BELA FLECK AND THE FLECKTONES in concert at Kingsbury Hall, Monday, April 2, 8 p.m.; one performance only.
As far as solos go, bassist Victor Lemonte Wooten is the winner. The bassist for the Flecktones mesmerized the audience that nearly filled Kingsbury Hall on Monday night.
His left-hand fingers flew across the fretboard as his right-hand fingers and thumbs went to work on the strings. Bits of the Beatles' "Norwegian Wood" rumbled out of the speakers, as did a tongue-in-cheek version of "Chopsticks" and a harmonic introduction to "Amazing Grace."
This was all well and fine if you were a Flecktones fan. And from the sound of the audience, the majority of the concertgoers were. For those who weren't, it was just a long bass solo.
When Bela Fleck and the Flecktones play Salt Lake City, you can always count on some incredible musicality and some wonderful arrangements. But this year, there was something more.
The band — banjoist Bela Fleck, bassist Wooten, saxophonist Jeff Coffin and percussionist Future Man — was still riding the Grammy Award wave. Last month, the Flecktones won a Grammy for their latest release, "Outbound."
Each band member, with the exception of Coffin, took an extended solo. Wooten was first, just before intermission.
Then, it was Future Man's turn when the lights dimmed again. The rhythm man emerged with a drum brush and an empty water-cooler bottle. After touching some knobs on the sound sampler behind him, he tapped his foot on the bass pedal and began pounding away on the bottom of the bottle.
His act got even better when the bottle suddenly came down with a case of gravity. Future Man, without missing a beat, and to the delight of the crowd, caught the bottle, pounded on its side and brought it back to the playing position.
Fleck's solo came near the end of the evening. The banjo virtuoso teased the audience with bits and pieces of works he is planning to include on his upcoming solo classical album. Alongside the Bach and Haydn, Fleck craftily began plucking away at Vince Guaraldi's "Linus and Lucy" from the "Peanuts" cartoons before rejoining the band in an encore version of "Chopsticks."
Although Coffin didn't get a full solo spot, he managed to bring a few hands together as he played dueling saxophones . . . together!
As for songs, well, there was a handful of unnamed new ones, and a rousing rendition of Aaron Copland's "Hoe Down," as well as Fleck's own "Throwdown at the Hoedown" and "Flight of the Cosmic Hippo."
E-MAIL: scott@desnews.com