THREE FLEW OVER THE CUCKOO'S NEST

Banjovi!

Howard Levy (harmonica and keyboards) departed. He had couldn't do the band and take care of his family at the same time. The band sounds a little tighter. I liked what Howard Levy added to the Flecktone mix, the harmonica in prog may be hard for some to take though.

And then there were three Flecktones style. Fortunately they would not go on from here to make pop music. They were going to take a bit of break though. After releasing an album per year since 1990. This might have been all she wrote for the band. But fortunately, they would reunite in five years and have now continued to put out albums every two or three years.

This may be a bit too lite jazz for some in parts, but they still pull off some great arrangements. According to Bela's liner notes they used "a live approach - we just sat in a room and played it down until it sounded good to us." Bela started doing some more experimental things, like using his banjo to trigger synthesizers. Futureman (the electronic drummer in case you didn't know) "expanded his arsenal of tones." Victor Wooten got a new tenor bass. And everyone used floor pedals which "allowed all three of us to trigger sounds with our feet as well." Maybe overcompensating a bit for the loss of Levy? Well, it certainly expanded their musical possibilities. Also of note, Bruce Hornsby and Branford Marsalis put in guest appearances.

This is the first album by Bela Fleck and the Flecktones after the departure of keyboardist and harmonica player Howard Levy. I would have thought the band would have gotten better without him, since I always felt that his harmonica and light keyboard style detracted from the overall sound, but this album is definitely a step backwards. At least they didn't regress all the way back to the sound of their debut album.

Where previous albums, especially Flight Of The Cosmic Hippo were exercises in adventurous fusion, this one, save for a nice romp in Bumbershoot, tends to be aiming more towards commercial viability (translate to boredom). I can't fault a band for trying to aim for a wider audience, but I can't praise them for it either.

And a rap song? Oh come on. I doubt the target audience for this album is children.

2.5 stars.