Fleck, Meyer piece of banjo heaven

Edgar Meyer was not about to let his partner upstage him on his homecoming performance at IU. His musical partner, Bela Fleck, made jokes about Meyer's days at the IU music school.\nMeyer quickly regained his bearings, though, responding to Fleck, "At least I got in."\nFleck and Meyer, Grammy-award winning musicians on the banjo and double bass, respectively, played for a crowd of about 1,900 Sunday night at the IU Auditorium. Fleck and Meyer were performing as part of a small tour as a duo before resuming their musical day jobs.\nFleck, inspired as a teen by the tune "Duelin' Banjos" in the film "Deliverance," is known for his work with his band the Flecktones, who expand the contemporary perception of the banjo, playing in a style that combines bluegrass roots with a free jazz improvisation. He was born in New York City, but currently resides in Nashville, Ten.\nThe audience, like the music, was eclectic -- an equal mix of business formal and Bonnaroo. Fleck's effortless fret work pleased fans of several genres, switching from classical to bluegrass to jazz, often within the same song. Fleck tore into his banjo riffs as though he were Eddie Van Halen in a rural Southern setting.\n"There were some things I thought were pretty much genius," said Jordan Minnick, a local student who learned of Bela Fleck through his work with the Flecktones, but he said he was impressed with Edgar Meyer as well. "When he closed the music book and freestyled, I really liked that."\nMeyer was by no means second fiddle to Fleck. His alert plucking and graceful bowing provided a strong backbone to the duo's genre-bending sound. \nMeyer, an IU School of Music graduate and classically-trained bassist and composer, showed his talents on double bass and piano, playing some of his own compositions as well. The duo easily traversed the gap between Meyer's classical roots and Fleck's bluegrass background. At one point in the show, they transitioned seamlessly between Tchaikovsky and a cut from Fleck's most recent album, Perpetual Motion, all without losing a beat. Despite the variety of genres, the duo displayed how differing musical styles can coexist peacefully. Each artist was given room to display his individual talents while forming a cohesive whole, best displayed in a canon during the second half of the show.\nWhile the first half concentrated on a progressive bluegrass sound, the latter half focused more on classical elements. The second half was spiced up by an improvisational jazz track and a tribute to late banjo great John Hartford, even using Hartford's banjo to perform the piece.\nThe element that enhanced the performance was the on-stage banter between the two virtuosos. Fleck and Meyer originally met in the ensemble group Strength in Numbers in the late 1980s, and the two found a chemistry that allowed them to tour together as a side project. They even plan to release a live album from the tour in the spring; the tour is also the subject of a short documentary, which Meyer jokingly referred to as "Obstinato."\nThe duo joked with one another and with the audience, playing the first few lines of "Stairway to Heaven," which drew a sizable response from the wide-ranging crowd. During a pause between songs, Meyer asked for requests, and upon hearing the cry for the "Ghostbusters" theme song, Meyer responded, "You must think this is a Joshua Bell concert," in reference to another of IU School of Music's favorite sons.\nThe show possessed enough lightning-quick licks to satiate younger fans while maintaining the feel of a classical theater show. Old fans delighted, and Fleck and Meyer also seemed to win over some new ones.\n"I thought that the artistry was outstanding," said Bloomington resident Paula Sunderman, who came to the show on the recommendation of a friend. "It was wonderful to see"