Béla Fleck is having an incredible start to 2016. The
banjoist and composer, along with his wife and fellow banjoist, Abigail
Washburn, is fresh from a Grammy win for “Best Folk Album,” and his second
banjo concerto, subtitled “Juno,” is slated for its premiere on March 19 with the
Canton Symphony Orchestra. It would be rather easy for a musician of Fleck’s
stature and accomplishments to sit back, relax, and enjoy his recent successes.
But the man behind the progressive, genre-bending powerhouse Béla Fleck and the
Flecktones is taking a decidedly different approach, with a full complement of
performances this spring with Washburn and jazz piano great Chick Corea.
And of course there is Fleck’s collaboration with the Eastman
Wind Ensemble on Friday, with whom he will perform his first banjo concerto
entitled “The Impostor.” In a recent email interview with City, Fleck
discussed how the banjo has shed its “outsider” status in classical music, what
makes the wind ensemble version of “The Impostor” distinctive, and the new
compositions on the horizon. An edited version of that interview follows.
City: Does playing with a group like the Eastman Wind
Ensemble enable you to show off the banjo’s capabilities in a way you might not
be able to in other contexts?
Béla Fleck: Yes, it does. And it also allows me to
hear “The Impostor” Concerto in a new way. It was written for full symphony
orchestra. This arrangement is for wind ensemble, and the piece is quite
different in this setting. It’s actually more rhythmic and exciting.
Does the wind orchestra arrangement of “The Impostor”
highlight certain characteristics of the composition that might be more
obscured in the string orchestra version?
I feel that the piece rocks in a whole different way and also
has a very unified sound, due to more similar instruments playing together.
It’s a very enjoyable alternate to the original version.
How does the energy of collaborating with an orchestra
compare with that of playing with The Flecktones or a band outside of the
classical realm?
It’s the variety of colors that I particularly enjoy. And
writing for orchestra allows me to explore things that I can’t play on the
banjo — long, slow-moving, expansive sounds and dissonances are very enjoyable
to create and hear back. And playing with a bunch of people — sometimes 90 at
once — is pretty incredible. You give up the quick responsiveness of a small
improvising ensemble for the complexity and power of a group led by a
conductor.
In the title of your banjo concerto, and in the names of
the individual movements (“Infiltration,” “Integration,” “Truth Revealed”),
there is a playful awareness of the banjo’s seeming “outlier” status in
classical music. Has your opinion on the instrument’s place evolved since
writing the concerto in 2012?
I have now played the piece about 40 times, and I continue to
get opportunities to play with orchestras with my second banjo concerto, which
premieres next month, and future commissions which are coming together. So the
truth is that although the banjo and I began as a strangers to the orchestral
world, now it’s a quite common part of my life. And since I do get invited to
return regularly, that would have to imply some sort of acceptance of the banjo
in that world. It’s pretty amazing.
What were your highest priorities in writing “The Impostor”?
I wanted people to take the banjo seriously as a musical
instrument on par with any other in the orchestra, and also I wanted to avoid
going in an Appalachian or Americana direction. I wanted to write something
influenced by my favorite composers: Bach, Brahms, Beethoven, Bartók, Mozart,
etc. My one strong American influence would have to be Gershwin — I now
realize, though I wasn’t aware of it at the time.
If you could go back and write your first banjo concerto
over again, what might you do differently?
I might make some things easier to play for myself and the
orchestra. And I would attempt to develop materials more, something I believe I
am doing better now in my piece for banjo and chamber orchestra and my second
banjo concerto.
Do you have plans to write additional music for an
orchestral or chamber music setting?
Yes I do. Beyond concerto number two, which is now complete,
I have been invited to do a third concerto, and I’m very interested in doing
this one for some historical reasons. Three may be enough banjo concertos, and
perhaps I could move on to some different classical combinations. It would be
fun to write more music for banjo and string quartet. I have a couple of pieces
for that combination, and it works very well. And there are so many
possibilities.
This article appears in Feb 24 – Mar 1, 2016.
