Banjo great Béla Fleck has announced his latest project, expanding and exploring George Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue, just in time for its centennial.
Available on February 12, 100 years to the day Gershwin premiered the work at Aeolian Hall in NYC, Fleck will pay homage to the legendary composer while redefining an American classic. Fleck’s Rhapsody in Blue album includes three variations: “Rhapsody in Blue(grass),” “Rhapsody in Blue(s),” and the classic orchestration, but with banjo featured instead of piano, performed by the Virginia Symphony Orchestra and conducted by Eric Jacobson. “Rhapsody in Blue(grass),” also commemorates the 100th birthday of the great Earl Scruggs. The set also features Gershwin’s “Rialto Ripples” and “Unidentified Piece for Banjo,” an unrecorded and unreleased gem discovered at the Library of Congress.
“It’s very much like a ragtime tune through a Gershwin lens, with a highly catchy melody and some surprising harmonic moves at the ends of phrases,” Fleck says. “He didn’t write out the harmony, but the implications seemed to point clearly towards ‘I Got Rhythm’ types of chords, though a little more quirky. To keep the authenticity of the piece, I played it on an old gut-string, five-string banjo.”
Béla Fleck was born and raised in New York City, and over the last four decades, he has boldly gone where no banjo player has before. He has earned 16 GRAMMY awards in different areas, including country, pop, jazz, instrumental, classical, and world. Fleck has had a lifelong love for Gershwin and his compositions. He took his homage further and decided to incorporate bluegrass instrumentation instead of a full orchestra for some areas.
“A piano player can play Rhapsody a lot faster than I can,” adds Fleck. “But the truth is, they’ve played it so much that it sometimes gets rushed through. I’d listen and think, ‘There is so much in there but it’s going by so fast that I’m not getting it all.’ That gave me a window into a way to reinterpret those parts on banjo. It could be a new experience for listeners rather than hearing it banged out on piano for the twenty-fifth time. It might even be revelatory.”
He’s joined by the core band from his GRAMMY-winning My Bluegrass Heart band: Michael Cleveland, Sierra Hull, Justin Moses, Mark Schatz, and Bryan Sutton. Rhapsody in Blue(s)—the blues version—features longtime Fleck collaborators Sam Bush, Jerry Douglas, and Victor Wooten.
Béla Fleck added a solo banjo rendition of Gershwin’s “Rialto Ripples,” a ragtime novelty that initially flopped when it premiered in 1916. “My wish is that George Gershwin might have loved it, that he might have thought, ‘Hmmm, this is not what I expected, but the musicians certainly brought something different to it.’”
On May 4, 2024, at Carnegie Hall, Rhythm, Raga & Rhapsody will celebrate the music of Béla Fleck, including his New York premiere of Rhapsody in Blue performed with the Aeolian Orchestra, conducted by Eric Jacobsen. The multi-artist night will also feature My Bluegrass Heart, tabla master Zakir Hussain, pianist Bruce Hornsby, and woodwind player Anat Cohen.
Rhapsody in Blue will be available on LP, CD, and streaming. Order here.
Bela Fleck 2024 TOUR DATES
March 9 Lincoln, NE Lied Center for Performing Arts ~
April 3 Buffalo, NY Kleinhans Music Hall ^
April 4 Oakville, Ontario Oakville Centre for the Performing Arts ^
April 5 Kingston, Ontario Kingston Grand Theatre ^
April 6 Stowe, VT Spruce Peak PAC ^
April 9 Ottawa, Ontario Centrepointe ^
April 10 St. Catharines, Ontario Partridge Hall ^
April 12 State College, PA The State Theatre ^
April 13 Goshen, IN Goshen College ^
April 14 Lexington, KY Lexington Opera House ^
April 24 Skokie, IL North Shore PAC *
April 25 Kohler, WI Kohler Memorial Theatre *
April 26 Royal Oak, MI Royal Oak Music Theatre *
April 27 Wilkesboro, NC MerleFest *
April 28 New Orleans, LA New Orleans Jazz Festival
May 4 New York, NY Carnegie Hall (Rhythm, Raga & Rhapsody)
June 13 Groton, MA Groton Hill Music Center ^
June 14 Kingston, NY Ulster PAC ^
June 15 Hartford, CT The Bushnell ^
June 16 Kennett Square, PA Longwood Gardens
June 18 Boulder, CO Chautauqua Amphitheater #
June 20 Telluride, CO Telluride Bluegrass Festival (house band)
June 21 Telluride, CO Telluride Bluegrass Festival #
July 12 Vancouver Island Musicfest #
July 16 Breckenridge, CO Riverwalk Center #
July 17 Aspen, CO Aspen Music Festival #
July 18 Santa Fe, NM The Lensic PAC #
July 27 Lyons, CO RockyGrass ^
Oct 18 Pelham, TN CaveFest ^
Ticket information
*My Bluegrass Heart
^Béla Fleck & Abigail Washburn
~Béla Fleck w/ Symphony
# Béla Fleck, Edgar Meyer, Zakir Hussain featuring Rakesh Chaurasia
