Cellist and singer Ben Sollee performs on this episode of Mountain Stage, recorded on the campus of West Virginia University in Morgantown. Sollee has appeared on Mountain Stage several times over the past few years, recently with Abigail Washburn & The Sparrow Quartet (along with Bela Fleck and Casey Driessen), and with the Appalachian Voices project.
A classically trained cellist from Louisville, Ky., Sollee infuses traditional string parts with elements of pop, R&B and hip-hop, thanks in no small part to his gifted drummer, fellow Kentuckian Jordon Ellis. Sollee and Ellis play tunes from his second solo album Inclusions — a project which began as a collaboration between Sollee and two DJs, and finished with Sollee and Ellis re-creating the sounds through live performance, without electronic samples. Sollee closes his set with a driving cover of "Obvious Child," from Paul Simon's 1990 release The Rhythm of the Saints.
Sollee is followed by pianist Bob Thompson of the Mountain Stage band, with his take on the Thelonious Monk tune "Ask Me Now."
This show originally aired November 15, 2011.
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