Fleck Hussain Meyer

Hey…has anyone other than me checked out “The Melody Of Rhythm” by Bela Fleck, Zakir Hussain, and Edgar Meyer (with Slatkin and the Detroit Symph. Orch.)?

It has an interesting premise…half of the cd was improvised (from what I understand) and three of the cuts involve the DSO, orchestrally. Duh.

I need to give it another listen. Initially I was rocking it…then I was a bit underwhelmed. I don’t know where to go from here…

I keep comparing it to a couple of L. Shankar (no, not Ravi. L. Shankar is a violinist that’s played with the Boss, Zappa, Phil Collins, etc. If any of you have seen Gabriel’s “Secret World Live,” that’s him on the double v and vox) cds…simply because Hussain is on those, and Meyer tries to adapt an Indian classical tone on this disc. I know that that’s not fair, but nonetheless…

I don’t know how Fleck’s banjo fits in here. It kept reminding me of pure Appalachian Americana…and that just wasn’t doing it. Plus, some of the repeated phrases made it obvious that the guys were imrov’ing. I dunno, maybe it’s just me.

T