Béla Fleck - Throw Down Your Heart (2008) DVD

Béla Fleck has spent most of his career moving the banjo into the future--i.e., away from what he calls "the white southern stereotype" and, with the help of his band the Flecktones, into genres not normally associated with the instrument--but with Throw Down Your Heart, he goes in the opposite direction, traveling to Africa to explore the banjo's ancient roots. Joined by documentary filmmaker Sascha Paladino, Fleck journeys to Uganda, Tanzania, Gambia, and Mali, where he jams with (and records) a variety of musicians (most of whom, ironically, have never so much as seen a banjo before), and the results are consistently lilting and joyous. In the Ugandan village of Nakisenyi, Fleck accompanies several locals playing a gigantic marimba as others sing, clap, and play wood blocks. In a small Tanzanian town, he sits in with some folks playing the kalimba, or thumb piano, while in Dar es Salaam, that country's largest city, he guests with an electric band with a kind of Afro-Cuban sound. In Gambia he jams with a fellow who plays a long-necked, three-stringed instrument called the akonting, a distant relative of the banjo, and in Mali he meets singer Oumou Sangare, one of the country's biggest stars. Fleck is appropriately deferential in all instances, and the interaction between the musicians is natural and intuitive; the Africans may be blown away by his virtuoso technique, but they are no slouches themselves, so these are meetings between equals. There are occasional glances at other aspects of African culture and history (such as the Tanzanian slave trade), but the music's the thing, and if the main program doesn't satisfy one's hunger for these wonderfully infectious sounds, an hour of bonus scenes and performances surely will. Fleck and Paladino also contribute an audio commentary track. --Sam Graham

Movie sample: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WDCxaQhhL0A