Bela Fleck 2010-02-08 Boulder Theater Boulder, CO

Bela Fleck - The Africa Project
Monday, February 8, 2010
Boulder Theater, Boulder
Colorado

Recording Info:    Edirol 16 bit/44.1 khz recording
Transfer Info:    Transcend 4gb SD card-> USB-> Stand Alone Burner (Sony RCD w500c)-> 16bit WAV->
        Dell Inspiron 1501 Note Book-> CD-> EAC-> Cool Edit Pro-> CDWave-> FLAC
Taped by: Royboy
Location: Centered in Front Row of seats up from floor
Mastered March 3, 2010

Set 1:
d1t01 - crowd
d1t02 - Bela Solo
d1t03 - Ngoliga and Kitime Introduction
d1t04 - Tanzania
d1t05 -
d1t06 -
d1t07 -
d1t08 - Ngoni Ba Introduction
d1t09 -
d1t10 -
d1t11 -
d1t12 -

Set 2:
d1t13 - crowd
d1t14 - Bela Cello Banjo Solo
d2t01 - Kathmandu
d2t02 - Kanjo
d2t03 - +
d2t04 -
d2t05 - +
d3t06 - +Falani
d3t07 - +Africa
d3t08 - Band Intros
d2t09 - +
d2t10 - encore break
Encore:
d2t11 - +Throw Down Your Heart

d1: (79:44)
d2: (73:54)

Guest:
+ with Casey Driessen - fiddle

Lineup:
- Bela Fleck - banjos
- Anania Ngoliga - thumb piano player
- John Kitime - acoustic guitar
- Bassekou Kouyate - ngoni
- Ngoni Ba (full band):
    - Fousseyni Kouyate - medium bass ngoni (aka: ngoni ba)
    - Oumar Barou Kouyate - ngoni
    - Moussa Bah - bass ngoni
    - Ami Sacko - vocals
    - Alou Coulibaly - calebasse (gourd)
    - Moussa Sissoko - percussion

Notes:
-- d1t04 through d1t07 featured only Ngoliga, Kitime, and Bela
-- The remainder of Set 1 was Ngoni Ba and Bela
-- Set 2 featured everyone playing altogether for most of the set

Mastering Notes:
-- EAC was done in secure mode, with offsets corrected, and was 100% error free
-- Cool Edit Pro was used to merge all files into one long wave
-- Fades were added at beginning and end of sets
-- CDWave was used for tracking


Live review: Béla Fleck’s “Africa Project” at the Boulder TheaterBy Jason Blevins and Nathan Rist:

Béla Fleck has mastered all sounds on his banjo. The other-worldly maestro can meld his twangy
instrument with virtually every genre of music. So it makes perfect sense that the perpetually
innovative master of the American banjo would eventually wander into Africa, where that percussive
lute was born more than 2,000 years ago.

Fleck has not only returned with new styles, techniques and sounds that earned him two Grammy awards
last week. He’s brought the best of Africa back with him. Before a capacity crowd at the
Boulder Theater last night, Fleck’s Africa Project shuttled a rapt audience deep into the rich
musical landscapes of Africa.

Starting with a reflective, improvised display of his African aptitude, Fleck’s metallic banjo cast
a dancing shimmer on the theater walls. He invited thumb piano player Anania Ngoliga and guitarist
John Kitime to join him and soon, the room was awash in a lyrical Tanzanian dance.

Ngoliga, a multi-instrumental master of Tanzania’s Gogo music, is blind and he sits virtually
motionless with his hands tucked inside a sort of acoustic bread box. His tinkling on the thumb piano
harkens the bubbly sound of rain on a tin roof, or a particularly poppy steel drum. His virtuosity
gives the modest instrument both a melodic and percussive role.

Coupled with the caressing backdrop of Kitime’s acoustic guitar, the duo was mesmerizing. Fleck joined
the Tanzanian musicians for a couple songs, including Ngoliga’s high-pitched, comically clucking and
clacking song “Kabibi.”

Fleck and his “Africa Project” entourage of a dozen musicians are touring 33 cities in support of
Fleck’s self-released “Throw Down Your Heart: Africa Sessions Part 2.” Last year’s
“Throw Down Your Heart” won Fleck his 12th and 13th Grammy Awards, for
Best Contemporary World Music Album and Best Pop Instrumental Performance. Those awards also mark the
10th and 11th musical category for Fleck, a spectrum that includes classical crossover, spoken word
and contemporary jazz. No one knows the banjo like Béla.

If Fleck does have a rival on banjo, it is Bassekou Kouyate, the captain of Malian sensation Ngoni Ba,
the first ever all-ngoni band. The ngoni is a plucked chordophone that looks like a ukulele but
sounds like a banjo. Kouyate, as a young man, was the first to ever sling the ngoni around his neck
and play it standing up, defying tradition. Today, his band Ngoni Ba is pioneering a new generation
of ngoni sound. Fleck introduced his Malian peer as the greatest to ever play the ngoni in the
instrument’s 2,000 year history.

High praise from the American king and oh, what a sound. Backed by two gourd-slapping percussionists
and a soulful, bellowing singer, the four ngoni players — all family members capable of Four Tops-style
choreographed moves in formal African garb — delivered a decadently rich, nimble and haunting display.
Kouyate, treading lightly on a wah-wah, conjured Frampton-esque moments between adroit plucking.
When joined by Fleck, the two redefined forever — at least in my mind — the hillbilly notion of dueling
banjos. That old school sound is a toddler’s shoving match. Fleck and Kouyate take the duel to
World War level.

Fleck took a second spin with an improvised solo on his cello banjo, picking along the stem to create
an exotic sound. He would turn the tuning pegs as he plucked, building a warm, hovering, wavelike tone
that easily conjured some dusty African market, far from anything Western. Others would wander out and
join Fleck for swimmingly intricate tunes. There was buoyant Tanzanian bluegrass, with Casey Driessen
on fiddle. When Ngoliga jumped in with his thumb piano, the sound swerved into African-Caribbean-Zydeco
bluegrass.

Kouyate and his crew arrived and Ngoliga led the stage in an African blues tune, his voice like
Muddy Waters on the banks of the Nile. By the second encore, the band was deep into ambient
“TanzMalican” grooves, with five banjos, a thumb pianist, a fiddler, an acoustic guitarist,
two gourd drummers and an African singer. It was a musical moment that won’t be forgotten. 

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