Bela Fleck & Edgar Meyer: Music for Two

Alarmed over the prospect of lost revenue from illegal downloading (through Napster, Kazaa, and other file-sharing programs), not to mention the extraordinary ease of burning copies of CDs, the music industry has increased the number of value-added CD releases, often bundling a DVD disc with the original CD. Such is the case with Bela Fleck and Edgar Meyer's Music for Two, which is sold as a CD but also includes the 39-minute documentary Obstinato: Making Music for Two, a video journal tracking banjo-picker extraordinaire Fleck and double bass virtuoso Meyer on a concert tour. An often fascinating look at the behind-the-scenes creative process (particularly on one very complex song called “Canon,” a “Row, Row, Row Your Boat”-style round, in which Fleck follows Meyer some 15 beats after the latter has started), with snippets of performance footage and on-the-road anecdotes, Obstinato is--to switch instruments--clearly playing second fiddle to the 17-cut CD, on which Fleck and Meyer shine on original compositions such as “Pile-Up,” “The One I Left Behind,” “Blue Spruce,” and “Woolly Mammoth,” while also serving up some wonderful interpretations of Bach, Henry Eccles, and Miles Davis. For those familiar with the footstompin', high energy bluegrass/jazz-on-steroids sound of Bela Fleck and the Flecktones, Music for Two has more of an “unplugged” feel--but, make no mistake, this is the work of masters. Recommended. Aud: P. (R. Pitman)