Week 25: Bela Fleck, Zakir Hussain and Edgar Meyer at the Barbican Three virtuoso players on the one stage: banjo, double bass and tabla. At times this made for compelling listening and combined to make some genre-defying, continent-crossing music. But the songs lasted up to 15 minutes with looong solos and Bela Fleck’s showy banjo improvs, with some musical quirks and ‘jokes’ didn’t quite do it for me.  Having said that, the audience seemed to love it and were dancing in their seats. Zakir Hussain stole the show with awesome tabla playing that resonated throughout, especially when he took centre stage. Next time I’d leave the fusion at home and stick with the tabla. Now that I could listen to all day…

Week 25: Bela Fleck, Zakir Hussain and Edgar Meyer at the Barbican

Three virtuoso players on the one stage: banjo, double bass and tabla. At times this made for compelling listening and combined to make some genre-defying, continent-crossing music. But the songs lasted up to 15 minutes with looong solos and Bela Fleck’s showy banjo improvs, with some musical quirks and ‘jokes’ didn’t quite do it for me. 

Having said that, the audience seemed to love it and were dancing in their seats. Zakir Hussain stole the show with awesome tabla playing that resonated throughout, especially when he took centre stage.

Next time I’d leave the fusion at home and stick with the tabla. Now that I could listen to all day…