Flight of the Cosmic Hippo

BELA FLECK AND THE FLECKTONES Flight of the Cosmic Hippo (Warner Bros) Generally speaking, the banjo and jazz parted ways many decades back, but virtuosic banjoist Bela Fleck is almost single-handedly lobbying for reconciliation. Tweaking boundaries has long been Fleck's wont, as he has shifted from bluegrass to spacegrass to swing-grass to his current ear- bending, genre-bending country-fusion (which echoes hillbilly rock-jazz band the Dixie Dregs). The Flecktones are a daringly different quartet, balanced between Fleck's pointillist picking (on acoustic and electric banjos), Howard Levy's masterful harmonica and piano playing, and the foundation of pop 'n' slap bassist Lemonte Victor Wooten and electronic drummer ''Future Man.'' The campy slowpoke lope of the title tune has a '30s cabaret air. On other tunes, the Flecktones give an eccentric, waltzy spin to the Beatles' ''Michelle'' and gamely blend bluegrass with a samba rhythm on ''The Star-Spangled Banner.'' Sometimes, cuteness or overarranging sullies the material, and a strident rhythm section tramples on Fleck's lovely, fancy fingerwork on ''Hole in the Wall.'' All in all, though, the Flecktones are an anomaly you can't help but admire. B -Josef Woodard