Word: flecked
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1990-1990
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...long relative silence to tell a private meeting of arts leaders in Seattle in late June, "It is our job to recognize the political realities," and indicated that some grants will be denied on grounds other than artistic merit. Within days, four examples emerged: performance artists Karen Finley, John Fleck, Holly Hughes and Tom Miller. All had been funded before and were recommended again by peers. But all emphasize sexual issues, including feminism and empathy for gays, which are flash points for the right. Finley, for example, appears nude to decry abuse of women, and has been assailed...
...Fleck attended Manhattan's High School of Music and Art, where banjo was not considered a serious instrument. So he studied privately, first with Erik Darling, onetime member of the Weavers folk quartet, and eventually with Trischka, an urban bluegrass whiz. Even then, Fleck was an eclectic, trying to absorb everything from salsa to jazz. Especially jazz. "I bought a Charlie Parker record, and I thought, "Wow! This is incredible." I tried to learn Parker's licks on the banjo, but I couldn't find the notes." One day, in a high school jazz-appreciation class, the teacher played pianist...
...Fleck moved to Lexington, Ky., to help start a group called Spectrum. Exposure to bluegrass -- the real thing -- was a "big culture shock," he admits. "I was a little cocky, but down South, they didn't think I sounded so great because I lacked tone and I didn't have a great sense of rhythm. They were right." In 1981 Fleck moved to Nashville and joined the group that would be his musical home for the next eight years: the New Grass Revival, which played what Bela calls "high-tech bluegrass with a lot of heart and intensity; the singing...
Television provided Fleck with the chance to escape what he eventually felt were the Revival's constraints. Two years ago, producers of the Lonesome Pine Specials asked him to do a solo show. Bela Fleck and Guests began with the tux-clad banjoist joining the Blair String Quartet in a four-movement classical work by Fleck and composer Edgar Meyer. It ended with a jazz section riffed by Bela and the trio that became the Flecktones: Howard Levy on keyboards and harmonica, the brothers Victor and Roy ("Future Man") Wooten on bass guitar and Drumitar (a guitar wired to electric...
...Fleck can be as eloquent talking banjo as he is playing it. "There are things I want to play that I haven't been able to yet," he offers. "Like improvising. That can be a very spiritual experience. Stuff you don't even know pours out. I want to become more tuned into pulling off the notes I hear in my head at the exact moment I hear them. It's a lifelong goal." Stay tuned...