City Halls,Glasgow
The charismatic banjo master flirted, duelled and traded melodies with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra in a playful, and fairground ride of a show What’s the best way to tune a banjo? With a wire cutter. The much-derided banjo,despite its African roots and history in slavery, remains the butt of a thousand bad jokes among musicians.
You wonder what they’d acquire of the charismatic Béla Fleck – widely considered the instrument’s greatest exponent – showcasing his dazzling array of licks over a enormous swath of gushing strings and an urgent barrage of woodwind. One of the most intriguing of the genre fusions for which Celtic Connections festival is rightly lauded, and Fleck’s Concerto for Banjo – pointedly titled The Imposer – is a compelling curio. The BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra rise boldly to the challenge of making the UK’s coming out party for the banjo a memorably grand and at times startling occasion.
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Source: theguardian.com