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| Bela Fleck | Natural Bridge |
| Review by Keith Rollag | |
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11661-0146-2 Personnel: |
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Rounder Records has recently re-released one of Bela Fleck's earlier bluegrass albums, and it's neat to hear the banjo master and a large cast of picker pros run through a bunch of bluegrass-based Fleck originals. Recorded long before Bela's foray with Future Man and the Flecktones, the album is a mixture of souped-up fiddle tunes, swing mandolin pieces, and ragtime and blues banjo. According to the liner notes by David Grisman, Bela Fleck didn't simply write 11 banjo tunes - he included several songs written specifically for the other instruments (which of course he plays too). The album is clearly newgrass - lots of genres played with standard bluegrass instruments. If you like Dawgrass or stuff by the Tony Rice Unit or David Grier, this will be a nice addition to your collection. It's much more bluegrassy that most of Bela's more recent releases (with the exception of Bluegrass Sessions), but there are no standards in this lineup. The backup buddies are a who's who of hot session pickers. It's fun to hear Mark O'Connor back in the days when he was still playing some guitar, and Sam, Ricky, and Darol all sound great on fiddle. Having Grisman, Gandreau, Marshall, and White contribute some powerful mandolin also demonstrates that even in 1982 Bela had drawing power in the acoustic world. I won't describe every tune, other than to say that they tend to be representative of most newgrass albums - a mixture of styles all played with precision and improvisational creativity. For an all instrumental album, this is one of the better ones. Enjoy! |
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