Béla Fleck and the Flecktones is a primarily instrumental group that draws equally on Bluegrass has three principal meanings, the second two both deriving from the first listed. Bluegrass is a genus of grasses, Poa. Bluegrass music is a form of American roots music. The Bluegrass region is an area of Kentucky and Ohio states, USA. The Bluegrass was a named passenger train operated... bluegrass, Jazz fusion (sometimes referred to simply as fusion) is a musical genre that loosely encompasses the merging of jazz with other styles, particularly rock, funk, R&B, and world music. It basically involved jazz musicians mixing the forms and techniques of jazz with the electric instruments of rock, and... fusion and For other article subjects named Jazz see jazz (disambiguation). Jazz is a musical art form characterized by blue notes, syncopation, swing, call and response, polyrhythms, and improvisation. It has been called the first original art form to develop in the United States of America. Jazz has roots in West African... jazz band, sometimes dubbed "blue-bop." The band formed in 1988 is a leap year starting on a Friday of the Gregorian calendar. Events Environmental change Zebra mussels found in the Great lakes December 2 - Cyclone in Bangladesh leaves 5 million homeless - thousands dead December 7 - In Armenia an earthquake 6.9 on the Richter scale killed nearly 25.000... 1988, initially to perform once on the PBS re-directs here; for alternate uses see PBS (disambiguation) PBS logo The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is a non-profit public broadcasting television service with 349 member TV stations in the United States. PBS headquarters are in Alexandria, Virginia. PBS was founded in 1969, at which time it took... PBS series Lonesome Pine Specials. The Flecktones have toured extensively since then, often playing over 200 concerts per year.

Frontman Béla Fleck (born July 10, 1958 in New York City, New York) 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... Béla Fleck plays banjo, mixing a bluegrass and folk sound into a modern improvisational style. Fleck has received Grammy Award statuette The Grammy Awards, presented by the Recording Academy (an association of Americans professionally involved in the recorded music industry) for outstanding achievements in the recording industry, is one of four major music awards shows held annually in the United States (the Billboard Music Awards, the American Music... Grammy nominations for jazz, bluegrass, pop, spoken word and country.

Brothers Victor Lemonte Wooten (born September 11, 1964) is one of the most celebrated electric bass players of all time. The youngest of five brothers, his oldest brother Regi taught Victor to play bass at age three. The Wooten Brothers band (Regi, Rudy, Roy, Joseph and Victor) played for many years... Victor Wooten and Roy "Future Man" Wooten form the Rhythm section refers to the musicians whose primary jobs in a jazz or popular music band or ensemble is to establish the rhythm of a song or musical piece, often repeated riffs or ostinatos. It may also refer to the instruments of those musicians. In theory, any instrument or instruments... rhythm section. Victor Wooten is widely lauded in jazz circles for his sometimes hyperkinetic In music, the term slapping is often used to refer to two different though related playing techniques on the double bass and on the (electric) bass guitar. On double bass it refers to the technique that is a more vigorous version of pizzicato where the string is plucked so hard... slap and pop technique on Fender Precision Bass Bass Guitar is a commonly spoken phrase used to refer to the electric bass and horizontal acoustic basses, a stringed instrument similar in design to the electric guitar, but larger in size, commonly fretted and sometimes fretless and with a lower range. It is evolved from —... bass guitar. Future Man plays percussion using a drumitar, a Musical Instrument Digital Interface, or MIDI, is a system designed to transmit information between electronic musical instruments. The MIDI standard was published in August 1983. MIDI allows computers, synthesizers, sound cards and drum machines to control one another, and to exchange system information. Though modern computer sound-cards are MIDI... MIDI synthesizer shaped like a guitar.

Membership in The Flecktones is little changed since the band released its eponymous first album.

A harmonica is a free reed musical wind instrument (also known, among other things, as a mouth organ, french harp, simply harp, or Mississippi saxophone), having multiple, variably-tuned brass or bronze reeds, each secured at one end over an airway slot of like dimension into which it can freely... Harmonica and A keyboard instrument is a musical instrument played with a musical keyboard. Keyboard instruments can be wind instruments, string instruments, percussion instruments, or electronic instruments. The most popular keyboard instruments are probably the piano and the synthesizer. String keyboard instruments: Clavichord Harpsichord—may also be called a cembalo or... keyboards player Howard Levy is a harmonica player. In 1997, at the 39th Annual Grammy Awards he and the rest of Béla Fleck and the Flecktones won the award for Best Pop Instrumental Performance, for their 1996 song The Sinister Minister. He developed the overblow and overdraw techniques, in order to... Howard Levy appeared on the Flecktones' first three albums. After Levy's departure, Fleck and the Wooten Brothers regrouped on the album Three Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, the title a reference to the 1975 movie One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest - Wikipedia /**/ @import /skins/monobook/IE50Fixes.css; @import /skins/monobook/IE55Fixes.css; @import /skins/monobook/IE60Fixes.css; /**/ One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest From Wikipedia Film poster for One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest is... One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest based on Ken Kesey (September 17, 1935 – November 10, 2001) was an American author. Not very prolific throughout his life, he was probably best known as the author of One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest, and as a cultural icon who some consider a link between the beat generation of... Ken Kesey's novel. A saxophonist is a musician who plays the saxophone. The saxophone is perhaps most strongly associated with jazz, but was also featured promiently in early rock and roll and rhythm and blues, in ska, and is used in other musical styles as well. Famous or notable saxophonists include: Pepper Adams... Saxophonist Jeff Coffin joined the band beginning with the album Left Of Cool.

The band has won several Grammy Award statuette The Grammy Awards, presented by the Recording Academy (an association of Americans professionally involved in the recorded music industry) for outstanding achievements in the recording industry, is one of four major music awards shows held annually in the United States (the Billboard Music Awards, the American Music... Grammy awards.

Each of the current members of the quartet has released at least one solo album.

The band is on an amicable year-long hiatus throughout 2005. It is not yet certain what direction the band will take in 2006 and beyond. The individual members of the band tour frequently in other configurations.

Discography

• Béla Fleck and the Flecktones (album) (1990)
  • Grammy nomination, Instrumental Composition
• Flight of the Cosmic Hippo (1991)
  • No. 1, jazz charts
  • Grammy nomination, Instrumental Composition
• UFO TOFU (1992)
  • Grammy nomination, Best Instrumental
• Three Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1993)
• Live Art (1996)
  • Grammy winner, live album
  • Grammy winner, Best Pop Instrumental Performance for "The Sinister Minister" (track)
• Left of Cool (1998)
  • Grammy winner, Best Instrumental Composition for "Almost 12" (track)
• Greatest Hits of the 20th Century (1999)
• Outbound (2000)
  • Grammy winner, Best Contemporary Jazz Album
• Live at the Quick (2002)
• Little Worlds (2003)

External Links

• Official band web site (http://www.flecktones.com/)
• Victor Wooten's web site (http://www.victorwooten.com/)
• Future Man's web site, the "Roy-el experience" (http://www.evolutiondamour.com/)
• Howard Levy's web site (http://www.levyland.com/)
• Jeff Coffin's web site (http://www.jeffcoffin.com/)