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Béla Fleck (born July 10, 1958) is an American banjo player. He is most well known for his work with the band Béla Fleck and the Flecktones, which he has described as "a mixture of acoustic and electronic music with a lot of roots in folk and bluegrass as well as funk and jazz." [1]
Fleck 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, and within a few years began performing with travelling bands.[1],[2]
Before the Flecktones, Fleck played with Newgrass Revival and several other bluegrass bands. After a 1988 phone call with bassist Victor Wooten, Fleck and Wooten formed Béla Fleck and the Flecktones, rounded out with harmonica player Howard Levy and Wooten's percussionist brother Roy "Future Man" Wooten, who plays synthesizer-based percussion.
With the Flecktones, Fleck has been nominated for and won several Grammy awards. 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 including country, pop, jazz, bluegrass, classical, folk, and spoken word, as well as composition and arranging.
Fleck names Chick Corea, Charlie Parker, and the afore-mentioned Earl Scruggs as influences. He regards Scruggs as "certainly the best" banjo player of the three-finger style. [1]
Solo and with the Flecktones, Fleck has appeared at Telluride Festival, Montreal Jazz Festival, and Newport Folk Festival, among others.
Grammy Awards
- 1995
- Best Country Instrumental Performance, "Hightower" (single) by Asleep at the Wheel with Béla Fleck and Johnny Gimble
- 1996
- Best Pop Instrumental Performance, "The Sinister Minister" (track) by Béla Fleck and the Flecktones
- 1998
- Best Instrumental Composition, "Almost 12" (track) by Béla Fleck, Future Man, and Victor Lemonte Wooten
- 2000
- Best Country Instrumental Perfomance, 'Leaving Cottondale' (track) by Alison Brown and Béla Fleck
- Best Contemporary Jazz Album, Outbound by Béla Fleck and the Flecktones
- 2001
- Best Instrumental Arrangement, 'Claude Debussy "Doctor Gradus Ad Parnassum" from Children's Corner' Béla Fleck and Edgar Meyer (Béla Fleck with Joshua Bell and Gary Hoffmann).
- Best Classical Crossover Album, Perpetual Motion, with Béla Fleck, Edgar Meyer, and others
References
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