As We Speak: Béla Fleck, Zakir Hussain, Edgar Meyer, Rakesh Chaurasia

Banjo legend Béla Fleck, tabla master Zakir Hussain, double bass virtuoso Edgar Meyer, and Indian bamboo flute (bansuri) player Rakesh Chaurasia join forces for As We Speak, an album that not only showcases the group’s breathtaking abilities as instrumentalists but underscores the wide range of musical influences at their command. Across a dozen tracks, the group glides easily between the cerebral complexity of Indian rhythm and the gut-level groove of a funky bass line, sounding equally at home with the rigors of raga.

Although each musician is based in a different musical realm — bluegrass for Fleck, Indian classical music for Hussain, and Western classical music for Meyer — they shared a gift for improvisation as well as an ability to reach across musical genres as casually as neighbors might chat over a backyard fence. “When we are performing on stage, in composing mode or creating mode, we are basically having a conversation,” says Hussain. “So the music emerges as we speak.”