Name | Béla Fleck |
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Background | non_vocal_instrumentalist |
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Birth name | Béla Anton Leoš Fleck |
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Born | July 10, 1958New York City, New York, U.S. |
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Origin | Boston, Massachusetts, U.S. |
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Instrument | Banjo, guitar, dobro |
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Genre | Jazz, jazz fusion, Bluegrass, folk, classical, World music |
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Occupation | Musician, songwriter, composer, |
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Years active | 1976–present |
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Associated acts | Béla Fleck and the Flecktones, Trio!, Chick Corea, Strength in Numbers, New Grass Revival, Sparrow Quartet |
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Url | www.BelaFleck.com |
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Notable instruments | Deering Crossfire electric banjo with custom pickups and synthesizer pickup |
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Béla Anton Leoš Fleck (born July 10, 1958) is an American banjo player. Widely acknowledged as one of the world's most innovative and technically proficient banjo players, he is best known for his work with the bands New Grass Revival and Béla Fleck and the Flecktones.
Early life and career details
Fleck was born in
New York City,
New York, and is named after famous Hungarian composer
Béla Bartók, Austrian composer
Anton Webern, and Czech composer
Leoš Janáček. He 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). 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).
During the 1980s Fleck and Bush also performed live occasionally with Doc Watson and Merle Watson in various bluegrass festivals, most notably the annual Telluride Bluegrass Festival.
Béla Fleck and the Flecktones
.]]
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, He regards Scruggs as "certainly the best" banjo player of the three-finger style. Fleck and Corea toured together throughout 2007.
As a follow-up to the Fleck/Meyer double concerto mentioned above, the two were commissioned for a trio concerto, for which they teamed up with Indian tabla player Zakir Hussain. It debuted in Nashville in 2006 and was later recorded for a CD, The Melody of Rhythm. The trio subsequently toured together in 2009 and 2010.
In July 2007 at the Winnipeg Folk Festival, he appeared and jammed with Toumani Diabaté, a kora player from Mali. He is also scheduled to play the 2009 Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival with Toumani Diabaté.
Fleck has also played with Malian ngoni (ancestor of the banjo) player Cheick Hamala Diabate.
In December 2007, he performed charity concerts in Germany to help promote AIDS awareness. His largest concert was held in Grosse Halle Bern on December 1, 2007.
On June 13, 2008, he performed as part of The Bluegrass Allstars, composed of bluegrass heavyweights Sam Bush, 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 at the same festival.
In 2009, an independent film documentary of Fleck's visit to Uganda, Tanzania, The Gambia, and Mali, was released to limited run engagements in US cities. "Throw Down Your Heart" was directed by Sascha Paladino, Fleck's half brother. It was filmed during Fleck's year off from touring with the Flecktones.
Personal life
In August 2007 at Paladino's wedding, Fleck brought Abigail Washburn as his "girlfriend", both to play in a scratch band composed of wedding party members. In May 2009, the
Bluegrass Intelligencer satirized the upcoming "strategic marriage" of Washburn and Fleck, joking that the couple promise to have a "male heir" who will be the "Holy Banjo Emperor". In February 2010,
The Aspen Times reported that Washburn had become Fleck's wife in the previous year. In a July 2010 interview, Washburn said she first met her husband in Nashville at a square dance—she was dancing and he was playing.
Banjos played
Nechville Meteor Electric Banjo made by Nechville Musical Products
Nechville Nextar Banjo made by Nechville Musical Products
Deering Crossfire Banjo made by the Deering Banjo Company
Deering Tenbrooks Saratoga Star made by the Deering Banjo Company
Deering John Hartford banjo made by Deering Banjo Company
Gibson TB-75 Flathead banjo with reproduction five-string neck
Rickenbacker Banjo - Looks like a 360.
Discography
Grammy awards
1995
*Best Country Instrumental Performance, Hightower by Asleep at the Wheel with Béla Fleck and Johnny Gimble
1996
*Best Pop Instrumental Performance, The Sinister Minister by Béla Fleck And The Flecktones (with Sam Bush & Paul McCandless)
1998
*Best Instrumental Composition, Almost 12 by Béla Fleck And The Flecktones
2000
*Best Contemporary Jazz Album, Outbound by Béla Fleck And The Flecktones
*Best Country Instrumental Performance, Leaving Cottondale by Alison Brown and Béla Fleck
2001
*Best Instrumental Arrangement, Doctor Gradus Ad Parnassum from Children's Corner Suite (Debussy) by Béla Fleck and Edgar Meyer
*Best Classical Crossover Album, Perpetual Motion by Béla Fleck with Edgar Meyer, Joshua Bell, and others
2006
*Best Contemporary Jazz Album, The Hidden Land by Béla Fleck And The Flecktones
2009
*Best Pop Instrumental Album, Jingle All The Way by Béla Fleck And The Flecktones
2010
*Best Pop Instrumental Performance, Throw Down Your Heart by Béla Fleck
*Best Contemporary World Music Album, Throw Down Your Heart: Tales From The Acoustic Planet, Vol. 3 by Béla Fleck
Grammy nominations
Béla Fleck has been nominated in more categories than any other musician in Grammy history.
2009
*Best Contemporary World Music Album Throw Down Your Heart
*Best Pop Instrumental Performance Throw Down Your Heart
*Best Classical Crossover Album The Melody Of Rhythm
2008
*Pop Instrumental Album Jingle All The Way
*Country Instrumental Performance Sleigh Ride (from Jingle All The Way)
2006
*Pop Instrumental Subterfuge (from The Hidden Land)
2005
*Country Instrumental Who's Your Uncle (from Best Kept Secret by Jerry Douglas)
*Contemporary Jazz Album Soulgrass by Bill Evans
2002
*Country Instrumental Performance Bear Mountain Hop (from The Country Bears Soundtrack)
2000
*Pop Instrumental Zona Mona (from Outbound)
1999
*Bluegrass Bluegrass Sessions
1998
*Pop Instrumental Big Country (from Left Of Cool)
*Country Instrumental The Ride (from Restless On the Farm by Jerry Douglas)
1996
*World Music Tabula Rasa
1995
*Country Instrumental Cheeseballs In Cowtown (from )
1994
*Spoken Word For Children The Creation by Amy Grant
1992
*Jazz Instrumental Magic Fingers (from UFO Tofu)
1991
*Jazz Album Flight of the Cosmic Hippo
*Jazz Instrumental Blu-Bop
1990
*Jazz Album Bela Fleck & The Flecktones
*Jazz Instrumental
1989
*Country Instrumental Bigfoot (from Friday Night In America by New Grass Revival
1988
*Bluegrass album Drive
1987
*Country Instrumental Metric Lips (from Hold to a Dream by New Grass Revival)
1986
*Country Instrumental Seven By Seven (from New Grass Revival by New Grass Revival)
Further reading
Gray, Michael (1998). "Béla Fleck". In The Encyclopedia of Country Music. Paul Kingsbury, Editor. New York: Oxford University Press. pp. 174–5.
References
External links
BelaFleck.com - Bela Fleck Official website
Flecktones.com - Flecktones Official Website
Category:1958 births
Category:American bluegrass musicians
Category:American buskers
Category:American country banjoists
Category:Grammy Award winners
Category:Jazz banjoists
Category:Latin Grammy Award winners
Category:Living people
Category:Musicians from New York City
Category:New Grass Revival members