So you think you can tell heaven from hell, blue skies from pain? Can you tell a green field from a cold steel rail? A smile from a veil? Do you think you can tell?

Xavier Dias-Latorre & Pedro Estevan, LABERYNTOS INGENIOSOS by Gaspar Sanz. KLE antiqua 2004
One of the truly great, fantastic, honest, amazing, and very inspiring early music CDs to have been released recently. This is the result of lifelong practise, research, and a significant love for the music; Xavier and Pedro really bring this music to life and in a way that is so happy and glorious that it is a pleasure to listen to this incredible music over and over again. It could not have been done better. Congratulation boys!

Hille Perl & Lee Santana, THE STAR AND THE SEA. Carpe Diem records 16264
When I will have to leave this planet, I will go with a smile because Lee and I were allowed to record this CD. It contains compositions by Lee and improvisations by both of us. I am very proud of this CD, because it transports something of the general expression of our feeling for this life. How fragile and energetic and beautiful and mysterious it is, and what an amazing coincidence that we are allowed to share some space and time.

Béla Fleck & The Flecktones: UFOTOFU. Warner Bros. 9362-45016-2
Here we have another fine musician one will not easily fit into a cliché. A creative and self-invented genius full of virtuosity and wit, who ingeniously juggles with musical forms, patterns, sounds, and instruments, while the Flecktones keep up just fine.

This CD or any that I have heard of Béla is to be recommended for anyone who cares for acoustic, slide, electric, and nylon-strung banjos.