Little Worlds [Digipak] [Limited]

Performer: Béla Fleck
Producer: Bela Fleck
Distributor: Sony Music Distribution (

Notes: Bela Fleck & The Flecktones includes: Bela Fleck (banjo); Jeff Coffin (alto & tenor saxophones) Victor Wooten (bass); Future Man. Additional personnel: Derek Trucks, Jerry Douglas, Nickel Creek, Bernie Williams, Sam Bush, Branford Marsalis, Bobby McFerrin, The Chieftains. Includes liner notes by Bela Fleck. Super-jazz freakout bluegrass picker B�la Fleck's broad three-CD concept album has ambitious intentions, but ultimately ends up feeling a bit scattered. The idea seems to have been to record an album that sounds like sitting in a car and flipping through radio stations -- hearing snippets of hip-hop, Chinese opera, Irish folk, Hawaiian ukulele, mid-'80s funk, and, of course, bluegrass and jazz, then expanding that experience out to three entire discs. If any group on the planet could pull this off, it could only be Fleck and his Flecktones, but the concept (being as convoluted as it is) makes for a rather uneven listen. The bright and jazzy "Puffy" neatly bridges the gap between contemporary jazz and new acoustic music, and tabla, Irish harp, and even theremin meld nicely on the genre-spanning "Sleeper." On the flip side, the bizarro hip-hop version of Flatt & Scruggs' "Ballad of Jed Clampett" never needed to be recorded, and many of the songs seem cluttered and over-tweaked, almost as if during production the band reasoned that the addition of more instruments and more synthesized sounds could only enhance the music. The addition of nearly everyone they knew -- including Bobby McFerrin, several of the Chieftains, Nickel Creek, and even the lady from the Chinese restaurant down the street -- only adds to the confusion. It seems as though Fleck will never run out of ideas, and taken one at a time, the majority of the songs have obvious merit, but as each of the songs drift from centuries-old Indian percussion into one of Future Man's synth-axe drumitar jams, it sounds a little too disjointed and almost "quirky for quirky's sake." "Say, what if we mixed digeridoo with an electric synth banjo?" "Well, OK...but only as long as I can have a gong solo!" Sorry fellas, but just because the instruments exist doesn't mean they all need to show up in the same song. Still, every note is impeccably played and pristinely recorded, and those Flecktones fans who like to pull apart their extremely technical pieces of music, analyze them, and put them back together will find hours of rabid discussion on Little Worlds. [Sony also released a stripped-down, ten-song version of the project called Ten From Little Worlds.] ~ Zac Johnson Though Bela Fleck's liner notes make it sound like nearly anyone who walked in the studio door was asked to sit in, no musical slouch could keep up with this band of chopsters. The aesthetic soup that Fleck and friends cook up (Bill Monroe meets Weather Report at a world music convention, and that's just the tip of the iceberg) is nothing if not eclectic. And yet, because of the strong compositional sense and the leader's distinctive and breathtaking picking throughout, there is cohesiveness to the proceedings. A large part of the enjoyment of listening to LITTLE WORLDS is the audible quality of fun and daring among the participants--these guys like not only to push the envelope, but to push each other toward new musical insights. This may not be the first album to have theremin, didjeridoo, uillean pipes, cello, and banjo all on one track, but the smart money is on that track to be the most musically viable one of its kind. With remarkably little filler, this generous three-disc offering by the already-prolific Fleck will take the willing listener through many little and exotic worlds indeed.

JazzTimes (11/03, p.110) - "[W]hat a glorious musical excursion this is!...LITTLE WORLDS is filled from start to finish with inventive compositions and top-level musicians from around the world..."

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