Belo Fleck Earth Jam Song

Bela Fleck and the Flecktones (Section 1)
Earth Jam The set starts out with every member of the band coming out on stage one at a time. Some of the instruments I recognized and was familiar with, such as the saxophone, clarinet, bass, and drums. They introduced a variety of instruments that looked either homemade or sounded strange to me, like the electric banjo, drumitar, and synthesizers. There was a bit of scat vocals done by Victor Wooten as well. One thing I noticed in this song was the repetition. I think the bass line was constant throughout the entire four minute long song. The set looked very non-Western to me, especially the rugs that were laid down in the middle of the stage. Almost the entire song had a mixed meter and
I remember the banjo in this song sounding very similar to a bluegrass song I would hear in a country western song. Then all these African polyrhythms chime in and make for an interesting combination. The entire band seemed to improvise the entire song and sound good together, without the use of sheet music. The heterophonic texture and the polyrhythms made this song sound African. It reminded me of an exotic animal running through a jungle chasing after something. I would put this song into an African bluegrass genre.
Ovombo Summit In this song, Future man plays a homemade recording device that has African chants on each button. He then begins looping them over each other while playing a very cool polyrhythm underneath it to add to the effect. Other instruments include the use of brushes to get a jazzy sound, bells of some kind, and a tambourine. I think this was one my favorite songs by Bela Fleck. I really enjoyed the use of polyrhythms in this song and the upbeat African chants from the children looping through the entire song. I would classify this song in the Africazz category (African-Jazz).
Hall of
The song only consists of Victor Wooten and his bass. It starts off not sounding like it but later uses harmonics for the recognizable melody of the song. He is doing the most unbelievable things and making the most incredible sounds during this song. It is hard to pinpoint exactly what he is doing, but it looks like he is sweep thumb picking the strings while maintaining a different melody at the same time. It definitely sounded like there was a heterophonic texture in the song but with only one instrument. It was very interesting to watch, mostly because if I were to just listen to the audio I would think that there were at least two really good bassists playing in this song. I also noticed that he tuned his bass during the song, which really impressed me. I would classify this song as jazzy folk