Eking out a living on little more than the euphoria of playing at high volumes for mainly club audiences, Disengage is a touring band in the truest sense of the term. Unwilling to let a barren mainstream landscape foil its quest attracts more listeners via the Internet than across FM airwaves or music television, and continue to blaze a path from their home base of Cleveland through the Midwest and beyond.

The second of a two-part series on Béla Fleck and the Flecktones, eP's Eric J. Iannalli continues to examine the issues facing the jazz scene as it exists today. Pulling aside Futureman and Jeff Coffin after their May 8 set at Fabrik in Hamburg, Germany, the two Flecktones share their thoughts on the newest generation of jazz musicians, the dynamic push and pull of market forces, and where the genre is headed.