Across the Imaginary Divide by Béla Fleck and the Marcus Roberts Trio

This album features a highly original collaboration between banjo virtuoso Béla Fleck and jazz pianist Marcus Roberts. Instead of riffing on jazz or bluegrass standards, Fleck and Roberts wrote original music to cross “the imaginary divide” between the banjo and the piano—and between all forms of music. Through the idiom of jazz, the musicians reference musical styles that range from ragtime to swing and even the sounds of a kalimba, the African thumb piano. Backed by the first-rate work of Rodney Jordan on bass and Jason Marsalis on drums, Fleck and Roberts offer a sound that is at once deep and jaunty, a refreshing place where blues and bluegrass meet. (Rounder Records)