Béla Fleck, Zakir Hussain, Edgar Meyer & Rakesh Chaurasia Step Into ‘Motion’ With New Single

Banjoist Béla Fleck, bassist Edgar Meyer, tabla master Zakir Hussain and Indian flute player Rakesh Chaurasia shared a new single entitled “Motion.” The track appears on the collective’s forthcoming album, As We Speak, which is slated for release through Thirty Tigers on May 12.

Fleck and Meyer first worked with Hussain in 2006 to compose a piece for a performance with the Nashville Symphony commemorating the opening of Nashville’s Schermerhorn Symphony Center (where they began their current tour on April 19). A few years later while on tour in India, the trio connected with Chaurasia who is the nephew of Indian flute legend and Hussain confidante Pandit Hariprasad Chaurasia.

“What I think is good about this quartet is that everybody has to stretch in the direction of the other people,” Fleck said. “To me, a collaboration where nobody changes is not a collaboration. It’s a mashup. And there’s nothing wrong with that. But I like a collaboration where I have to learn a bunch of new things from the other people. And in this case, I’m learning like crazy.”

“Motion” was composed by Meyer and is one of 12 songs making up As We Speak. The single arrived with an accompanying animated visualizer illustrated and directed by Maya Sassoon.

”I am amazed at how Béla, Rakesh, and Zakir are able to bring this piece to life,” Meyer stated. “Then again, I’ve seen them do it before, so I wouldn’t expect anything less. And I love how the team of Maya, Joey and Brad were able to find the story in the music and turn it into something visual.”

Watch the “Motion” visualizer below: