fuche_bu's Full Review: Throw Down Your Heart/Tales From The Acoustic Plan...
I have always been fascinated by traditional music. There has always been something interesting about the history and evolution of music. An artist who really has a great respect for musical tradition is banjo player Bela Fleck. Fleck has long espoused the virtue of bluegrass and other traditional musics.
Now Fleck is known for some really progressive playing as well. He is a banjo player who wins grammy awards for jazz. But he is also a student of the instrument. Many years ago, Bela started an ongoing project called Tales From the Acoustic Planet. These were (and are) to be CDs that celebrate acoustic traditions. The first two in the series were bluegrass oriented.
Now Bela has come back with Throw Down Your Heart/Tales From the Acoustic Planet Volume 3. For this disc, Bela traveled throughout the African continent and recorded traditional music with African musicians. The purpose of this trip was the search for the roots of the banjo. The banjo is rooted in an African instrument called the akonting.
Fleck recorded music in Uganda, Tanzania, Mali, and the Gambia. He employed many extraordinary musicians such as Toumani Diabate, Oumou Sangare, Vusi Mahlasela, Anania Ngoliga, Baba Maal and Djelimady Tounkara. Mnay of these musicians are legends in their native countries. Fleck provides extensive liner notes where he goes over the recording of each song.
There are 18 songs on this disc and each song features different musicians. It is hard to pick out favorites on this disc. There are a lot of extraordinary moments. One track I really like is Ah Ndiya. This song features Oumou Sangare on vocals and Toumani Diabate on kora. The kora and banjo blend so well together. It's also divine listening to Sangare's vocals flittering between the notes.
The following track features thumb piano player Anania Ngoliga from Tanzania. This is also a fine song. It's interesting listening to Fleck and Ngoliga dueling through this song. One of the really interesting multicultural songs is D'Gary Jam. This song features Sangare, Diabate, Ngoliga, Vusi Mahlasela, Baba Maal, Richard Bona and D'Gary. It's a nice jam that started out as a 22 minute jam recorded in Nashville with D'Gary. Fleck added musicians to the track as he traveled. He has promised to eventually release the entire track.
Throw Down Your Heart is the title track to the disc. Fleck wrote this on the Africa trip and recorded it in Mali. He had Bassekou Kouyate playing ngoni. This instrument is one of the ancestors to the banjo. This could be described as dueling banjos generation gap style. There is an interesting picture in the notes showing Kouyate playing banjo and Fleck playing ngoni. I wonder if they recorded anything exchanging instruments. That would be pretty interesting.
On track nine Wairenziante, Fleck records in Uganda. He brings in Muwewesu Xylophone Group. On this collaboration, Bela gets drowned out a bit. The xylophone players play with great excitement. Fleck noted that this instrument was one of the reasons for going to Uganda. A giant 15 foot marimba was set up in the middle of town. Eight musicians were required to play it. This kind of thunder did provide a dramatic effect for the song.
Another song of great interest is Ajula/Mbamba. This was recorded in the Gambia with the Jatta Family. The akonting originates in this region. It is considered by many to be the original banjo. It's a medley of traditional songs. It works out very well. It piqued my interest in learning more about the akonting. I am much more familiar with the music of Mali. This is something new that I would like to explore further.
Of the later tracks I found two that were particularly interesting. On Mariam, Bela plays with Malian guitar legend Djelimady Tounkara. Tounkara was guitarist for the Super Rail Band. He is an amazing electric guitarist but he showed here that he is quite adept in an acoustic setting. This song was just a duet between Fleck and Tounkara. They complement each other nicely.
The other great track is Djorolen. This is another song by Oumou Sangare. Fleck expressed great admiration for her singing. He obviously respected her songwriting enough to record two of her songs with her. This song is just Sangare singing behind Fleck's banjo playing. He plays it pretty and allows her beautiful vocals to shine. It's a really nice song.
This is a fantastic disc. Bela covers a lot of ground in this collection of songs. He covers various traditions from different African countries. It's also fascinating the way he seeks out the roots of his instrument. I was familiar with the ngoni. The akonting is an instrument, I would like to learn more about. It was also interesting the way Fleck implemented instruments like the kora, thumb piano and marimba into his own music.
I think Bela Fleck fanatics will be delighted with this album. I also think anyone interested in traditional acoustic music would find something to like here. Banjo fans should be delighted to have a historian like Fleck exploring his instrument in such a profound manner. This is a disc that I can't recommend highly enough. It could turn fans onto to a lot of extraordinary musicians.
Throw Down Your Heart chronicles banjo virtuoso and 9 time Grammy award winner Bela Fleck s musical journey to Africa to explore the little known Afri...More at Buy.com Marketplaces
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