Flight of the Cosmic Hippo

How many albums virtually upend a genre? And how many erstwhile bluegrass bands top a contemporary jazz chart?! The answer to these questions, is, one, very few, and two, only Bela Fleck and the Flecktones!

Their second album, 1991’s fancifully entitled Flight of the Cosmic Hippo, did indeed top Billboard’s contemporary jazz albums chart and scored a couple of Grammy noms. But more importantly, this record really made explicit the Flecktones’ bebop leanings, as they devised the term “Blu-Bop” to describe their unique fusion of bluegrass and jazz. Stylistic whiplash has never felt so good or sounded so sweet; check out their warm, instrumental wizardry on chestnuts like “Michelle” and “The Star Spangled Banner”...and don’t miss Béla’s banjo power chords on “Turtle Rock!” We had Mike Milchner at Sonic Vision remaster this classic for vinyl for maximum fidelity. Essential!