NEW ALBUMS
BÉLA FLECK
My Bluegrass Heart BMG
8/10
Banjoist’s return to bluegrass after 20 years
My Bluegrass Heart is a bluegrass album in name and instrumentation only. Béla Fleck has spent his 40-year career pushing the banjo into different realms – jazz, classical, avant-garde, African traditions – so that all of those styles blend together. Partnering with a new generation of players, including Chris Thile, Sierra Hull and Billy Strings, he delivers a rambunctious set full of zigzagging arrangements and surprise flourishes. “Charm School” transforms briefly into a raga, and “Our Little Secret” opens with some stabbing Psycho staccato notes, then gradually builds to its big-hearted finale – the album’s finest moment.