Béla Fleck doesn’t discriminate. Whether an instrument is 4 inches long or 4 feet, contains two strings or 21, plugs in or runs on finger power, he’s ready to explore musical possibilities if the player wields it with unorthodox creativity.
So it’s no surprise that the banjo maestro has formed a band with Colombian jazz harp innovator Edmar Castañeda, a brilliant improviser who’s spent the past three decades taking his specially built EC Llanera harp where the instrument has never gone before.
With the extraordinary Mexican drummer Antonio Sánchez, best known as the creator of the percussion-driven score for the 2014 Academy Award-winning film “Birdman” and numerous recordings with Pat Metheny, BEATrio makes its Bay Area debut with three Presidio Theatre shows March 29-30.
“It all starts with the Flecktones,” Fleck said on a recent phone call, referring to the long-running band that transformed him from a bluegrass icon into an uncategorizable explorer keeping company with the likes of piano legend Chick Corea, bassist Edgar Meyer, and tabla maestro Zakir Hussain.
When Flecktones’ electric bassist Victor Wooten and his technology-loving, Drumitar-wielding brother Future Man found a unique player, “you never knew who they’d show up with,” Fleck said. “Could be Tuvan throat singers, or Jake Shimabukuro on ukulele, or a Theremin player. Edmar showed up on our radar a long time ago.”
An ambitious young player looking to make a name for himself in jazz, Castañeda moved from his hometown Bogotá to New York City in 1994. He’s earned international esteem as a bandleader and collaborator with other singular artists like Afro-Swiss harmonica virtuoso Grégoire Maret, Japanese piano star Hiromi, and Cuban reed great Paquito D’Rivera.
“I just premiered a piece for orchestra and harp at Carnegie Hall,” he said. “I like to put the harp everywhere, with different concepts and different scenes. It’s very risky and very fun.”
Fleck first got wind of Castañeda when he saw him in a video on YouTube. What stuck him most was the harpist’s rhythmic prowess, “that strong pulse where you feel you’re flying,” Fleck said.
It’s the same quality he’s treasured in playing with Malian kora great Toumani Diabaté, Chick Corea or Zakir Hussain, “who like Edmar, all feel rhythm in this tight way,” Fleck said. “They’re grooving at all times. They can’t get out of the pocket.”
He and Castañeda had been talking about working together for years and finally arranged a get together in 2019 when Fleck was in New York City visiting family. He brought his banjo and one of his kids to Riverside Park “and we had a little jam session,” Fleck recalled. “We could see the possibilities.”
They put together a duo set for Big Ears, the famously omnivorous music festival in Knoxville, “and people went crazy,” Fleck said. “Edmar is a powerful performer. He brought different things out of me, and it was so fun to be put into a different position.”
Castañeda knew Sanchez from various encounters over the years, including a tour with Paquito D’Rivera, so when Fleck suggested bringing the drummer in to form a trio, he was game. It’s worth noting that all three men are married to excellent musicians with whom they often collaborate.
Fleck and Abigail Washburn are the reigning first couple of banjodom.
Sanchez tours and records with vocalist and composer Thana Alexa in various situations, including Antonio Sanchez & Bad Hombre. And Castañeda often works with Colombian vocalist Andrea Tierra in Family, the quartet with which he played a run of gigs around the region last month.
Fleck knew that Sanchez was ideal for the project, as “his time is unbelievable,” he said. “Some jazz drummers play the beat more loosely, and are harder for me to lock in with. I tend to do better with musicians who have a tight rhythmic approach.”
While Fleck doesn’t play many jazz club dates, he was offered a week at the Blue Note last September. The run provided a timely proving ground before the trio set out to record their first album, which is slated for release May 16. Working out arrangements in public was a gutsy move, but these are musicians used to dancing on a high wire.
Castañeda took it upon himself to glue the trio together. “I’m in the middle playing all the chords, like a piano, while my left hand is playing the bass with Antonio,” he said. “I have to invent this thing to make it work. I don’t have rules. I use improvisation. I just follow what the harp says and what the music is asking for.”
Contact Andrew Gilbert at jazzscribe@aol.com.
BÉLA FLECK
With Edmar Castañeda, Antonio Sanchez in BEATrio
When: 7:30 p.m. March 29, 2 and 7 p.m. March 30
Where: Presidio Theatre, 99 Moraga Ave., San Francisco
Tickets: $72-$127; www.presidiotheatre.org