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Béla Fleck

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Béla Fleck

Béla Fleck (born July 10, 1958 in New York City, New York) is an American banjo player. He is best known for his work with the band Béla Fleck and the Flecktones, with bassist Victor Wooten, saxophonist Jeff Coffin, and percussionist Future Man.

Life and early career

Béla Anton Leoš Fleck, who is named after famous Hungarian composer Béla Bartók, Austrian composer Anton Webern, and Czech composer Leoš Janáček,[1] was drawn to the banjo when he first heard Earl Scruggs play the theme song for the television show Beverly Hillbillies. He received his first banjo at age fifteen from his grandfather (1973).[2][3] He was a member of the class of 1976 at P.S. 75 (the Emily Dickinson School) in Manhattan. Later, Fleck enrolled in New York City's High School of Music and Art where he studied the French horn. He was a banjo student under Tony Trischka.

Almost immediately after high school, Fleck traveled to Boston to play with Jack Tottle, Pat Enright, and Mark Schatz in Tasty Licks. During this period, Fleck released his first solo album (1979): Crossing the Tracks and made his first foray into progressive bluegrass composition.

Fleck played on the streets of Boston with bassist Mark Schatz; and the two, along with guitarist/vocalist Glen Lawson and mandolin great Jimmy Gaudreau, formed Spectrum: the Band in 1981. Fleck toured with Spectrum during 1981. That same year, Sam Bush asked Fleck to join New Grass Revival. Fleck performed with New Grass Revival for nine years. During this time, Fleck recorded another solo album, Drive. It was nominated for a Grammy Award in the then first-time category of "Best Bluegrass Album" (1988).

Béla Fleck and the Flecktones

Fleck (right) with Victor Wooten.

Béla Fleck and Victor Wooten formed Béla Fleck and the Flecktones in 1988, along with keyboardist and harmonica player Howard Levy and Wooten's percussionist brother Roy "Future Man" Wooten, who played synthesizer-based percussion. Levy left the group in 1992, making the band a trio until Saxophonist Jeff Coffin joined the group onstage part-time in 1997, eventually becoming a permanent member. His first studio recording with the band was their 1998 album Left of Cool. In 1996, he appeared on the tribute album to Hank Marvin, one of his influences, and The Shadows "Twang" playing a Shadows UK hit from the 1960s, "The Stranger".

With the Flecktones, Fleck has been nominated for and won several Grammy awards. (Cf. Grammy sections below.)

Other music and recordings

Fleck has shared Grammy wins with Asleep at the Wheel, Alison Brown, and Edgar Meyer. He has been nominated in more categories than any other musician,[1] namely country, pop, jazz, bluegrass, classical, folk, spoken word, composition, and arranging.

Béla Fleck at Massey Hall, Toronto, ON

In 2001, Fleck collaborated with long-time friend and playing-partner Edgar Meyer to record Perpetual Motion, an album of classical material played on the banjo along with an assortment of accompanists, including John Williams, Evelyn Glennie, Joshua Bell and Gary Hoffman. The album includes selections such as Chopin's Etude Op. 10 No. 4 in C# minor, Debussy's Doctor Gradus ad Parnassum, and Paganini's Moto Perpetuo (from which is derived the name), as well as more lyrical pieces such as the first movement of Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata, two of Chopin's mazurkas, and two Scarlatti keyboard sonatas. Perpetual Motion won two Grammys at the Grammy Awards of 2002 for Best Classical Crossover Album and Best Arrangement for Fleck and Meyer's arrangement of Doctor Gradus ad Parnassum. Fleck and Meyer have also composed a double concerto for banjo and bass, and performed its debut with the Nashville Symphony Orchestra.[1]

Fleck names Chick Corea, Charlie Parker, and the aforementioned Earl Scruggs as influences.[citation needed] He regards Scruggs as "certainly the best" banjo player of the three-finger style.[2]

Solo and with the Flecktones, Fleck has appeared at Telluride Bluegrass Festival, Merlefest, Montreal International Jazz Festival, Toronto Jazz Festival, Newport Folk Festival, Austin City Limits Music Festival, Bonnaroo, and Jazzfest, among others.

He has also appeared as a sideman with artists ranging from Tony Rice to Ginger Baker and Phish.

In 2005, while the Flecktones were on hiatus, Fleck undertook several new projects: recording with African traditional musicians; cowriting a documentary film called Bring it Home about the Flecktones' first year off in 17 years and their reunion after that time; coproducing Song of the Traveling Daughter, the debut album by Abigail Washburn (a young banjo player who mixes bluegrass and Chinese music); forming the acoustic fusion supergroup Trio! with fellows Jean-Luc Ponty and Stanley Clarke, and recording an album as a member of the Sparrow Quartet (along with Abigail Washburn, Ben Sollee, and Casey Driessen).

Fleck performs with Chick Corea, March 1, 2008

In late 2006, Fleck teamed up with Chick Corea to record an album, The Enchantment, released in May 2007 [4]. Fleck and Corea toured together throughout 2007.

In July 2007 at the Winnipeg Folk Festival, he appeared and jammed with Toumani Diabaté, a kora player from Mali.

In December 2007, he performed charity concerts in Germany to help promote AIDS awareness. His largest concert was held in Grosse Halle Bern on 1 December 2007.

On June 13, 2008, he performed as part of The Bluegrass Allstars, composed of bluegrass heavyweights Luke Bulla, Edgar Meyer, Bryan Sutton, and Jerry Douglas at the Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival in Manchester, Tennessee.

The next day Fleck performed with Abigail Washburn and the Sparrow Quartet also at the Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival.

Banjos played

[citation needed]

Discography

Solo/with multiple other musicians

As part of a musical group

Tasty Licks

  • Tasty Licks (Rounder Records, 1978)
  • Anchored to the Shore (Rounder Records, 1979)

Spectrum

  • Opening Roll (Rounder Records, 1981)
  • Too Hot For Words (Rounder Records, 1982)
  • Live in Japan (Rounder Records, 1983)

The New Grass Revival

Béla Fleck and the Flecktones

The Sparrow Quartet with Abigail Washburn, Casey Driessen, and Ben Sollee

One-off collaborations

As a guest musician

Grammy awards

Grammy nomination

  • 1988
  • 1992
  • 1994
    • Best Spoken Word for Children, "The Creation", by Amy Grant with Béla Fleck
  • 1995
    • Best Country Instrumental, "Cheeseballs in Cowtown", by Béla Fleck
  • 1996
    • Best World Music Album, "Tabula Rasa", by Béla Fleck et al
  • 1998
    • Best Country Instrumental, "The Ride", by Jerry Douglas with Béla Fleck
  • 1999
    • Best Bluegrass Album, "Tales from the Acoustic Planet: Volume 2: the Bluegrass Sessions", by Béla Fleck
  • 2002
    • Best Country Instrumental Performance, "Bear Mountain Hop", from The Country Bears Soundtrack (with Béla Fleck)

Notes and references

  1. ^ a b c Béla Fleck, Official Biography
  2. ^ a b PBS Interview with Béla Fleck
  3. ^ Interview with Béla, 21 April 1996
  4. ^ Levine, Doug (24 April 2007). "Chick Corea, Bela Fleck Collaborate On New CD". VOA News. Voice of America. Retrieved 1 January 2009. {{cite news}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
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