''The Hidden Land'' is the eighth studio album and twelfth album overall released by Béla Fleck and the Flecktones, released in 2006. It was recorded before the band's year-long hiatus during 2005 and released afterward. ''The Hidden Land'' won the 2007

Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Jazz Album The Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Jazz Album was an award presented at the Grammy Awards, a ceremony that was established in 1958 and originally called the Gramophone Awards, to recording artists for works (songs or albums) containing quality ...

Reception

In his

Allmusic AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the databa ...

review, music critic Thom Jurek was lukewarm about the album, writing, "It's not that complexity and a multiplicity of ideas is a bad thing; quite the opposite, but knowing when to and make the music sing is another thing. This record sings only in a couple of places. The rest is 'serious Flecktones.' Perhaps this determination is simply not for most of us. It's easy to accept that, especially when those serious Flecktones fans will be debating individual musical passages until the next album is released." Devin Grant of '' No Depression'' wrote: "Fleck keeps things centered, wielding his banjo in directions the instrument wasn’t originally envisioned to go."

Track listing

All songs by

Béla Fleck Béla Anton Leoš Fleck (born July 10, 1958) is an American banjo player. An acclaimed virtuoso, he is an innovative and technically proficient pioneer and ambassador of the banjo, bringing the instrument from its bluegrass roots to jazz, classi ...

unless otherwise noted. #"Fugue from Prelude/Fugue No. 20 in A minor,

BWV The (BWV; ; ) is a catalogue of compositions by Johann Sebastian Bach. It was first published in 1950, edited by Wolfgang Schmieder. The catalogue's second edition appeared in 1990. An abbreviated version of that second edition, known as BWV2 ...

889" (

J.S. Bach Johann Sebastian Bach (28 July 1750) was a German composer and musician of the late Baroque period. He is known for his orchestral music such as the ''Brandenburg Concertos''; instrumental compositions such as the Cello Suites; keyboard wor ...

, arr.

The Flecktones ''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' is the m ...

) – 1:51 #" P'Lod In The House" (

Future Man Roy Wilfred Wooten (born October 13, 1957), also known as RoyEl, best known by his stage name Future Man (also written Futureman and known to fans as Futche) is an American musician, inventor and composer. He is best known as a member of jazz ...

/B. Fleck) – 3:46 #"Rococo" – 3:46 #"Labyrinth" – 6:21 #"Kaleidoscope" (The Flecktones) – 5:08 #"Who's Got Three?" – 5:22 #"Weed Whacker" – 7:44 #"Couch Potato" – 3:03 #"Chennai" (

Jeff Coffin Jeff Coffin (born August 5, 1965) is an American saxophonist, composer, and educator. He is a three-time Grammy Award winner as a member of Bela Fleck and the Flecktones, with whom he performed from 1997 until 2010. In July 2008, Coffin began t ...

/B. Fleck) – 5:48 #"Subterfuge" – 4:04 #Interlude (The Flecktones) – 0:39 #"Misunderstood" – 7:27 #"The Whistle Tune" – 4:54

Personnel

- 1937 Style 75 Gibson Mastertone banjo (tracks 1, 7, 8, 13), 1936 Style 18 Gibson Top Tension gut string banjo (track 3), 2004 Deering Tenbrooks banjo (track 5), 1932 Vega-Vox Deluxe banjo (track 6), Deering Crossfire electric banjo (tracks 2, 9), 1967 Rickenbacker 5-string electric banjo (track 10, 11), Deering 6-String bantar (tracks 11, 12), Paradis stereo

guitar The guitar is a fretted musical instrument that typically has six strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming or plucking the strings with the dominant hand, while simultaneously pressing selected strin ...

(track 4),

synth A synthesizer (also spelled synthesiser) is an electronic musical instrument that generates audio signals. Synthesizers typically create sounds by generating waveforms through methods including subtractive synthesis, additive synthesis and ...

(track 9) *

- Soprano saxophone (tracks 2, 5, 7, 8, 11),

tenor saxophone The tenor saxophone is a medium-sized member of the saxophone family, a group of instruments invented by Adolphe Sax in the 1840s. The tenor and the alto are the two most commonly used saxophones. The tenor is pitched in the key of B (while ...

(tracks 4, 10, 12), alto saxophone (track 1), flute (tracks 3, 9), clarinet (track 6), D

whistle A whistle is an instrument which produces sound from a stream of gas, most commonly air. It may be mouth-operated, or powered by air pressure, steam, or other means. Whistles vary in size from a small slide whistle or nose flute type to a lar ...

(tracks 4, 13), low-D whistle (track 13),

conch shell Conch () is a common name of a number of different medium-to-large-sized sea snails. Conch shells typically have a high spire and a noticeable siphonal canal (in other words, the shell comes to a noticeable point at both ends). In North Ame ...

(track 8),

singing bowl A standing bell or resting bell is an inverted bell (instrument), bell, supported from below with the rim uppermost. Such bells are normally bowl-shaped, and exist in a wide range of sizes, from a few centimetres to a metre in diameter. They are ...

(track 9), sleigh bells (tracks 8, 9), synthesizer (tracks 3, 5, 7, 9, 12, 13), synth (track 10), high

throat singing Throat singing refers to several vocal practices found in different cultures around the world. The most distinctive feature of such vocal practices is to be associated to some type of guttural voice, that contrasts with the most common types of voi ...

(track 9) * Roy "Future Man" Wooten - Synth-Axe

Drumitar A Zendrum is a hand-crafted MIDI controller that is used as a percussion instrument. The Zendrum was influenced by the "Drumitar," invented by Future Man. There are several Zendrum models that are well-suited for live performances: the Z1, ZX, E ...

, acoustic

percussion A percussion instrument is a musical instrument that is sounded by being struck or scraped by a beater including attached or enclosed beaters or rattles struck, scraped or rubbed by hand or struck against another similar instrument. Ex ...

Zendrum A Zendrum is a hand-crafted MIDI controller that is used as a percussion instrument. The Zendrum was influenced by the "Drumitar," invented by Future Man. There are several Zendrum models that are well-suited for live performances: the Z1, ZX, ...

(track 1),

vocals Singing is the act of creating musical sounds with the voice. A person who sings is called a singer, artist or vocalist (in jazz and/or popular music). Singers perform music (arias, recitatives, songs, etc.) that can be sung with or withou ...

(tracks 4, 12), throat singing (track 9) *

Victor Wooten Victor Lemonte Wooten (born September 11, 1964) is an American bassist, songwriter, and record producer. He has been the bassist for Béla Fleck and the Flecktones since the group's formation in 1988 and a member of the band SMV with two other ...

- Fodera 4 string

electric bass The bass guitar, electric bass or simply bass (), is the lowest-pitched member of the string family. It is a plucked string instrument similar in appearance and construction to an electric or an acoustic guitar, but with a longer neck and s ...

(tracks 1–5, 7, 8, 10, 13), Compito 5 string

fretless A fretless guitar is a guitar with a fingerboard without frets, typically a standard instrument that has had the frets removed, though some custom-built and commercial fretless guitars are occasionally made. The classic fretless guitar was first ...

electric bass, (tracks 6, 9, 11, 12), synth pedal (tracks 4, 7)

Production notes

with the Flecktones *Robert Battaglia – engineer, mixing *Richard Dodd – mastering *Frank Ockenfels – photography *Christopher Austopchuk – art direction *Giulio Turturro – design

Chart positions

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hidden Land, The Béla Fleck and the Flecktones albums 2006 albums Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Jazz Album