This season of onStage at Connecticut College performances opened on the evening of Saturday, Oct. 10 in Palmer Auditorium.
Béla Fleck and Abigail Washburn are a banjo duo and married couple who have been performing together since the birth of their son in 2013. This arrangement has the double benefit of letting them keep the family together (they tour with their son, who attends the first half-hour of their shows, before bedtime), while letting the parents make one-of-a-kind banjo music. They sat side by side on the stage and performed for close to two hours for the crowded house.
Their performance consists of only two banjos and one voice (Washburn’s), but the variety and interest that these musicians are able to achieve with such a limited instrumentation is remarkable. Really, it is misleading to say that they have only two banjos. Rather, they can only play two at a time.
Like guitarists of any genre, both Fleck and Washburn had a row of banjos of various sorts lined up next to their chairs, for easy access. One or both musicians changed instruments before nearly every song. Both used, at different times and in different combinations, the cello banjo, the baritone banjo and several of a more typical construction.
Fleck also brought out at several points a ukulele banjo, an unusual instrument that had a small though pretty sound. Most remarkably, he left his chair for one piece to perch on a stool, stage right, and showcase his virtuosity on this quirky instrument. In eight minutes of solo playing, Fleck brought the audience on a brief tour of his musical mind, moving through the realms of folk, country, classical and rock, showing in each a command of the ethos and a personal flavor.
After this demonstration, Washburn announced that this banjo was to be raffled off, with all profits going to Higher Edge, a New London non-profit dedicated to helping local first-generation students and those of low-income families to achieve a college education. The winner was a smiling man in red suspenders.
Washburn took the spotlight with an acapella performance of the folk tune “Come All You Coal Miners,” and then later even treated the crowd to some dancing.
The two talents blended nicely together, which included both songs and instrumental pieces. Fleck plays his banjo in the “Scruggs” style, a newer style that uses fingerpicks on the thumb and first two fingers. Washburn plays with a more traditional “clawhammer” style, in which no fingerpicks are used, and one strikes the string with the fingernail rather than plucking it. The different playing styles allow the musicians to achieve distinctly different timbres. The Scruggs style was also more suited to Fleck’s musical role, allowing him greater facility in his ornaments and virtuosic forays while Washburn maintained the harmony in the perpetually moving, resonant sort of accompaniment we are used to in traditional banjo playing.
Washburn’s voice was pure in tone and folky in intonation. She could belt powerfully but without losing the smooth edges of her tone. She kept this skill mostly on reserve, letting it out maybe three times in the course of the night.
Fleck, demonstrating real musicianship, reigned in his virtuosity during the duos. He let his wife’s voice and versatile compositional style do the talking. Or the singing, rather. The exchange and blend of the pair, combined with the relaxed technical facility of each musician and an intimate stage presence, led to a congenial and musically interesting performance.
Most of the tunes they played were from their most recent EP Banjo Banjo, the title of which seems to be a verbal representation of their side-by-side, love seat positioning on stage. Their first album (whose title is equally as prosaic as its predecessor and serves a similar visual function) is called Béla Fleck and Abigail Washburn.
Both husband and wife had been successful musicians long before their partnership. Fleck is a 15-time Grammy winner, and he has been, according to his website, nominated “in more categories than any other musician in Grammy history.” His list of records, releases, and collaborations is nearly encyclopedic in length. Of particular interest is his concerto for banjo and orchestra, “The Impostor Concerto.” It was released in August 2013, and Fleck himself composed both the banjo part and the orchestral score. As we discovered at the show, he is currently at work on a second concerto. Washburn’s first solo album, Song of the Travelling Daughter, was released in 2005. She is now featured on nine albums, including both solo and collaboration projects.
The onStage program’s next performance will be on Friday, Nov. 20. The group will be Anonymous 4, an all female a capella group with a special interest in medieval music.
Check out the college website to see the performances scheduled for next semester. •
