Throw Down Your Heart, the documentary film on Béla Fleck’s journey of discovery to Africa to explore the banjo’s roots, is set to screen on Thursday (10/9) at the Tucson Film & Music Festival.

The film was directed by Béla’s brother, Sasha Paladino, and has already won awards from Silverdocs and SXSW in 2008.

It follows Béla through Uganda, Tanzania, The Gambia, and Mali, and depicts how music can overcome barriers of language and culture.

Here is a trailer that has been posted on YouTube.

Not a lot of bluegrass content here, but if you are a fan of the Alison Krauss/Robert Plant combo and would like to see them live, here’s your chance.

The Austin City Limits Music Festival is taking place September 26-28. The only bluegrass related acts I saw on the bill where the Krauss-Plant show and The Sparrow Quartet with Abigail Washburn and Bela Fleck.

If you’d like to go, you could attend in style. YallWire.com, and it’s network affiliates, is giving away two VIP tickets to the festival. VIP treatment includes access to the VIP lounge with air-conditioned bathrooms, free lunch and dinner buffets, free drinks (water, beer, wine), and more.

To enter the contest you have to register with blastro.com (YallWire’s parent company), and leave a comment telling them why you should be the lucky winner. There are currently less than 250 entries, so the odds are pretty good. The winner will be chosen by the end of this week though, so hurry.

YallWire.com features free music videos from bluegrass, country, and Christian artists.

Renowned banjo master Béla Fleck has recorded a Christmas project in collaboration with his touring band, The Flecktones. Jingle All The Way contains their arrangements of familiar Christmas and holiday music, and is expected for release on Rounder Records September 30.

The selections pay homage to all-time Christmas favorites (Jingle Bells, O Come All Ye Faithful), classical pieces (Bach’s Christmas Oratorio, Danse of the Sugar Plum Fairies), and a number of modern songs more recently associated with the Christmas season (Mel Torme’s The Christmas Song, Vince Guaraldi’s Linus and Lucy [from A Charlie Brown Christmas], Joni Mitchell’s River).

In addition to The Flecktones (Victor Wooten on electric bass, Jeff Coffin on sax and flute, and Future Man on percussion) performers include Edgar Meyer, Andy Statman & Tuvan throat singers The Alash Ensemble.

The full track listing follows:

1. Jingle Bells
2. Silent Night
3. Sleigh Ride
4. The Christmas Song
5. Twelve Days of Christmas
6. J.S. Bach’s Christmas Oratorio - BVW 248 # 41
7. Christmas Time Is Here
8. Linus and Lucy
9. Jingle Bells (reprise)
10. The Hanukkah Waltz
11. Danse of the Sugar Plum Fairies
12. What Child Is This/Dyngyldai
13. O Come All Ye Faithful
14. Medley
15. Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas
16. River

Audio samples for two tracks are available online.

The Sparrow Quartet will be kicking off this year’s Woodstock Film Festival with a concert. The concert will take place at the Bearsville Theater west of downtown Woodstock, on October 1, 2008.

The Sparrow Quartet is lead by Abigail Washburn and features banjo master Bela Fleck, along with Casey Driessen and Ben Sollee.

In addition to the concert, Bela’s documentary, Throw Down Your Heart, will also be featured with a special screening during the film festival.

Throw Down Your Heart won the Fan’s Choice Award at the South by Southwest film festival in Austin, TX earlier this year.

The July 21, 2008 issue of Newsweek magazine included a feature on banjo player, vocalist and songwriter Abigail Washburn and her current touring and recording venue, Sparrow Quartet.

The magazine’s Brian Braiker caught up with Abby and fellow quartet members Béla Fleck, Casey Driessen and Ben Sollee at a live performance in New York’s Battery Park, where she shared how she came to a career in music after studying Chinese in college.

But somewhere along the way, Washburn, who also sang in college, picked up a banjo for largely the same reason she decided to learn Chinese—it was hard. She mastered the old-timey clawhammer style well enough that, by the time she was considering a career in international law, a trip to Nashville turned into a much longer stay. There she cut a demo consisting of the first two songs she’d written, one in English, the other—because, hell, why not?—in Mandarin. Eventually, the allure of woodshedding in Tennessee trumped the corporate path waiting abroad. “Am I going to use my skills to represent Anheuser-Busch and Payless Shoes?” companies she had consulted for, “or am I going to have something to say?” she asks. She handed her demo to banjo virtuoso Béla Fleck at a party, who listened on the drive home. He says he became so absorbed that he got pulled over for speeding. “She wasn’t doing anything fancy,” he tells NEWSWEEK. “There was just something pure and beautiful about what she did.”

You can read the full piece at Newsweek.com, where they also have an exclusive video of the Quartet performing Captain, a piece from their current CD, Abigail Washburn & The Sparrow Quartet (audio samples on iTunes).

HT: Katy Daley at WAMU’s Bluegrass Country

Video of a recent performance by Abigail Washburn & The Sparrow Quartet on the Woodsongs Old Time Radio Hour can now be viewed online.

The group is composed of Abby on clawhammer banjo and vocals, Bela Fleck on 3 finger banjo, Casey Driessen on fiddle and Ben Sollee on cello.

They are the sole guests on this program, and perform for the full hour amidst discussions with host Michael Johnathon about their new self-titled CD, from which they draw selections for the show.

See the full show online at the Woodsongs site.

Folk musician Abigail Washburn has certainly raised awareness of the banjo around the world in recent years. She has collaborated with banjo great Bela Fleck, along with cellist Ben Sollee and fiddler Casey Driessen, to bring American banjo music to China. The band, known as The Sparrow Quartet, became the first US band to officially tour Tibet in the fall of 2007, at the behest of the Chinese government.

Three years after the release of her debut album, Song of the Traveling Daughter, this new self titled (after the band) sophomore recording hits the streets on May 20, 2008. The entire band, including Fleck, had a hand in the composition and arrangement of the record. Fleck produced the recording for Nettwerk Records. Washburn comments that this record was an effort to

…intentionally create art that is more than what I ever thought I was capable of. These musicians allowed me to dream big, and they had the chops to execute it all, and then some.

Featuring 13 songs, the CD stylistically spans the bridge between traditional American folk/bluegrass tunes such as Banjo Pickin’ Girl, to traditional Chinese folk songs such as Taiyang chulai (We’re Happy Under the Sun), to a number of originals written by the band for this project. The arrangements bear the marks of both American and Chinese tradition with a certain cinematic quality and even some classical sounding moments. Part of the uniqueness of the sound comes from the composition of the band itself. The quartet features two banjos, a cello and a fiddle. That combination of instrumentation, along with the diversity of musical backgrounds the four players bring to the table results in a sound that is all their own. And the results speak for themselves.

The foursome begins a North American tour Friday night with a show in Boulder, CO. This is the first of over 100 performances planned in support of the new CD. The tour includes some high-profile performances at Bonnaroo, Merlefest, New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival, and the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing.

For a complete listing of tour dates, be sure to visit them online at AbigailWashburn.com.

Audio tracks and tours dates are available on Abigail’s MySpace page as well.

On today’s (4/3) edition of Blue Plate Special on WDVX, Abigail Washburn & Sparrow Quartet featuring Béla Fleck will perform. The show airs at noon (EDT) from the Knoxville, TN studios of WDVX before a live audience, ahead of their show tonight at The Down Home in Johnson City.

The Quartet includes Washburn and Fleck on banjos along with Casey Driessen on fiddle and Ben Sollee on cello. They have a CD released in 2006 on Nettwerk and they toured extensively in Asia in support. Abby speaks Chinese fluently, and worked as a translator for many years.

WDVX  is broadcast in the Knoxville market at 102.9 FM - and via live streaming online.

Earlier this month, Bela Fleck’s documentary film, Throw Down Your Heart, was premiered at the South by Southwest (SXSW) film festival in Austin, TX. SXSW is a 5 day festival that is a combination of trade show and festival for music, film and interactive media. The festival includes all the workshops, panels, mentor sessions, etc. that you would expect from a trade show. In addition, over 250 independent films were screened during the course of those five days.

Throw Down Your Heart was entered in the Documentary Feature category. While it didn’t win the jury award for its category, it did win the fan’s choice award called 24 Beats Per Second. This award is for the fan’s favorite music-themed filmed at the event. The award title is taken from the number of film frames displayed in one second of film footage, 24.

Bela’s brother Sascha Paladino, who served as the film’s director, commented on the warm reception the film received at the festival.

[An] amazing thing that happened during our premiere was that after some of the musical performances within the film, the audience burst into applause. It was really exciting, like everyone was at a live concert. I don’t think that would have happened at another festival… We’re thrilled that we premiered at SXSW.

Bela stated in an interview with Variety magazine that he hoped the win would lead to more people seeing the film.

We’re hoping that by the end of the festival season, we’ll have somebody who wants to put it, acquire it and put it out, get into the public eye, because we think it’s worth seeing.

For more information about the film (and to watch the trailer), you can read our original post, or visit the film’s website at ThrowDownYourHeart.com.

Cross-genre and cross-cultural banjo icon Béla Fleck journeyed through several African nations last year in an effort to learn more about the music and people from whence the banjo originated. He visited Uganda, Tanzania, Gambia and Mali and met and performed with many African musicians along the way.

An album is planned for the future based on the music recorded on this trip, and a documentary film will debut next month about this musical adventure as well. It is entitled, Throw Down Your Heart, and was shot by filmmaker Sascha Paladino (Béla’s brother), who also produced and directed the film short that was included with The Flecktones’ CD/DVD, The Hidden Land.

The new film will premier at the 2008 South By Southwest Film Festival on March 9 in Austin, TX, and a short clip has been posted on YouTube.

News is expected soon about the African journey CD’s release, and about whether Throw Down Your Heart will be picked up for theatrical release, or perhaps on DVD.

Today at noon, Bela Fleck & The Flecktones will give a live radio performance on Blue Plate Special, broadcast on WDVX 89.9 FM in Knoxville, TN. The show will also be simulcast online via a web audio stream, but is not archived so be sure to catch the show live.

Bela and the boys played last night (9/23) in Knoxville, and have another show there this evening. The Knoxville Daily Times published a lengthy interview with Bela on Friday, which can be read online.

Catch The Flecktones on Blue Plate Special at noon on September 24, eastern time.

Plum TV has posted a video interview with Béla Fleck on their Vail, CO web site. Plum is an independent media outlet with local cable stations and web sites in 8 high end US markets: Vail, Aspen, Telluride, Nantucket, the Hamptons, Martha’s Vineyard, Sun Valley and Miami Beach.

They filmed the interview when Béla and The Flecktones were in Vail for a concert last winter, where they also captured part of the live show. In the interview, Béla talks about how he came to play the banjo, and also discusses each of the members of his band.

The video runs nearly 6 minutes with both interview and live stage bits, and you can see it on the Plum Vail site, or enjoy it below.

Jazz sax man Bill Evans made waves in 2005 with the release of his Soulgrass project, merging jazz, funk and R&B grooves with bluegrass and traditional string music. It included such acoustic luminaries as Béla Fleck (who also co-produced), Sam Bush, Jerry Douglas and Stuart Duncan along with Evans and fellow jazz giants John Scofield on guitar, among many others.

Soulgrass was nominated for a Grammy in ‘05. Audio samples can be found on the Bill Evans web site.

Evans is hard at work this summer recording a new project, again featuring this jazz/bluegrass jusion approach. Already announced as contributing in the studio are Sam Bush, Béla Fleck and Victor Wooten along with his touring band of Ryan Cavanaugh (banjo), Christian Howes (fiddle) and Joel Rosenblatt (drums).

This new CD, as yet untitled, is expected to be released in Europe in October 2007, and in the US early in 2008.

The Enchantment, the upcoming banjo/piano duet recording from Chick Corea and Béla Fleck, which Brance briefly described earlier this month, is due for release May 22 on Concord Records.

The making of this highly-anticipated CD is the focus of a short (6 minute) film which can be viewed now on the Chick Corea site.

The film includes music from the CD throughout, but is more focused on interviews with the performers. Both Corea and Fleck describe (separately) how they approached composing and performing in the studio, and the difficulties they encountered trying to play appropriately in each other’s idiom.

A highlight for me was Corea describing his efforts to play “bluegrass piano” on one of Béla’s tunes, written in a traditional banjo style. After mentioning how Béla taught him the basic banjo groove, Corea indicated that this tune, Mountain, was one of his favorites on the CD.

“I’m into it, man. I’m into country. I’m into bluegrass.”

Watch the video, or listen to audio samples from the CD at chickcorea.com.

Corea and Fleck will also do some limited touring in June in support of The Enchantment. The dates can be found on the Béla Fleck site.

Banjo player Bela Fleck has joined forces with jazz pianist Chick Corea to record a duet album set to be released May 22, 2007.

Fleck has been innovating almost as long as he’s been playing the banjo. He’s delved into the jazz world before, hiring jazz musicians to be in his band, and recording with jazz players at times. He’s even recorded with Chick Corea before when Corea made guest appearances on two Flecktone recordings in the 1990’s. But this new record is the first time the two players and composers have worked together to record a duet album.

The album, entitled The Enchantment, is due to be released later this month, but is available for pre-order from Amazon.com right now.

I was unable to find any audio samples at this time.

The album cover is the first image above. The second image is one I found on Bela’s website and I thought the piano keyboard on the banjo neck made a great image so I thought I’d share it with you as well.

The duo will be touring together some this summer in support of the album. I believe they’ll even be at Telluride this year.

Irish bluegrass affeniato Niall Toner, mandolin and guitar player with the Niall Toner Band, interviewed Bela Fleck during a recent trip the banjo player took to Ireland. The interview is set to be broadcast on RTE Radio 1, on which Niall regularly hosts a show.

The show containing this interview will be broadcast on May 3rd at 9 PM. I’m assuming that is local time in Ireland which is five hours ahead of EST in the US so that would place the show time at 4PM EST. I’m told the show will be available for online listening.

What did Niall and Bela talk about in the interview?

all aspects of the 5-string banjo, including his ventures into jazz, blues, and classical music, as well as his ongoing contribution to bluegrass.

This particular program is not part of Naill’s normal weekly show, but instead is a special. The first of many he hopes to broadcast.

Hat Tip: The Bluegrass Ireland Blog

As we could have predicted, a video capture of the recent triple banjo performance on The Late Show with David Letterman has made its way to YouTube. The clip is taken from Wednesday’s program (4/26) and features Steve Martin, Tony Trischka and Bela Fleck playing Martin’s The Crow, one of 14 double banjo pieces on Trischka’s latest release, Double Banjo Bluegrass Spectatcular.

The clip also features Michael Daves on guitar, Brittany Haas on fiddle and Skip Ward on bass.

You can watch the Letterman video on YouTube, where you can also find a clip of Steve and Tony performing this same song on The Ellen DeGeneres show.

If you want more, there is an hour long video shot in January 2007 on the Kennedy Center site featuring Tony and Noam Pikelny on banjos with the same supporting cast (guitar, fiddle, bass) as the Letterman and Ellen shows.

We have written a good bit this year about Tony Trischka’s latest CD, Double Banjo Bluegrass Spectacular. Each of the project’s 14 tracks feature Tony performing in duet (with a full band) along with other prominent banjo pickers, including such luminaries as Earl Scruggs, Scott Vestal, Tom Adams and Bill Emerson.

Tony will be appearing this week on The Late Show with David Letterman with two of his other banjo co-conspirators from the CD, Béla Fleck and comedian/musician Steve Martin. They will perform The Crow, a tune written by Martin for Tony’s new release, on the Thursday, April 26 program, broadcast on CBS.

Trischka has also taken his double banjo show on the road, adding a variety of “second banjo” guests as may be available. The bulk of the dates feature either Crooked Still banjo man Greg Liszt, or Noam Pikelny, of Chris Thile’s Tensions Mountain Boys.

See the full tour schedule on Tony’s web site.

The 49th annual Grammy Awards were presented last night, and a few of our own were honored with awards.

The biggest bluegrass award of the night was given to Ricky Skaggs and Kentucky Thunder who took home the Grammy for Best Bluegrass Album, for their most recent work, Instrumentals. I believe this is the 12th Grammy win for Skaggs and the 6th for the band. Congratulations guys!

Best Country Instrumental Performance was handed to Bryan Sutton and Doc Watson for their duet rendition of the tune Whiskey Before Breakfast, from Bryan’s latest CD, Not Too Far From The Tree.

Best Contemporary Jazz Album was awarded to Bela Fleck & The Flecktones for the CD The Hidden Land.

Even though it’s not strictly bluegrass, we’ll claim Vince Gill as one of our own and acknowledge his win for Best Male Country Vocal Performance for his song The Reason Why.

Several of my favorites won in non-bluegrass categories as well, especially in the classical genre. The Grammy website has the complete list of nominees and winners posted so you can check to see if your favorites won.

With New Year’s Eve upon us, let me recommend my very favorite version of the perennial December 31st classic, Auld Lang Syne. It comes from David Grisman’s terrific 1983 release, David Grisman’s Acoustic Christmas, and features a much younger and not-so-famous Bela Fleck on banjo.

If you are a Rhapsody subscriber, you can find it here. If you aren’t a subscriber, you can still download the Rhapsody software for free, and listen to up to 20 songs each month at no charge.

It’s a great way to ring in the New Year in a rip-roaring bluegrass style.

On behalf of both Brance and myself, The Bluegrass Blog wishes our readers all over the world a happy, healthy and prosperous new year! We hope that 2007 is kind to you all, and that one year hence, you will find yourself well and in good spirits.