Photo by Jeremy Cowart
Today, Béla Fleck, Edgar Meyer, and Zakir Hussain announced a new album featuring Rakesh Chaurasia titled As We Speak, which is set to release on May 12 via Thirty Tigers. In celebration of the announcement of the LP, which unites bluegrass, classical Indian and classical western music, the musicians released the first single off the LP, “Owl’s Misfortune,” and shared a list of tour dates.
“When we are performing on stage, in composing mode or creating mode, we are basically having a conversation,” said renowned tabla player Zakir Hussain of his bandmates in a press release. “So the music emerges as we speak.”
The project showcases the group’s collective and individual breathtaking instrumental abilities while underscoring the wide range of influences at their command. Over 12 songs, the quartet sails through complex Indian rhythm, grooving funk and a harvest of bluegrass reverberations.
“Owl’s Misfortune” was penned by Fleck and, according to the artist, was written to echo the different worlds we come from, “I imagined creating a world where classical language could live alongside Indian musical rhythmic ideas—and since I wrote it, bluegrass lives there too. Parents of young kids will recognize the top-secret title reference.”
Fleck went on to add, “What I think is good about this quartet is that everybody has to stretch in the direction of the other people. To me, a collaboration where nobody changes is not a collaboration. It’s a mashup. And there’s nothing wrong with that. But I like a collaboration where I have to learn a bunch of new things from the other people. And in this case, I’m learning like crazy.”
Fleck, Meyer, Hussain and Chaurasia will begin their tour of the United States with a performance at Nashville, Tenn.’s Schermerhorn Symphony Center on April 19 before making stops in cities like Atlanta, Charleston, S.C. New York, Boston and more. The four esteemed musicians will conclude their tour with an appearance at the Waterville Opera House in Waterville, Maine, on May 7. A November tour is set to follow. Tickets are on sale now. Learn more and find tickets here.
Pre-order / pre-save As We Speak here.
Listen to “Owl’s Misfortune” below.
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As We Speak Tour Dates
April 19 Nashville, TN Schermerhorn Symphony Center
April 20 Atlanta, GA Emory University
April 21 Germantown, TN Duncan-Williams PAC
April 22 Boone, NC Appalachian State University
April 23 North Bethesda, MD The Music Center at Strathmore
April 25 Charleston, SC Charleston Gaillard Center
April 27 Danville, KY Norton Center for the Arts
April 29 Cutler Bay, FL The Moss Center at South Miami-Dade Cultural Arts Center
April 30 Charlotte, NC Belk Theater at Blumenthal Performing Arts Center
May 2 Munhall, PA Carnegie of Homestead Music Hall
May 3 Norfolk, VA Virginia Arts festival
May 4 New York, NY The Town Hall
May 5 Troy, NY Troy Saving Bank Music Hall
May 6 Boston, MA Celebrity Series of Boston at Berklee Performance Center
May 7 Waterville, ME Waterville Opera House