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his is true. I was privileged to be Fleck’s field producer
for the Mali portion of his 2005 Africa trip, and actually
saw Kouyate’s boy, maybe nine at the time, beam with
fascination and joy as Fleck plopped that banjo in his
lap and guided his small hands into position. By that
time, Fleck had been playing music in Tanzania, Uganda and
Gambia, and had learned to “clear the mental hard drive each
day”, as he dived into each new encounter. It turns out that this
sort of challenge was part of Fleck’s Africa plan from the start.
Many of his other projects involve intensive composition, arrang-
ing, planning and rehearsal. The element of spontaneity can get
lost in the process. Fleck designed his African trip to preclude any
chance of that. “By putting myself in a situation where I couldn’t
really be completely prepared,” he said, “I was forced to dig deep
into things that I can’t tell you where they come from – things
that just pop out.”
The Throw Down Your Heart CD offers many examples of this.
Consider the way Fleck insinuates his banjo into Afel Bocoum’s
desert trance vibe on Buribalal, or dances his way into an Oumou
Sangare wassoulou lope on Ah Ndiya, or more naturally still, goes
bluegrass on Uganda’s Ateso Jazz Band’s folksy African gospel num-
ber, Jesus Is The Only Answer. The CD’s 18 tracks go in more direc-
tions than some listeners will be able to handle in a single listening.
To comprehend it all takes some work. But rarely does one feel that
Fleck himself is working excessively – and that is impressive.
Of course, Fleck did have his work cut out for him during some
of his many African encounters. In Tanzania, he learned lyre play-
er’s Warima Masiaga Cha Cha’s composition note-for-note. And
when he first visited the compound of Malian guitar virtuoso Djeli-
mady Tounkara, Tounkara threw blindingly technical riffs at the
banjo man, and then delighted in Fleck’s amazement and pleas to
slow it down a bit to give him a chance. The two monster pickers
wound up co-composing a piece, Mariam, with Tounkara writing
the A-section and Fleck the B-section. One senses their competitive
spirit of riffing in the track’s opening exchange – perhaps the
flashiest moment on the entire Throw Down Your Heart CD.
Fleck concedes feeling a sense of awe – if not quite intimida-
tion – in his first meetings with both Tounkara and kora virtuoso
Toumani Diabate. “They are both very powerful men,” he
recalled. “When they walk in the room, the air changes. Djelimady
is this big guy, and he’s intense, and when he talks, he barks things
out. But he was very sweet with me. It was great. I think when we
start playing, the problems kind of ease away. If I show that I have
some ability, and that I am really listening to them, and that I’m
really trying, and it’s not going to suck, they immediately feel bet-
ter about the whole thing.”
Fleck was particularly conscious of keeping things simple
when he mounted the first Africa Project tour. He did not throw
complicated arrangements or fancy chord changes at his collabo-
rators, as one might have imagined. “I think my language is kind
of strange to everybody,” he said. “I didn’t want to beat people up
and have them be unhappy they came. I would rather find music
that we don’t have to work that hard on. There is a psychology to
collaboration. Telling people to do something over and over and
over again is never popular, even if it’s not sounding good. So I
would rather have the job of doing the extra work in these situa-
tions, and let them be themselves.”
P
laying with the Malagasy guitar virtuoso, D’Gary – one
of the first African players Fleck met and recorded
with – posed particular challenges. “It was really con-
fusing trying to figure out how to play, because the
percussion seems to be in a whole different rhythm
than his guitar playing,” recalled Fleck. “D’Gary is technically
extremely capable, but he is also a very emotional player and he
has to feel right. If he’s not feeling it, then he’s not a happy
camper and it’s hard. So I’m very careful in how I interact with
him. I really don’t want to throw him off because he’s a little
fragile. But boy, when he’s in his zone, it’s something to hear –
cascades and waves of sound.”
Fleck likes working with songwriters, looking for that part
that best supports a good vocal. This quality shines through in his
work with Vusi Mahlasela, a brilliant singer-songwriter, not so
much a jammer. The remarkably comfortable version of
Mahlasela’s swinging, old-school African jazz number Thula Mama
on the CD was recorded before a live audience in Colorado, just
moments after the two first met. Mahlasela recalled, “We were
just checking some songs in the changing room. With Bela, you
just play and then he follows you without anything. He just settles
in nicely, and you are playing together. Wow!” When they toured
the US together in 2008, Mahlasela admired Fleck’s easygoing
approach. “You play with other people, and maybe they are pro-
fessionals, you tend to be afraid that, ‘Oh gosh, I have to be really
careful and play everything right’. I don’t get that kind of feeling
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