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Kansas City's Online Journal of the Performing Arts

It is time for Music Appreciation 101 and the subject for today is Throw Down Your Heart, a lesson that takes us on a musical journey to Africa with master banjo player Béla Fleck.

His, and our, journey begins in Uganda where Fleck encounters sounds and rhythms that can be vaguely heard in modern day pop and hip hop. From there he travels to Tanzania where he plays with a blind man that has all the vocal stylings of Ella Fitzgerald and Dizzy Gillespie. Next he ventures to Gambia where he encounters the banjo's three-stringed ancestor. It ends in Mali where some sounds have an almost jazz feel to them.

Fleck's stated intention with Throw Down Your Heart is to trace the roots of the banjo while at the same introducing the modern banjo to Africa and proving that it's not just an instrument of the American South. On the flip side, Fleck's interpreter in Uganda explains how Africans want to show America and the world that Africa is more than just a headline about war and AIDS.

In every instance during his travels, Fleck plays and records with some of the best artists that each African nation has to offer, from the well-known to the unknown. It is quite reminiscent of what musicologist and folklorist John Lomax did in the mid-1930s when he recorded what were then obscure blues musicians across the Deep South, like Huddie "Lead Belly" Ledbetter.

In five weeks time Fleck and a small crew logged over 250 hours of footage, not to mention the countless recordings that were boiled down to fit onto the film's album. Their hard work paid off because Throw Down Your Heart is an insightful, genuinely entertaining documentary that will cause more than one audience to applaud at the end.

The video footage is only a hair better at times than something shot by an amateur with a handheld camera from Wally World, and it contains some needless footage from an unexpected stop in Senegal, which turns out to be really the only irritatingly self-indulgent part of the entire film. However, these are only quibbles in the grand scheme of things.

Okay, so now you have been given your assignment and if you wish to pass, you better get to the movie theater as soon as possible or else I'll have to have a conference with your parents.

On a letter grade scale from A being excellent to F for failing, Throw Down Your Heart receives a B+.

Throw Down Your Heart is unrated and has a running time of 105 minutes.

Now Showing
Tivoli Cinemas
Westport Manor Square, 4050 Pennsylvania, KCMO
Visit www.tivolikc.com or call 913-383-7756 for showtimes.  

By Michael D. Smith

Indie Film Editor

Michael D. Smith earned a Bachelor of Arts in history at College of the Ozarks in Point Lookout, Missouri followed by a Master of Arts in history at the University of Missouri-Kansas City.

Inspired by such critics as Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert, Michael started reviewing films in 1992 for College of the Ozarks's student-run newspaper. After returning to the Kansas City area in 1994, he continued film reviewing by writing for the Cass County Democrat Missourian in Harrisonville.

In 2000 Michael joined Sun Publications in Overland Park, Kansas where he served as its film critic and Arts and Entertainment Editor. During his tenure there, he was also the film critic for the "Fine Arts Radio Hour" and "Celebrity Scoop" radio shows on KXTR. After leaving the Sun in late 2002, he became the A&E writer for the Olathe News in Olathe, Kansas. He also worked as a freelance writer for The Squire in Leawood, Showcase Publishing in Lake Ozark, Missouri and the Kansas City Star.

Michael is currently a member of the Kansas City Film Critics Circle, a professional film critic organization established in 1966 by the late Dr. James Loutzenhiser.