Uncommon Ritual

One could call this "classical-bluegrass fusion," but that wouldn't be quite accurate, since both the string bass and mandolin have a large repertoire in classical music, however the banjo doesn't. While the bluegrass influence is felt on many of the original pieces by Edgar Meyer and Bela Fleck, with Meyer at the helm of this project the classical influence is predominant.

One could also call some of these selections classical music voiced for bluegrass instruments, which would be particularly true of "Contrapunctus XIII, from "The Art of the Fugue," by J. S. Bach. Since I grew up on Bach--who is still my favorite composer--I loved this selection. The banjo and mandolin blend into this Baroque piece very nicely.

As a guitarist, I really enjoy Fleck's piece, "Travis," on which he tastefully fingerpicks on a National Guitar. This is a nice departure from his usual superb banjo work!

Another beautiful folksy melody--one that I find myself humming...Read more

"Uncommon Ritual" was my first purchase after discovering the absolutely wonderful "Skip, Hop, and Wobble" (Jerry Douglas, Russ Barenberg, and Edgar Meyer), and I have to admit that I didn't get it at first. I loved Meyer's "Sliding Down" and Fleck's "Travis" and "Big Country," which are truly timeless Americana. But the experimental stuff, like "Contramonkey," "Chance Meeting," and "The Big Cheese" left me scratching my head. Huh? Now, after listening to the CD at least once a week for a couple of years (I guess that says all you need to know about how good it is), I have to admit that even the more obscure tunes are brilliant. Consider this CD a crash course in music appreciation. Example: One morning I found myself focusing on the incredibly expressive violin in "Zigeunerweisen" (instead of working- the coffee hadn't kicked in yet) but couldn't find one in the liner notes. Surely that wasn't...Read more

After listening to Appalachian Waltz and Journey, I found it hard at first to get into this album, particularly some of the less-structured tracks. After some time though, it grew on me, and now I can see just how amazing this is.

Edgar Meyer is probably the greatest bassist ever, and nowhere does he showcase it better than on this album. What makes his playing so wonderful, aside from jaw-dropping technique, is his pure naturalness. He plays bass the same way that Itzhak Perlman plays violin, or Emmanuel Ax plays piano. What is positively frightening is that not only does he join a handful of people in history who are bass immortals, but he achieves this in a full menagerie of styles, as well as having bountiful talent and sensitivity as a composer and even a pianist.

If this was just a Meyer album, it would be wonderful, but on top of that, we have the amazing contributions of Bela Fleck and Mike Marshall, both of whom are virtuosos themselves in every sense of...Read more