Reimagining Rhapsody
By Bill Milkowski
Over the course of his remarkably eclectic, multiple-Grammy-winning career — one that stretches across four decades — banjo virtuoso Béla Fleck has boldly, almost defiantly, taken his five-stringed instrument to places where no banjo player has gone before. As proof, witness his latest project, Rhapsody In Blue, reinterpreting the century-old Gershwin classic with a brand new twist.
By Michael Jackson
By DB Staff
Samara Joy’s first DownBeat Blindfold Test took place on the stage of the stately Sala Bossi recital room in Bologna, Italy, with a towering 200-year old pipe organ behind her. The event was hosted by the Conservatorio Giovanni Battista Martini and attended by some 30 students, faculty and members of the public. Of the countries Joy has visited since her meteoric arrival, Italy holds a special charm. “Every time I come here, I feel so at home. It started a couple months after I graduated in July 2021 at the Umbria Jazz festival and now I’ve been to a bunch of different places: Bologna, Sardinia, and I’m going to Milan tomorrow. Like my friend Pasquale [Grasso] says, ‘The Italians, even when they speak, it sounds like music.’ I know that it’s a soulful place … .” Later the same November day, Joy performed a well-received, sold-out concert as part of the Bologna Jazz Festival.
