The result with Michael Lawrence is Bach and Friends, due for DVD release early in 2010. The film looks at the timeless music of Johann Sebastian Bach through the eyes of 21st century musicians in a variety of genres. Lawrence has made a dozen or more documentaries, many focused on musical topics and personalities.

Mike told us that this Bach film began as a small project, but starting with his connections in the bluegrass world, has grown to include interviews and performances from some of the biggest names in contemporary music. Bach and Friends features several names familiar to bluegrass fans (Chris Thile, Béla Fleck and Edgar Meyer), along with jazz singer Bobby McFerrin and classical notables Joshua Bell, Sharon Isbin, Glenn Gould and The Emerson String Quartet.

“The whole idea of the movie is to bring young people – and people who aren’t familiar with Bach – to learn more about him. The project started with just an idea and my savings, and I had no idea there would be so many luminaries in the movie.

I spent about a year producing from the second floor of my house, and I just started contacting people, and they said yes.”

Lawrence runs a one-man operation (Michael Lawrence Films) and came to classical music from a bluegrass background. He played banjo as a young man, and with no options to study banjo in college such as there are today, he gravitated to guitar. He was a member of the very first graduating class at The Peabody Conservatory of Music, where he studied with Aaron Shearer, and performed as a classical guitarist.

Film scoring and original music for films was Michael’s introduction to the world of the cinema. He provided music for more than a dozen projects, most notably The Other Americans, which won numerous Emmy Awards in 1969. Lawrence soon found his place behind the camera, and as writer, producer or director, has more than 20 films to his credit, aired on PBS, HBO and CNN.

After a career close to classical music, it was his bluegrass roots that got the Bach Project off the ground.

“Béla was the first big name person who came aboard, which led to Edgar Meyer and Chris Thile. I knew of Chris from Nickel Creek, but had no idea he played Bach.”

Click here to view the embedded video.

Though he expects that Bach and Friends will eventually be broadcast on television, the first step is producing a 2 hour documentary on DVD. Lawrence said that the DVD is due for release in January 2010 – a 2 DVD set to include the documentary on one disc, and all of the musical performances strung back-to-back on the other.

Here’s a look at Béla’s contribution…

Click here to view the embedded video.

More video samples can be found on Lawrence’s web site.

Michael said that while his professional career now revolves around film and classical music, he still keeps up his bluegrass chops.

“I play bluegrass about once a month at a jam here in Baltimore – so I’m usually a little rusty, but it’s always fun.”

The music of JS Bach has had appeal to banjo and mandolin players for some time, with its focus on linear melodies that can be adapted well to these instruments. Hearing Bach perfomed on the harpsichord (for which much of it was written) really brings the banjo to mind, and perhaps this new film will spur a study of this lovely music by younger string players with a bluegrass bent.

In 2009, Béla Fleck’s name is familiar to music lovers all over the world, both in and out of bluegrass. In 1978, however, he was a teenaged phenom, just coming to the attention of… well, anybody not following the minutia of banjomania.

For most folks, even those who had heard rumblings of this mega-talented youngster from “up north”, Tasty Licks’ self-titled debut on Rounder was their first taste of Béla’s burgeoning banjo revolution.

When this album first hit on LP, the “names’ on the album were mandolinist Jack Tottle and resonator guitarist, Stacy Phillips, both of whom had prior Rounder projects and popular instructional books on the market. Though Tottle and Phillips have gone on to make lasting contributions to our music, this reissue’s import is now focused on its glimpse of the young Béla Fleck.

Rounding out the group were Robin Kincaid on guitar and Paul Kahn on bass. This album was billed as “Northern bluegrass” when it was released in ‘78, as the band was based in Boston, MA, at a time when this was worthy of note on its own. Bobby Hicks also provides fiddle on two tracks.

Butch Robins has a hard-earned reputation as a raconteur, envelope-pusher and controversialist. He is also, of course, a banjo innovator whose impact might have rivaled that of Fleck, had his music been more widely heard. Butch spent many formative years playing with Bill Monroe, an apprenticeship that informs his approach to music, none less than Monroe’s constant admonition to “make your own sound.”

Fragments Of My Imagicnation offers a fascinating look at Butch as he is transitioning from a more traditional Scruggs-style player to the sort of inventive, groundbreaking picker that fully emerged on his later releases Forty Years Late and Grounded, Centered, Focused.

On Fragments he was joined by then New Grass Revival members Curtis Burch, John Cowan and Sam Bush, plus a second banjo cameo from Béla himself. Butch had played bass briefly when New Grass was starting up. Can you imagine where they would have gone had he been the banjo picker from the start?

Both of these reissues are being offered as digital downloads in iTunes, with audio CDs available exclusively from Amazon.com.

• Tasty Licks – iTunes Amazon.com
• Fragments Of My Imagicnation – iTunes Amazon.com

Casey was tapped to play fiddle on Béla Fleck’s Throw Down Your Heart tour earlier this year, along with a number of the African musicians who were featured in the film and CD of the same name.

While on the road with the show, Casey captured a great many images with his camera, with the best of them displayed on his web site.

Casey agreed to let us show a few of the photos here, but a trip to his site will let you see them all.

But the performances made all the waiting around worthwhile. There was a lot of music on the show that wasn’t bluegrass (Mary Chapin Carpenter, Nathan and the Zydeco Cha Chas, the amazing Irma Thomas, and the emcee, actress Minnie Driver), so I won’t talk about that here. Suffice to say it will be well worth tuning in to the PBS special when it airs in March 2010.

Of bluegrass interest was Bela Fleck, who played a couple solo pieces. The one he played on the cello banjo was really cool. It was some music that he learned in Tanzania and Mali on the trip to Africa that resulted in the documentary film Throw Down Your Heart, and the CD of the same name. His second tune started out solo but quickly turned duo when he was joined on stage by Abigail Washburn, who sang I’ve Got The Keys To The Kingdom. His final tune was another duet—this time with Jerry Douglas. He said that they were “kids together on Rounder.” Indeed Bela was only 19 when the label first signed him.

The final act of the evening was Alison Krauss + Union Station featuring Jerry Douglas. It was great to see the band play together again, since they’ve been off doing individual projects for so long. They did five numbers including the first song that Alison recorded for Rounder back when she was a teenager, Too Late to Cry, written by John Pennell, who was in the audience. They sang their last song, A Living Prayer, gathered around one mic. The magical performance earned them a genuine standing ovation long enough to merit an encore, Ghost in this House.

After Ghost everyone pretty much thought the show was over and started leaving until Minnie Driver came back on stage and said that there’s a big finale with everyone singing on stage and “don’t leave!!” The feel-good medley of Angels Watching Over Me/I’ll Fly Away/Down By The Riverside was the perfect ending to the celebratory show.

One last note—part of the background set for the show were huge versions of album covers. It especially tickled me that one of the covers blown up was J.D. Crowe and The New South (Rounder 0044) in colors much more vibrant than they ever were on the cardboard LP jacket. It was, by the way, the second cover. Not the original one with J.D. signaling his intentions.

Well, now we have Rounder Records with a big anniversary of their own, choosing Monday, October 12 to commemorate 40 years in business. They have been recording bluegrass, roots, alternative and Americana music since 1970. A special concert at Nashville’s Grand Ole Opry House will be filmed for a later broadcast on PBS stations during 2010.

The show will feature performances by Alison Krauss & Union Station featuring Jerry Douglas, Béla Fleck, Mary Chapin Carpenter, Irma Thomas, Nathan & The Zydeco Cha Chas along with host (and performer) Minnie Driver. A portion of the proceeds from Monday’s concert will go to the NARAS Grammy In The Schools Programs.

From a recent Rounder press release…

Rounder Records was founded in 1970 by Ken Irwin, Marian Leighton Levy and Bill Nowlin.  With only their passionate enthusiasm for American roots music lighting the way, the three Boston area college students cast their lot into the perilous music industry. “Before founding Rounder, we were basically music fans,” says Rounder Records co-founder Ken Irwin. “None of us,” echoes co-conspirator Bill Nowlin, “had any record industry experience whatsoever.”

“I doubt that ‘industry experience’ is a term we would have comprehended at the time we started Rounder!” interjects the third member of the Rounder triumvirate, Marian Leighton.

Ticket information can be found online.

Béla Fleck, Zakir Hussain and Edgar Meyer are touring in Hawaii, and we are all invited to join them today – in the cyber sense of the word. Their live show in Honolulu at the Road Runner Music Hall will be broadcast live by KSSK, starting at 4:00 p.m. (EDT) this afternoon (9/18).

KSSK may be a radio station, but they will be carrying a live video feed of the concert.

The trio is touring in support of their new CD, The Melody Of Rhythm, a collaborative set of compositions for banjo, bass and tabla. They will perform the title piece, a work in three movements, with the Honolulu Symphony this Saturday and Sunday.

Fleck, Hussain and Meyer will be out through the end of October doing live shows. You can find their schedule online.

The are seven pieces of new music, but the album is centered around a triple concerto for their three instruments composed by Fleck and Meyer. Entitled The Melody Of Rhythm, it consists of three movements, and was recorded live for this project with the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Leonard Slatkin.

The goal of the composers was to blend the sound of Indian classical music with American roots and traditional string music. Given the stunning level of virtuosity these three musicians bring to the table, the results are remarkable, though the music truly defies an easy description.

Audio samples can be found on the sites of a number of online resellers, and in iTunes.

This unlikely trio will be on tour throughout September and October, including dates with a number of symphony orchestras.

He was in Boston as a part of the publicity tour for his documentary film, Throw Down Your Heart, a date which coincided nicely with the official kickoff of Berklee’s new American Roots Music Program. B?©la, along with program director Matt Glaser, spoke with a group of students at the school.

From the Berklee report by Danielle Dreilinger:

Fleck started off by giving them practical advice. “There’s a lot more to being a good musician than sitting in a room by yourself,” he said. Even practicing should be tuneful, he said: “Play scales in a musical way.”

He soon segued to bigger questions, urging players to follow their instincts. He cited his old friend Andy Statman, who turned from bluegrass mandolin to klezmer clarinet.

“When you hear something that really turns you on, that’s a cue,” Fleck said. “It’s probably something you’ll be good at. Because usually your inner voice is right.”

Fleck’s inner voice has led him to bluegrass, progressive fusion, jazz, classical and, now, African genres.

“I’m a bit of a dabbler,” he said. Because few forms of music use the banjo, he said, “I feel there are some opportunities I have to do some things that haven’t been done.”

You can read the full reoprt at berklee.edu.

It is a set of ten songs and tunes featuring Bryan in the studio with many of the artists with whom he has performed in recent years. Punch Brothers make an appearance (sans regular guitarist Chris Eldridge) along with Béla Fleck, Sam Bush, Hot Rize, Stuart Duncan, Jerry Douglas and several other notables. The intention was to capture the music live in the studio, with minimal overdubs or tweaking.

The CD’s vibe is nicely captured by Nate Chinen in a mini-review in the New York Times’ Playlist column on July 8:

The contemporary bluegrass style upheld by the flat-pick guitarist Bryan Sutton has a lot to do with high-polish whimsicality. There’s no room for raggedness on his crisp new album, “Almost Live” (Sugar Hill), but as the title suggests, looseness is a priority.

You should be able to find Almost Live for sale wherever you like to purchase bluegrass CDs, or in iTunes where you can hear audio samples as well.

It looks like this one may do well, as it is the #1 selling bluegrass CD at Amazon.com today.

But it also means that his many admirers have precious little opportunity to hear him out front, performing his own music.

Sugar Hill has another of those rare glimpses into Sutton as a spotlight artist with a new CD, Almost Live, due for release on July 14. The title comes from the concept for the album – to get together in the studio with the several groups with whom Bryan has toured in recent years, and capture the informal and sometimes extemporaneous character of a live show.

These include the occasional Hot Rize reunions, Punch Brothers, and Béla Fleck (and his Acoustic Planet band). Each is featured on at least one track, along with a trio of duets with Fleck, Russ Barrenberg and Chris Thile. Not too shabby, eh?

As always, Sutton’s tone is gorgeous – large and round – and while it is clearly his album, the tunes (and songs) dictate the arrangements. In other words, it’s not a “guitar album.” Most of the materials falls squarely within the bluegrass/newgrass/Americana category, with one track that showcases Bryan’s more recent fascination with gypsy swing music.

Sutton wrote the bulk of the tunes, with a Norman Blake classic (Church Street Blues with Hot Rize) and a Delmore Brothers chestnut (Gonna Lay Down My Old Guitar with Thile) included for a bit of vocal relief. Choosing standouts is a daunting chore given the high caliber of music and musicianship throughout, but here are a few that grabbed my attention.

Big Island Hornpipe is a co-write with Thile which Bryan says the two of them finished while he was touring with Chris’ How To Grow A Band. Sutton filled in with them on shows when their ultimate guitarist Chris Eldridge was still working with The Infamous Stringdusters. It’s quite a romp!

Rye Straw Suite finds Sutton in duet with B?©la Fleck, with whom he wrote the tune.

Loretta’s Waltz is a lovely melody which Bryan wrote and named for his wife. The execution, with Dennis Crouch on bass, Aubrie Haynie on fiddle and Jeff Taylor on accordion, is restrained and quite powerful.

Be on the lookout for Almost Live folks – if you care about virtuosic instrumental acoustic music, that is. And why wouldn’t you?

This is the album featuring music Fleck recorded on his trip to Africa in 2005 to research music played on indigenous instruments which may have been precursors to the modern banjo.

He will talk about Throw Down Your Heart, his current CD release on Rounder, and the documentary film by the same name, both of which chronicle Fleck’s musical journey of discovery through Western Africa in 2005. The twin projects feature Béla collaborating with folk musicians from several African nations as he researched the many instruments which may have contributed to the development of our modern banjo.

The show airs on many NPR radio affiliates throughout the US, or you can tune in online.

UPDATE 6/5 – The audio from this segment can now be accessed at NPR.org.

Down Beat has B?©la Fleck on the cover of its June issue, on newsstands now, with an article by Geoffrey Himes. The piece looks at Fleck’s busy touring and recording schedule, and how much pleasure he derives from his work.

As soon as he finished the Flecktones’ tour last winter, he recorded his new album with bassist Edgar Meyer and tabla player Zakir Hussain. Then he went back out on the road with the Sparrow Quartet, the chamber-music/old-time string band led by Fleck’s girlfriend, Abigail Washburn.

When that ended at the end of February, he went into rehearsal for his March/April tour with some of the African musicians on his new album, Throw Down Your Heart (Rounder). At the same time he had to prepare the theatrical release of the documentary film of the same name about his 2005 trip to Africa. In June and July, he will tour again with a different set of African musicians. In September and October, he’ll hit the road with Meyer and Hussain to support their album with shows as a trio and with local orchestras.

Having rattled off this schedule, Fleck seemed more tired than before. But when he talked about the prospect of playing with Hussain, Washburn and the South African singer Vusi Mahlasela, his weary grin spread wider. It was as if he couldn’t believe what he had gotten himself into but couldn’t wait to do it.

"There’s such pleasure in learning new music," he said. "I love busting my ass and feeling like I’ve got it. It’s hard for me to turn down the opportunities that come my way.

Look for the full piece in the print edition.

Canadian banjoist Jayme Stone is also featured in an interview this week at All About Jazz. He talks about how he retained his love for the banjo even as he became interested in performing as a jazz artist.

All About Jazz: What made you interested in jazz?

Jayme Stone: I love the spirit of invention, interaction and improvisation in jazz. Those qualities are something I try to bring to all of the music that I play and what I look for in other musicians.

AAJ: Besides banjo, what other instruments have you tried along the way?

JS: I played guitar initially but let it go as soon as I took up the banjo. The quirky physics of the banjo fascinated me and it seemed like there was so much unexplored territory on the instrument. Though I don’t play anything else, I am always getting new ideas from studying other instruments, all the while trying to expand the palette and possibilities of the banjo.

AAJ: Does banjo offer you creative ways to explore something new in jazz?

JS: Each of the banjo’s unique qualities has the potential to bring something new to a style of music. I love how the timbre of the banjo blends with trumpet for instance. When I played with Kevin Turcotte, we noticed that the trumpet’s range goes well below the banjo, so he would often play under me, which is an unusual sound. Trumpet is so often the instrument in jazz that cuts through and now we hear it differently.

The earthiness of banjo and the use of open strings can bring a folksiness and accessibility to more outside jazz harmony. I enjoy using harmonic ideas from jazz to re-imagine folk melodies or turn bluegrass tunes inside out. Bringing different traditions into dialogue is a fascinating process and reveals both the differences and the related underpinnings of each style.

You can read the full interview online.

The CD and film serve as a chronicle of Fleck’s 2005 journey to West Africa to learn more about the people and the music of the part of the world generally believed to be responsible for the evolution of the banjo.

B?©la discusses what he found on his trip while photos from his brother, Sascha Paladino, who directed the film, are displayed. Music from the projects is also included in the nearly 4 minute presentation.

See and hear the whole thing on the BBC site.

He will talk about the African roots of today’s modern five string banjo, his journey of discovery to west Africa in 2005, and Throw Down Your Heart, the film and audio CD that captured his African musical collaborations.

The show airs from noon to 2:00 p.m. weekdays on WAMU in Washington, DC and streams live at wamu.org. B?©la’s segment is scheduled to being at 1:30 (EDT).

The show will appear in the WAMU audio archives approximately an hour after the close of the broadcast.

They plug the interview as being about composing – not surprising since they are both BMI writers – but the pair of  banjo pickers covered a good bit of ground in their brief exchange.

BF: So back before, when you were just working on your banjo playing on your own, how much would you play? What was the typical day of playing?

ES: Well, that varied‚ĶI was in school‚Ķwe were on the farm‚Ķwe’d have to milk cows, feed the mules and slop the hogs, as they call it, and if you had any time left, you’d probably get in a few minutes with the banjo‚Ķ

I was sitting picking one day, and I’d pick with thumb and index finger‚Ķand all of a sudden, I was adding that one-two-three thing‚Ķand I thought, "Dang, that sounds good." My oldest brother‚Ķhe didn’t know I could pick with three fingers on that banjo‚Ķhe said, "Is that all you can pick?" A little streak of electricity went up my spine. I didn’t know if I could pick anything else or not.

Great stuff. Read the full interview online.

The album is an audio chronicle of B?©la’s musical journey’s through western Africa in 2005. He recorded with a number of musicians in Mail, The Gambia, Uganda and Tanzania and their collaborations make up the 18 tracks on the CD.

Obviously, a recording like this will be difficult to reproduce on tour, but Fleck explained how they plan to give it a try.

“For the first tour, in March and April, we will bring over 4 artists, all of whom appear on the recording. These are Toumani Diabate, the preeminent kora player from Mali, Vusi Mahlasela, South Africa’s apartheid fighting vocalist and guitarist, D’Gary, the amazing fingerstyle guitarist from Madagascar and Anania Ngoglia, a singer and thumb piano player from Tanzania.

We will play separately and together and demonstrate the subtlety, depth and beauty of African acoustic music (with an American banjo player!).”

The complete tour schedule, updated regularly, can be found on B?©la’s web site.

Fleck might shrink from such a comparison, but seen in a context beyond bluegrass and traditional music forms, it bears up quite well.

Where Scruggs brought the banjo (and bluegrass music) recognition as a serious musical endeavor, B?©la has widened its accepted applications to include jazz, funk, classical, and now world music as well.

His next CD, Throw Down Your Heart (Tales From The Acoustic Planet, Vol 3, africa sessions), is the studio component of the documentary film by the same name which follows B?©la on his musical journeys in Africa during 2005. The album will be released on March 10 by Rounder Records, and limited theatrical release of the film will follow later that month.

The concept for both projects came from Fleck’s pondering on the African roots of the modern banjo, and wondering about the wealth of banjo-ish music that must reside in the small villages of rural African. He was recording then for Sony’s classical division, and they not only loved the idea of a recording, but suggested filming it as well.

B?©la’s brother, Sascha Paladino, is a documentary filmmaker and plans were hatched for audio and film production overseas. As things transpired, Sony pulled out before the trip began, and Fleck found himself as the executive producer of both projects, meaning he was the chief financier as well as musical producer.

The trip went on as planned, with the film and CD versions documenting his musical collaborations with a number of exceptional African musicians. B?©la and Sascha traveled to Uganda, Tanzania, Mali, Senegal and the Gambi, returning home with 250 hours of film and 40 audio recordings for their effort.

While Paladino labored over the film project, Fleck focused on choosing the best songs and performances for the audio CD. Now, all that is completed, and the rest of us will soon be able to sample the fruits of their labor.

B?©la says that a truncated edit of the Throw Down Your Heart film will be aired on Nashville’s WNPT TV on March 5, and again throughout the month, with theatrical releases in San Francisco (3/13-19) and New York (4/24-30) to follow.

We hope to get a few more details about this ambitious project prior to its release.

Bela and O’Connor have accepted an invitation to perform with Wynton Marsalis and The Lincoln Centre Jazz Orchestra in Washington D.C. on 19th January as part of the celebrations surrounding Obama’s inauguration.

The two hour concert, Let Freedom Swing! A Celebration of America, will take place at 7pm the evening of January 19, 2009, in the Eisenhower Theater of the Kennedy Center. Tickets to the event are available by invitation only, but the Kennedy Center website says the event will be televised live. I could find no information concerning broadcast stations though.

The program will be Jazz music and not bluegrass, but Fleck and O’Connor have never let genre define them.

The program will look back on the life of one of the greatest of all Americans, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and forward to a new era under a new President. An all-star cast will illustrate that American democracy and America’s music ‚Äì jazz ‚Äì share the same tenets and embody the same potential for change, hope and renewal, which Dr. King himself called America’s "triumphant music."

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

It follows B?©la 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.