Rhapsody In Bluegrass – 2024
Bela Fleck
A unique version of “Rhapsody In Blue”
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Throughout his career, Bela Fleck has often taken his banjo to places that his instrument has never traveled before, whether it is modern jazz, fusion, collaborations with World Music artists, duets with Chick Corea, or completely unclassifiable music.
To celebrate the 100th anniversary of George Gershwin’s “Rhapsody In Blue,” he and his bluegrass band performed and recorded their version of the classic piece.
His group, My Bluegrass Heart, also includes flat picking guitarist Bryan Sutton, fiddler Michael Cleveland, mandolinist Sierra Hull, Justin Moses on dobro, and bassist Mark Schatz),
In this intriguing version, Fleck performs all of the themes of “Rhapsody In Blue” and follows the usual progression but, due to the very different instrumentation and some surprising moments, the results are quite unique.
-Scott Yanow
