Telluride Bluegrass: Bela Fleck weighs in on Jerry Douglas

16 Jun Telluride Bluegrass: Bela Fleck weighs in on Jerry Douglas

The fraternity meeting known as Telluride Bluegrass opens this weekend, June 18 – June 21, and a favorite son returns to town to join his friends.

Bela Fleck is named after the Hungarian composer Bela Bartok, also a passionate ethnomusicologist known for mixing sounds – in Bartok’s case, Hungarian and other folk sounds with the music of his contemporaries – to create distinctive music.

Earl Scruggs’ banjo may have given Bill Monroe’s music its distinctive edge, but it was Bela who psuhed the instrument to another level: his remarkable career has taken the virtuoso all over the musical map, from the progressive bluegrass band Newgrass Revival to the unique sound of his Flecktones.

The Flecktones perform a mix of acoustic and electric music with roots in folk and bluegrass as well as funk and jazz – essentially uncharted territory.

Along the way, Bela has had 21 Grammy nominations and nine wins in ten different musical categories.

When Bela performs in Telluride Bluegrass's house band, he will be joined on stage by close friend and professional colleague Jerry Douglas, who reinvented the dobro just as Bela reinvented the image and sound of the banjo.

Jerry is celebrating 25 years on the Telluride Bluegrass stage. Bela weighs in:
 
  "Jerry Douglas is one of our country's greatest musicians. He is completely unique and has
   changed the perception of his instrument and greatly contributed to its image, visibility
   and resurgence.
 
  "He has been a part of so many of the best musical moments of Telluride, my life and the
   music of our time.
 
   "He's been a great friend to all of us on the scene for decades.
 
    "Aside from that, he's nothing special."

photo of Bela and Jerry by:

Tim Benko
Benko Photographics
5836 Park Lane Road
Longmont, Colorado 80503

studio 303-449-7180
cell   303-517-1371
http://www.BenkoPhoto.com
Tim@BenkoPhoto.com