FLECK, BELA

FLECK, BELA (1958–), U.S. banjo player, guitarist. The New York-born Fleck caught the banjo bug from hearing Homer and Jethro's theme for TV's The Beverly Hillbillies and acquired his first banjo at 15, although he was training as a French horn player at the High School of Music and Art. He spent his evenings playing with a bluegrass band, and it was in that musical genre that he first came to prominence as part of Newgrass Revival, a band that pioneered a fusion of bluegrass, jazz, rock, and country. In 1989 he joined with harmonica player/keyboardist Howard Levy, bassist Victor Lemonte Wooten, and "synth axe drumitar" player Roy "Futureman" Wooten to form the Flecktones, the band he continued to lead. The Flecktones, whose sound owes more to their leader's enthusiasm for Charlie Parker and John Coltrane than to Doc Watson and Bill Monroe, won numerous Grammy awards and made frequent national TV appearances. -BIBLIOGRAPHY: S. Hindin, "Bela Fleck," in Down Beat Magazine archives at: www.downbeat.com\>\> ; N. Torkington, "Interview with Bela, April 21, 1996," at: <http://prometheus.frii.com> . (George Robinson (2nd ed.)