Bela Fleck Submitted photo
A concert featuring Béla Fleck, Zakir Hussain, Edgar Meyer with Rakesh Chaurasia is scheduled for 8 p.m. Sunday, May 7, at Waterville Opera House, 1 Common St. in Waterville.
There’s a bit of the sorcerer in Béla Fleck (banjo), Zakir Hussain (tabla), Edgar Meyer (double bass), and their special guest Rakesh Chaurasia (bansuri – Indian flute). Most musicians hope at most for proficiency in their chosen form, but these gentlemen move from bluegrass to Western classical to Indian classical to jazz, transmuting genres into something uniquely their own as though they’d gotten hold of the alchemist’s tools that legendarily changed lead into gold, according to a news release from Waterville Creates.
“This tour will include new music,” Fleck said, “and ideally we’ll develop a new album out of it. And the new great thing is that this time we’ll also have Rakesh as a regular component, which really opens up the sonic palette. Edgar has a sustain buddy now. Rakesh came out and played with us a good number of times, and it was a profound connection—he’s easy to play with and fun to be around, and it balances the band not only culturally but in terms of sustain.” Edgar said, “Each person in the band is clearly devoted to being a great accompanist as well as a strong soloist. Rakesh will be interacting with Béla and I all the time.”
“We all provide things that differ from each other. Edgar brings in a powerful bass sense, and accesses levels of harmony that neither Zakir nor I can offer; he’s really figured out how to interface harmony with Indian music. I don’t know what I bring, but I’m glad neither of them can play banjo! And Rakesh is just the frosting on the cake, or actually on a hipper level, the sherry in the she crab soup. This is going to be fun,” Fleck said.
Tickets cost $68-$78.
For tickets, or more information, visit operahouse.org.
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