Tag: Béla Fleck and the Flecktones

Saturday Matinee – Béla Fleck & the Flecktones, BIG DEZ, Joe Louis Walker, and Jackie Venson

Béla Fleck and the Flecktones, featuring Victor Wooten on fretless bass, his brother Roy “Futureman” Wooten on Drumitar. Alto saxman  Jeff Coffin joined the trio in 1996.

Nice laid back groove. BIG DEZ was formed in 1996 by Phil “Big Dez” Fernandez (guitar) and Bala Pradal (keyboards). They spent most of their time rehearsing in a cabin in the suburbs of Paris, and after adding Lamine Guerfi (bass) Archibald Ligonnière (drums), graduated to the bar scene, then moved on to the big time. [More here.]

Joe Louis Walker, a Blues Hall of Fame inductee and six-time Blues Music Award winner, NPR described him as “a legendary boundary-pushing icon of modern blues.”

Jackie Venson: “Singer-songwriter Jackie Venson’s version of the blues – with its R&B, psychedelic rock – has invigorated Austin’s music scene with its refreshingly electric sound.” — Rolling Stone

Dang. It’s almost December already. Porch time has been scheduled for whenenever you get here. See you tomorrow.

Saturday Matinee – The Darlings, The Dillards, New Grass Revival, Béla Fleck & the Flecktones, and Victor Wooten

The Darlings were a regular feature on the Andy Griffith Show, usually showing up whenever there was trouble brewing (like when Ernest T. Bass tried to woo Charlene Darling). The Darlings were The Dillards.

https://youtu.be/SNDKoN8nvLY

The Dillards, live at the Tonder Festival in Denmark in 1999. Entertaining intro to Ebo Walker, song starts about 03:45 in.

But there was also a real Ebo Walker, an upright bass player from Kentucky, and the song is not a tribute. From a  Reddit discussion:

Harry Shelor

“Crazy story time. Ebo Walker’s real name is Harry Lee Shelor Jr, (there’s a song called Ebo Walker, which Harry took the name from). Harry cultivated and grew marijuana. He ended up shooting a Kentucky State Police Detective by the name of Darrell Vendl Phelps. He began serving a 50 year sentence in 1981.”

Shelor was released from prison in 2013, age 70.

Prior to his arrest in 1981, Harry Shelor/Ebo Walker was a founding member of The New Grass Revival.

New Grass Revival covers Townes Van Zandt‘s White Freightliner Blues (ca.1981). This lineup consisted of

Sam Bush – mandolin, fiddle, guitar, vocals
Pat Flynn – guitar, vocals
John Cowan – bass guitar, vocals
Béla Fleck – banjo, guitar, vocals

https://youtu.be/KrlpFA5BbuU

Béla Fleck and the Flecktones, featuring Victor Wooten on fretless bass , his brother Roy “Futureman” Wooten on Drumitar. That’s one tight trio.

Victor Wooten won the Bass Player of the Year award from Bass Player magazine three times and is the first person to win the award more than once. In 2011, he was ranked No. 10 in the Top 10 Bassists of All Time by Rolling Stone.

That set of connections happened somewhat by accident, just like a lot of things these days. Find something fun to do this weekend accidentally, and when you’re done c’mon back here. Got some cool stuff for you to click on.

Saturday Matinee – Les Claypool & Buckethead, Béla Fleck and the Flecktones, Frank Zappa and the Ensemble Modern & Spike Jones

I could do without the silly mask gimmicks, but Les Claypool and Buckethead jam it down your throat. Sounds like it was partially derived from an old Zappa groove.

Béla Fleck and the Flecktones are nothing less than amazing. “Sinister Minister” was performed at Mountain Jam VII on 3 June 2011.

This is reported to have been Frank Zappa’s last public performance, directing the Ensemble Modern, Alte Oper, Frankfurt, Germany, 17 September 1992. Zappa died less than two years later, days shy of his 53rd birthday. From the UToob link:

It was his last professional public appearance, as the cancer was spreading to such an extent that he was in too much pain to enjoy an event that he otherwise found “exhilarating”. Recordings from the concerts appeared on The Yellow Shark, Zappa’s last release during his lifetime.

And now for something completely different.

Have  a great weekend, folks, see you back here tomorrow.