Trio impresses with banjo, bass and Indian drums

Abanjo and a double bass walk into a bar. The bartender says, "What is this, some kind of bad joke?"

Indeed, the two instruments are an unlikely pair. A banjo's brash sound and a bass's cool tones can be a jarring combination.

Banjo virtuoso Béla Fleck and bass master Edgar Meyer have made it work, performing together in ensembles and as a duo for more than 20 years. But Sunday night at the Modlin Center, the addition of a third instrument brought the odd couple together in a completely new way.

The tabla, a principal instrument in the northern Indian classical tradition, is a set of tuned drums. Depending on the nature of the stroke, the drums can sound as brittle as a banjo or as rich as a bass. Under the hands of the internationally renowned Zakir Hussain, the tabla unified the disparate sounds of the two instruments.

A playful camaraderie -- yes, they even told a few groaners -- couldn't hide the serious skill of these three musicians. Each has won Grammys; Fleck has been nominated in a record-breaking variety of categories. Now they're on tour together, having recently released an album, "The Melody of Rhythm."

The trio makes an effective argument against synthetically produced music, erased of personality and place. Bow hair, string, flesh and drumhead -- this music takes pleasure in its physicality. Scrapes, twangs and wah-wahs are all part of the experience, which carried the audience on an imaginative journey from, for example, a Kentucky porch to a European concert hall to a festival in West Africa, often within the same composition.

Meyer produces sounds ranging from beefy to breathy, switching frequently between bowed and plucked notes. A bass solo in the second set began with an airy plaint and then moved into a locomotive groove.

"Out of the Blue" began with Hussain showing off the astonishingly bell-like qualities of his drums. Then, for much of the extended tabla solo, his fingers moved over the drums like a racing heart, ending in a tightly controlled crescendo before the other instruments joined in for some up-tempo jamming.

Some of the most enchanting moments of the concert were Fleck's solo turns that would suddenly become melodic duets with the tabla, and the frequent contrapuntal interplay of banjo and bass were mesmerizing.

Only once in the whole show did the physical experience of music-making disappoint. The harmonic, or overtone, notes that Fleck incorporated into his solo piece in the second set didn't translate well through amplification, sounding more metallic than ethereal.

Even after two hours of music, the trio treated the sold-out crowd to an encore, capping off a deeply satisfying evening.