Let’s talk about The Flecktones Holiday Record, Jingle All The Way. You guys played some of that stuff last year?
We played a bunch of it. I’ll be back out with them December of this year to play some of that stuff. Howard Levy will be joining them in November, and I’ll be back in December. That record was number one for six weeks on the jazz charts, it’s pretty wild. The only other number one record the group had was Flight of the Cosmic Hippo (1991) for one week. It’s been really exciting for me, for the last two records I’ve played on to be number one records, and in such different spectrums also. It’s been really nice, really fun, to be apart of both of those things. The Flecktones record, that’s a really fun record, Jingle All the Way, we’re going to have all the Tuvans out there with us again, the throat singers. It’s going to be great, man. Alash Ensemble, it’s the craziest stuff. They’re on the record.
As you mentioned, original Flecktone Howard Levy is playing some dates in November. How did that come about?
Well the band’s been together for about 20 years, and they knew that my schedule was going to go through the fall, so I think they decided to kind of keep it different in some ways. So not knowing whether or not my November schedule was going to be free, we decided it’d be a great way to celebrate the 20th year. It’s interesting, it’s allowing everything to happen the way it’s supposed to naturally happen, not to do nothing, but not to force the square peg into the round hole.
Everything has worked out really perfectly, we’re doing Saturday Night Live with Dave on November 21. Had I agreed to do November with the Flecktones, then it would have interfered with the tour. So again, it worked out perfectly. Even last year, the Flecktones were only touring in October and November. There were two dates, August 5th and 6th the Flecktones had, but we had two days off from Dave, the 4th and 5th, I missed the 6th and was back with Dave on the 7th. So it’s been minimally invasive in any other way. It’s really worked out, and I feel really fortunate that it has. And I just have to believe that it’s been the right thing all along, that the way it’s worked out has been very organic and very natural, so that’s been a good thing.
You’ve said, regarding The Flecktones, that when you go your separate ways and do your own projects, all it does is make The Flecktones a better band. Now that you’ve been playing for DMB for over a year, what, musically, do you feel you can take from the experience playing with DMB and bring to the Mu’tet or The Flecktones when you regroup?
I think it’s the influence of all those other musicians, of the music, of the melodicism of Dave’s vocals, the inflection of working with a vocalist again and having to learn other music. I think that the rhythms and the ideas, they all kind of compound onto one another. There will be a lot of that, a lot of experience of hearing different styles of music, meeting different musicians from different places. I think it’s the same as Bela going out with the African musicians. The things that get talked about, the music that gets listened to, the growth that occurs all the way through, I think that all of those things get brought in and stirred up in the pot.
I think listening skills are the most important thing that can be worked on. I think as those continue to develop, listening to yourself as a musician is as important if not more so than listening to everything else. I don’t mean from a selfish standpoint. Where are you sitting in the strata of things? Where is your voice? Is it too dominant, or not dominant enough? Is there a balance of things? What’s the role? My role with Dave is different than my role with Bela, and they’re both supportive roles, but they’re a different kinds of supportive role. The challenge is still a challenge, it’s no different in that respect, but the things I’m challenged by are different. But I still love the challenge. So those are the things I can bring in also. I feel like I’ve grown as a musician, that I continue to grow as a musician. I’m looking forward to bringing those influences into my composition as well, not just playing and not just being on the road with other musicians, but also in the compositional and arranging aspects as well.
What have you found that DMB offers that the Flecktones don’t, or visa-versa?
They both feed different parts of my head. With Dave, I solo more naturally with the band. The way that I physically play, the way that I emotionally play, probably is more in line with how I get to play with Dave than when I play with Bela. When I play with Bela, I have to play a little bit differently because of the instrumentation, because of the stage volume, and because of the delicacy with having to line up with what Bela is doing. It’s just a different thing. I play more quietly with Bela most of the time. There’s more playing with the Flecktones; parts that are being doubled, parts that are independent of one another. Because there are only four of us, I’m a part of the rhythm section as well as part of the harmony and the things I’m playing. So it’s more of a challenge in those respects.
But I’m the kind of person that if I’m only playing one style of music, I’ll see a need to drift in other things and I’ve always been that way. So even on the road with the Flecktones, I’ll be working on different stuff. I look forward to getting together with the guys and doing Mu’tet stuff. When I’m on the road with Dave, Tim [Reynolds] and I get together and play Brazilian Shiro music, it’s really fun. We play acoustic guitar and flute, and we screw it up just as much as we play it right. We have a couple of books that we work out of, and it’s really fun. It’s a real challenge for the both of us to play the music in a way that sounds good to us. Again, those influences that I bring in and roll into different situations as well.
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