Big Country - Bela Fleck and the Flecktones - percussion cover

This piece was recorded March 2008 at Denton High School in Denton, TX, while I was the percussion instructor there.

I had previously arranged this song as a piano solo/string quartet version for my (believe it or not) wedding Recessional the summer before, and when I played it for my students they loved it and asked me to arrange it for them to play. I tried and tried to figure it out as a large percussion ensemble, but just couldn't make it sound true to the original. Right after that decision I actually discovered an already published large ensemble version by Olin Johannessen that confirmed my fears, because it became a goofy hoedown that totally destroyed the beautiful feeling of the original.

I finally decided the only way to make it work would be to do one person to a part, just like in the Flecktones, and reproduce it as closely as possible. This ended up being harder than I thought, putting the banjo part on marimba and still getting all the little extra notes from the drone strings that give it that special sound, and having the drumset use brushes to try to mimic Future Man's mellow Synthax Drumitar.

The result was more than I even expected, and Bobby and Joanna did a great job "feeling" those solo rhythms so it wouldn't be as square as the written rhythms sometimes would have made it. All in all this was one of my favorite pieces of the concert (and one of my favorite arrangements to date) and I hope to play it again at UNT possibly!

Left to Right:

Bobby Jacobs - (bass marimba/bass part)
Sean Redman - (me on marimba/banjo part)
Austin Ford - (behind me...sorry Austin...on drumset)
Joanna Ceja - (vibes/saxophone part)

Category:

Music

Tags:

• Big
• Country
• Bela
• Fleck
• Flecktones
• Victor
• Wooten
• Percussion
• Denton
• High
• School
• DHS
• Cover
• Arrangement
• Marimba
• Texas
• Bluegrass
• Ensemble
• Banjo
• Jeff
• Coffin
• Sean
• Redman

[SriKitchi]

This is pretty damn stunning, I have to say.

Panpipes? I'm not entirely sure what those instruments are... but the arrangement is absolutely fantastic.

It's kept the 'feel' of the original remarkably well. Plenty of kudos!

[SeanUNT]

@SriKitchi Thanks, I'm glad you liked it! Who said anything about panpipes though?

[SriKitchi]

@SeanUNT Haha!

I dunno... I don't know what those instruments are. I don't know what panpipes are, either. So I put two and two together. :P

[SeanUNT]

@SriKitchi Maybe you were looking at the resonators on the instruments and thinking they reminded you of panpipes, hehe? It's 2 marimbas and a vibraphone, which are percussion mallet instruments. And of course panpipes get blown into, haha.

[lr52185]

This is amazing! Wish I had a chance to play this back in my percussion ensemble days. I do think putting the banjo part on a xylophone would have been slightly better (seems more banjo-y to me).

[bandgeek599]

wow this is good i suck at xzylophone probably cause i just started but i like this its good i play brass instraments and 2 woodwinds hard transition from a brass/woodwind to percussion

[74gretsch]

Very Nice !

[brenno08]

Is there anywhere I can purchase this arrangement from?

[bjorlrr]

Hey man can you get your arrangement anywhere?

[Moog167]

I always love the part where Jaco Pastorius's "Continuum" is heard within the song (3:33)

[joannalovesit16]

Damn, that was fun to play. I miss that marimba a lot. It's chillin in my parent's place right now gathering dust, but my dads getting me a place this summer in town where I can live/ keep my instruments, particularly that one right there :)

[dmjust]

Hey! This was incredible! I myself am a percussionist struggling my way up to get to a nice university ahah!

Is there any way i could have this arrangement?

Thanks in advance and congratulations!

[percussiontech1]

What mallets is the bass marimba using? Those sound tasty!!!

[ap2011]

Great job on the first soprano solo!! Awesome arrangement!