Juno Concerto

2017 release. Bla Fleck is the world's premier banjo player, a 16-time Grammy Award winner nominated in more categories than any other musician, a genre-busting collaborator, a film producer and a composer. Foremost, though, he is a dad. The impact of fatherhood on Bla is reflected in Juno Concerto, named for his firstborn son with fellow folk musician Abigail Washburn. The album was recorded with the Colorado Symphony, conducted by Jos Luis Gomez and also includes two tracks with the Brooklyn Rider string quartet: 'Griff' and the second movement of 'Quintet for Banjo and Strings,' the latter a previously unrecorded collaboration with friend and mentor Edgar Meyer, representing Bla's first experimentation with classical music. The banjo in these movements embodies the voice of doom, interrupting the music with dark, dissonant interjections culminating in a melancholy banjo solo-a contemplative end to the album that reveals Bla's true depth as a composer. Juno Concerto is a reminder that Bla Fleck is among the most innovative and virtuosic musicians of our time.