I love Bela Fleck and this is also very beautiful African music

[3 and 1/2 stars]I never quite felt that this film lived up to it's potential. It could be due to a tight schedule, but it seems that whenever they started to get into a truly collaborative effort, they went off to the next location before fully exploring their discoveries. Although not quite satisfied, I came away from watching this film feeling it was a worthwhile experience.I agree with others who commented that Bela never quite seemed to "fit in" with the others. Music is much more than simply playing the correct notes with the right rhythm. The only time I felt a true artistic event happening was during the "Songbird" piece near the end -- great music; I'll be looking for it on CD!This might have made for a fine documentary series -- with an entire episode devoted to a single piece of music, with more details on the indigenous instruments; how they're made, their cultural roles, etc. End each episode with an entire uninterrupted performance. But ... enough about what could have been ...A "Must see" for those of us interested in musical exploration. However, don't expect anything especially new to arise from it. If you're not very familiar with African traditional music, this would be a good introduction.

There are times when it doesn't matter that the instruments don't exactly fit right musically. This was precisely that opportunity for Mr. Beck. Yeah, he went there to share the banjo but instead created a union that transcends music. Everything about this documentary was about connecting as human beings. The banjo and the music were vehicles that bridged the language barrier. Some of the music is absolutely incredible. The singing, dancing and innovative instruments was fabulous. I think sometimes we musicians get all caught up in the technical aspect of the music and lose sight of the value of just making music.

What I liked most was the inside view of the different countries and their native instruments. Most of us are familiar by now with the kalimba or thumb piano, but not that huge wooden xylophone played on the ground! That was amazing, and that many men could participate at once. I liked the one woman thumb piano artiste that the men acknowledged as genious at the craft. And women who sing as they cook and wash dishes. The young boy who was handed the banjo by Fleck took to it so naturally & that group of musicians had never seen nor heard banjo before. But Fleck seemed to play his banjo trying to fit it into an African groove instead of some good picking. Jerry Garcia played a mean banjo! I just feel the banjo should be twanged in a more pickin banjo rhythm than trying to jazz it down into some mutant slow exotic sound. But that's just my opinion here. It was overall a lovely cultural tour of four different countries around Africa--that I really enjoyed.

There was something that always felt odd in this movie. Just my opinion but, his mission really didn't seem to accomplish his goal, and was not that cohesive with the traditional musicians and singers. Although they tried to colaborate on a recording, it felt forced and not natural. I don't think anyone was really wow'ed by these jam sessions, but just politly participating for their guest. I think you would get the same type of result if you brought one the traditional intrument player to america, to jam with grind core and gore bands across the U.S., it seemed just that odd to me. Nice camera work and production.

music is a language on it's own

If you live and love life; you will love this movie. Bela please play a session with Paul Simmon