was putting everybody out by making them play this stuff, and I felt like I needed to find some guys who would just eat this stuff up.

Question: Were you surprised by the Flecktones' immediate success?

Fleck: You'd think music that is very uncommercial and odd and artsy would be something you play in small places and build up over years and years. But we were embraced right away. Warner Brothers signed us, we got a video in heavy rotation. There was a window at VH1 that was open for a very short time when they broke Tracy Chapman and broke us. All of a sudden we were on Johnny Carson three or four times, we were on Arsenio Hall. We played Carnegie Hall our first year.

Question: A few critics would say that groups like the Flecktones hurt bluegrass by diluting it. Your response?

Fleck: I think anybody who brings more attention to the music, even if they're playing a hybrid, does something good for it. When I'm playing for a college crowd of young kids and I play some bluegrass banjo in the middle of the show the kids go berserk. And after the show when I talk to people they say, `How could I find out more about that?' `Who should I listen to?' `What's a great bluegrass record I can get?' They're very interested in it.

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