NPR Music has dug into its vault for an archival Tiny Desk Concert, featuring Béla Fleck, Edgar Meyer, and Zakir Hussain. The in-studio performance was originally published on July 26th, 2010.
As the live music shutdown continues, NPR Music has been forced to get creative in order to provide consistent content. The Tiny Desk Concert series has pivoted to the Tiny Desk (Home) Concert series, and the public radio network has begun rolling out archival sets.
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The concert comes just two years into the long-running history of the Tiny Desk series, and provides viewers an early look into the culturally-ubiquitous concert program. The series’ now-iconic set up at Bob Boilen‘s desk was far less formidable back in 2010, and bears only a passing resemblance to the expansive setup audiences know today, complete with media of all kinds and various knickknacks perched on shelves behind the performing artists.
Yet the focus here is on the music, and not what memorabilia lines the studio. In this session, we find three virtuosic musicians in the form of banjo player Béla Fleck, bass fiddler Edgar Meyer, and world-renowned tabla player Zakir Hussain. While the pairing of the traditional bluegrass instruments alongside an Indian drum may seem odd at first, the instrumental collaboration these three musicians create is a remarkable combination of world music sounds. The trio has actually worked together before, touring as well as releasing the album The Melody of Rhythm in 2009 alongside the Detroit Symphony Orchestra.
Watch Béla Fleck, Edgar Meyer, and Zakir Hussain perform on NPR Music’s Tiny Desk back in 2010.
Béla Fleck, Edgar Meyer, and Zakir Hussain — Tiny Desk Concert
[Video: NPR Music]