Anyone who doubts there’s an appetite for instrumental music and
songwriting infused with jazz should have been at Crossroads KC on Friday
night, where nearly 1,500 fans showed up to watch and hear Bruce Hornsby and
the Noisemakers and Bela Fleck and the original version of his Flecktones.
Each band performed a set that slightly exceeded 90 minutes. Each band
leader sat in on the other’s set. And the show ended with a free-wheeling jam
by both bands.
During his set, Hornsby showcased his many facets: his voice, his
considerable skills on the piano and his developing skills on the accordion and
dulcimer. He opened with one from his days with the Range, “Another Day,” then
“Spider Fingers,” which included several measures of Donavan’s “There is a
Mountain.”
The Noisemakers are a high-class rootsy bunch, an ensemble that can
evoke music that shifts seamlessly from jug band to jazzy blues to traditional
Celtic.
Even during a predusk swelter, Hornsby is a smooth and fluid frontman,
as at ease on stage talking to his crowd and band mates as he is at the piano,
where his talents are boundless.
Fleck joined him for two tunes, including “Shadow Hand,” one highlight
from a set list that included “Space is the Place,” “White-Wheeled Limousine,”
“Defenders of the Flag” and his closer, “The Valley Road.” That one, his last
Top 10 hit, goes way back to his days with the Range. Nearly 25 years later, he
plays it with the Noisemakers with vigor and groove, like it was recorded last
month, as if it were one of their own.
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