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Bela Fleck, Zakir Hussain and Edgar Meyer - masters of their own instruments and styles - are even more impressive in their abilities to cross over from genre to genre. When all is said and done, the mixture of a bluegrass banjo player, an Indian classical musician, and a Western classical bassist yields a unique brand of jazz.
This trio of diverse musicians of the world comes together on Jorgensen's stage Friday, April 8, at 8 p.m.Fleck, founder of the avant garde fusion group Bela Fleck and the Flecktones, has been nominated for Grammys in, by far, the most categories in Grammy history - country, pop, jazz, bluegrass, classical, folk, spoken word, composition, and arranging. His total Grammy count is 11 won, and 27 nominations. Fleck has collaborated with Meyer on Perpetual Motion, a classical recording of the banjo-and-bass duo that merited double Grammys. Fleck is a member of the Bluegrass Allstars and has collaborated with Chick Corea and many others.
Born in New York City, he first fell for the banjo at age 15 when he heard Flatt and Scruggs play on the TV show "The Beverly Hillbillies." Years later, in his most recent project, Throw Down Your Heart, he has traced the roots of his beloved instrument to Africa, birthplace of the banjo.Hussain, primo classical tabla player of his generation, has accompanied almost every great Indian sitar, sarod or sarangi master, from Ravi Shankar to Sivkumar Sharma. A child prodigy, he began touring at age 12. He has founded Shakti with John McLauglin and L. Shankar, Planet Drum/Global Drum Project with Mickey Hart (for which they won the Grammy in the Best Contemporary World Music category), and recorded with Yo Yo Ma and numerous others. He has won the Indian and American governments' highest civilian honors, along with his Grammys.
The classically trained Meyer is comfortable in bluegrass and jazz circles as well. He has worked with Joshua Bell, Emanuel Ax, Sam Bush, Alison Krauss, David Grisman, Mike Marshall, Yo Yo Ma and Mark O'Connor, having shot to the top of the pop charts with Appalachia Waltz recorded with Ma and O'Connor. As a composer with a unique niche, he has premiered works with Ax, Ma and Hilary Hahn. He won the Avery Fisher Prize and a MacArthur Prize known as "the genius grant." Solo recordings include the Bach cello suites and the self-titled Edgar Meyer, on which he plays double bass, guitar, banjo, viola da gamba, mandolin and dobro.Each of these genre-bending virtuosos alone could hold a full hall rapt, but together they offer an historic musical experience.The newly renovated Jorgensen Center for the Performing Arts is located at 2132 Hillside Road on the UConn campus in Storrs. Regular tickets are $30, $27 and $25, with some discounts available. For tickets and information, call the Box Office at 860.486.4226, Monday through Friday, 11 a.m.-5 p.m., or order online at jorgensen.uconn.edu. Convenient free parking is available across the street in the North Garage.
