remembrance — Chick Corea & Béla Fleck

2024

Label: Thirty Tigers

Remembrance, a new double album released May 10, 2024, serves as a moving final document of the profound creative and personal rapport that banjoist Béla Fleck and pianist Chick Corea first showcased at album length with 2007’s Latin Grammy-winning The Enchantment. It’s also a crucial addendum to Corea’s legacy, featuring three previously unreleased Corea compositions as well as five short free improvisations, or impromptus, that Fleck has infused with written music.  “We pushed this duo to a new place before we ran out of time,” says Fleck, who produced Remembrance. “We have here another cool look at Chick Corea, at the different ways that he can play that we wouldn’t have had. There’s a lot of great Chick Corea out there, and this is different.”

Rhapsody in blue — Béla Fleck

2024

Label: Thirty Tigers

The latest project from banjo great Béla Fleck expands and explores George Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue by paying homage to the legendary composer while redefining an American classic—just in time for its centennial.  Released February 12, a hundred years to the day Gershwin premiered the work at Aeolian Hall in New York City, Fleck’s Rhapsody in Blue album includes three variations:  “Rhapsody in Blue(grass),” “Rhapsody in Blue(s),” and the classic orchestration, but with banjo featured instead of piano, performed by the Virginia Symphony Orchestra and conducted by Eric Jacobson.  The set also features Gershwin’s “Rialto Ripples” and “Unidentified Piece for Banjo,” an unrecorded and unreleased gem discovered at the Library of Congress.

2x Grammy-winning: As we speak — Béla Fleck, Zakir Hussain, Edgar Meyer, feat. Rakesh Chaurasia

2023

Label: Thirty Tigers

As We Speak is my second recording with collaborators Zakir Hussain (tabla) and Edgar Meyer (bass). This time we are joined by Rakesh Churasia on bamboo flutes. Recorded in the fall before the pandemic, we toured and developed this set of new music before recording it. It's an unusual blend, distilled from our diverse backgrounds and personalities.

Grammy Award winner: My Bluegrass Heart — Béla Fleck

2021

Label: Renew Records / BMG

I think of this project as the third chapter in a trilogy which began with 1988’s Drive, and continued with Bluegrass Sessions in 1999.

These two albums featured a core band that included Sam Bush, Tony Rice, Jerry Douglas, Stuart Duncan, and Mark Schatz.

As the years since Bluegrass Sessions began to pile on top of each other and grow into decades, I began to amass compositions that were consciously and unconsciously designed for that band. Tony Rice became less available due to his health issues, I began to wonder if that chapter of my bluegrass life had now closed. If I may be selfish for a moment here, this left me in a bit of a pickle. You see, Tony Rice was the only guitarist I had met who could make it possible for me to play bluegrass in the way I wanted to.

Time passed and other interesting changes had been happening on our bluegrass scene. A whole slew of new players had emerged, highly influenced by the movement that John Hartford, Sam Bush, Tony Rice, David Grisman, Jerry Douglas, Tony Trischka, Bill Keith, and so many other great players had pioneered. There were a whole lot more amazing cats of all ages that I never remember there being, in all my years of bluegrass awareness.

And it was towards the end of 2019 that I started getting that itch. Partly it was spurred on by a health issue that had emerged with our baby boy, Theo. He had a very close call, life and death, really...and I didn’t want to be going anywhere on the road. For some reason, when I should have been recovering from the trauma of all of that, I suddenly really wanted to make a bluegrass recording. I can’t explain it. Perhaps it was an escape, or maybe I just wanted some control and to touch base with my emotional center; to make some honest music surrounded by musical friends, record it at home, and not go anywhere. And I had all these tunes that I was afraid I would forget about, or I’d die, or whatever, and they would be lost. They were burning a hole in my pocket, as they say.

So now...how was I gonna do this with no Tony Rice? Maybe it was time to embrace the present, and get more familiar with some of the bright new lights in our bluegrass galaxy.

And so I did. I set up a “jam/rehearsals” with some of my favorites whom I’d never really gotten to play much with—Paul Kowert, Michael Cleveland, Dominick Leslie, and Cody Kilby…those led to Billy Strings, Royal Masat, Billy Contreras, Andy Leftwich, Sierra Hull, Molly Tuttle, and beyond.

Pretty soon I started to see this project as an exploration of the current bluegrass world, and a gathering of a certain segment of the tribe. I must say that there are many fantastic players who I love that I just couldn’t include this time, for space considerations.

But legacy artists and up-and-comers alike, My Bluegrass Heart encompasses Bluegrass in its core — the inter-generational passing down of music tradition.

The Ripple Effect — Béla Fleck & Toumani Diabaté

2020

Label: Craft Recordings

While in Bamako, Mali on my trip to Africa, I was in search of the great kora legend, Toumani Diabaté. He was one of few people who was not available while I was there recording Throw Down You Heart. He did overdub on a couple of tracks after the fact, so that he could be a part of the album, but we had not had the chance to really play together.

A very promising musical rapport finally began for us at the Winnipeg Folk Festival. When I saw that Toumani was also on the bill, I asked the promoter to see if he would consider doing a workshop together. I was very excited when he agreed to do it. Once we began to play, a great potential as a duo immediately revealed itself. His incredible soloing ability was offset by astonishing supportive abilities, and an overall elegance that blew me away. Toumani certainly made me feel very comfortable, and it felt like we truly inspired each other.

After Throw Down Your Heart was released, we began touring together, doing quite a few performances — which gave our duo the time it needed to develop and reach towards its potential, and in my opinion we certainly got there! Fortunately the tour was recorded beautifully by my long time touring sound-man, Richard Battaglia. The show that was selected for release was recorded on Toumani’s birthday in Seattle.

As we celebrate the 10th anniversary of the Throw Down Your Heart project, the perfect moment has come to put that music into the world. I hope you enjoy this musical adventure — I certainly did.

Throw Down Your Heart: Complete Africa Sessions — Béla Fleck & Various

2020

Label: Craft Recordings

A magical journey of musical and cultural discovery, Throw Down Your Heart began as my personal investigation into the African origins of the banjo. For many years I had been curious about Africa and African music. I knew that my beloved instrument had originally come from West Africa. And from time to time I found tantalizing tidbits of African acoustic music that gave me the confidence to know that there was a phenomenal amount of incredible stuff going on under the radar.

As we celebrate the 10th anniversary of the Throw Down Your Heart project, it seems the perfect moment for this music to be heard once more.

I am thrilled to be able to present the entire Throw Down Your Heart collection in one place for the first time, the two albums, the documentary film, an hour of extra footage, a version of the film with director Sascha Paladino’s and my commentary, and a brand new album of duets with Malian kora player Toumani Diabaté, The Ripple Effect – Throw Down Your Heart, Part 3.

Echo in the Valley — Béla Fleck & Abigail Washburn

2017

Label: Rounder Records

Our previous album was made just after our son Juno arrived. An insightful thinker would suggest that folks should not attempt to make an album just after birthing a child! Somehow that one worked out, but we always felt like the duo could go even further if we had the time to write more together, rather than relying on things we had previously written separately, or traditional material. On Echo in the Valley, we explored being co-songwriters, and we covered many of the things that seemed important to us. May you live in interesting times, my grandfather used to say, and boy were these times ever interesting! Between the environment, politics and child rearing, we had a lot to write about. We also explored new banjo combinations, keeping the original ground rules that everything we came up with should be playable live by the two of us.

Juno Concerto

2017

With The Colorado Symphony featuring Brooklyn Rider, concerto conducted by Jose Luis Gomez
Label: Rounder Records

In 2015 I was commissioned to write a second Banjo Concerto by Canton, Colorado and South Carolina Symphonies, in partnership. I was curious to see what I might have learned from the many performances (well over 50 at that point) of The Impostor banjo concerto. At this point performing with a symphony had become a normal part of my musical life, and I thought I might be able to write a piece that incorporated my orchestra immersion therapy. Also it was great to have a project that I didn’t have to travel for, at least during the composing portion of things. So I wrote much of this at night and in spare moments, and it didn’t take me away from my family.

For this album I also was able to record some new pieces with my dear friends, the amazing Brooklyn Rider, a modern string quartet who I had written and toured with quite a bit on the Impostor album.

Two (Live) — Chick Corea & Béla Fleck

2015

Label: Stretch Records

In the years after recording the Enchantment together, we had been touring almost every year, and the shows were always nicely recorded. At a certain point we felt that we  had evolved considerably at this material, and I did an exploration of the live tracks, finding a lot of expanded and inspired versions of the Enchantment tunes as well some new things we had added to the set. Ten tracks fit on the one Enchantment Cd, but Two took two CDs to play 10 tracks - even with much of the same material, because we had totally  inhabited and fleshed out the nooks and crannies of that music after years of playing it. The Enchantment, which I still love, was recorded in 4 days, and we had barely played together at that point. ‘Two’ shows the duo at a much more advanced state.

Béla Fleck & Abigail Washburn

2014

Label: Rounder Records

My love, wife and partner Abigail and I had talked about performing together seriously some day -  ever since the day her grandmother announced that we were performing at her church. When Grandma June told you what was going to happen, there was no choice involved, you just did it. So we threw together a show at the last minute. We discovered to our surprise that we had a great chemistry on stage, and that two banjos and her voice were more than enough to satisfy an audience. We kept putting it off performing as a duo, partly because Abby wanted to establish her own identity more before performing with me, since I was pretty well known in the scene and she was a newer face. When we decided to have a child, it seemed like the perfect time, since we didn’t want to be apart all the time raising a kid. So we took our family on the road. We made the album in our basement, about 6 months into parenthood. We wouldn’t advise that timing, FYI. We still don’t know how we managed to pull it off. And amazingly - it won a Grammy for best folk album!

The Imposter

2013

With the Nashville Symphony & Brooklyn Rider, concerto conducted by Giancarlo Guerrero
Label: Mercury Classics

Nashville Symphony gave me the opportunity and a good motivating push to do it by commissioning me to write the piece.

After writing a couple of these pieces with my genius pal Edgar Meyer, and one with he and Zakir Hussain(also a genius), it was time to see if I had anything musical to say without them, in this arena. Fortunately the folks at Deutche Grammophone thought I did, and put the record out. It’s released on August 13th, 2013. There’s an elephant on the cover of the cd, so if you are looking for banjo concertos and you want to get mine, look for the elephant.

After writing two concertos with Edgar Meyer (one in tandem with Zakir Hussain) I was starting to want some room to try out some of my own ideas, and also wondering if I had the stuff to create something like this on my own. I mentioned the idea of writing a stand alone banjo concerto to Alan and Giancarlo from Nashville Symphony, and got a terrifying response. They actually wanted me to do it! This is the most musically ambitious project I’ve ever taken on, writing and orchestrating for full orchestra and banjo. I dedicated myself to the task, and wrote the 36 minute long Impostor Concerto over a 6 month period. Now I needed to complete the album with something else. I decided to write a piece for string quartet and banjo for the great quartet Brooklyn Rider, called Night Flight Over Water; these two extended pieces make up the Impostor CD. The Impostor Concerto was commissioned by the Nashville Symphony, and Night Flight was commissioned by Butler University. I am thrilled that the premiere classical label Deutche Grammophon wanted to release this. There is a documentary about the writing and premiering of the concerto coming out soon.

Across the Imaginary Divide — Béla Fleck & The Marcus Roberts Trio

2012

Béla Fleck, Marcus Roberts, Rodney Jordan, Jason Marsalis
Label: Rounder Records

I first heard Marcus playing piano in Wynton Marsalis’s amazing band in the mid 1980’s. Marcus totally blew my mind. I never expected he’d have any interest in playing with the likes of me, but at a jam session in Savanah, Rob Gibson introduced us, we jammed, and quickly became very excited about the idea of collaborating. The album was recorded in Tallahassee, Florida with Marcus and his amazing trio, and it led to a widespread US tour. I remain Marcus’s biggest fan.

Rocket Science — Béla Fleck & The Flecktones

2011

Béla Fleck, Howard Levy, Victor Wooten, FutureMan
Label: E1 Records

Victor, Future Man and I were getting the urge to Flecktone once again, after a couple of years where we had only played together over the holidays, for the Jingle All The Way tours. But Jeff Coffin had taken a full time job playing with Dave Mathews Band, which we fully supported. We just weren’t working enough to keep him from a great opportunity like that. So how would we do the Flecktones now? We asked Howard Levy if he’d consider coming back, and he was eager to do so. We didn’t want to be an oldies band, so we made a new album and spent nearly a year back together doing full-time touring, playing the music from our first 3 albums with Howard, and this new one. What a great year it was!

Throw Down Your Heart: Africa Sessions, Part 2

2010

Label: Self-Released

I had decided against making Throw Down Your Heart into a double album, because I didn’t want that to be the impediment that stopped people who were on the fence from buying the CD. Folks really have to be sure if they are going to buy a double album! So what was I going to do with the incredible tracks that didn’t make the cut? I thought I’d better do something with them while people still were thinking about the first album, so I self released a 2nd album with all the stuff that I’d felt so bad about not including. Honestly these tracks are just as good. I had to pick between 2 great tracks from some of the artists, and some people hadn’t even made the first album, and I regretted it. Imagine my surprise when TDYH Part 2 won a Grammy for Best World Music Album, just like the first one one did!

Tales From The Acoustic Planet Vol 3, Throw Down Your Heart: Africa Sessions

2009

Featuring Oumou Sangare, Toumani Diabate, Vusi Mahlesela, Anania Ngoliga, Bassekou Kouate, D’Gary, and Many More
Label: Rounder Records

In 2005 the Flecktones had decided to take a year off, for the first time since we had started full time touring in 1990. I was thinking about projects that I’d want to do that I didn’t have time to do properly in a typical Flecktone year. I had long dreamed about the idea of going to Africa, where the banjo originally came from, and connecting with the acoustic musicians that I knew were there. It wasn’t til I heard Oumou Sangare’s music wafting from the back of the Flecktones bus one night after a show that the idea took hold in a serious way. I went to the back to investigate the remarkable sounds that Jeff Coffin was playing on his computer, and I fell in love. Not with Jeff, with Oumou! Now I had heard African acoustic music that I could relate to, and imagine myself within, I started thinking seriously about making a trip there on our off year. Folks at Sony got excited about the idea, and insisted that I film it. So I asked my brother Sascha if he’d want to direct a film over there, and he was way into it. We locked in a couple of great engineers (doc sound, and music recording) a great cinematographer and found field producers in each country. The trip was on! Two months before the trip, Sony backed out. Tickets were already bought, everyone was holding the time – it was too late to turn back now. I had to fund the very expensive trip myself. Another side story – a friend of mine had taken on the IRS in a massive battle. I had been subpoenaed as a material witness for the prosecution! And the court date had now been set up for when I was supposed to be in Africa! Lawyers advised me to cancel my trip, as I would become a law breaker if I didn’t show up – and they might lock me up when I came back into the country. I decided to roll the dice and go. At the last minute the trial was postponed and I didn’t go to jail. And neither did my friend. So everything worked out great. We went to Mali, The Gambia, Uganda and Tanzania, and had amazing musical adventures – which we caught on film and audio tape. It became Throw Down Your Heart. I decided that if this wasn’t a Tale from the Acoustic Planet, nothing was! So it also became became Tales From The Acoustic Planet, vol 3.

Jingle All The Way — Béla Fleck & The Flecktones

2008

Béla Fleck, Jeff Coffin, Victor Wooten, FutureMan featuring Edgar Meyer, Andy Statman and The Alash Ensemble
Label: Rounder Records

This album was on the bucket list for the Flecktones. We’d started doing Xmas medleys way back in 1989, on our first real tour, before New Grass Revival even disbanded. We thought that making a holiday recording could be a very creative endeavor, and didn’t have to be smarmy, tacky or cheap. It was pretty weird practicing these songs at sound checks in the heat of July. Our road crew nearly mutinied while we attempted to learn to play our Christmas medley, in which we experimented with the idea of playing multiple tunes simultaneously as counterpoint. It took a lot of time and repetition to figure out how to make them all work together – which just sounded to the crew like we were just playing these tunes over and over and over and over. In the end we figured out how to lay 5 or 6 of these tunes on top of each other, which we were excited about. The crew was excited when we stopped. I found a lovely Bach Christmas Cantata, which gave us the excuse to invite Edgar to play one of the lines with us, and play on another couple of tunes as well. Around this time we were contacted by a band of Tuvan ThroatSingers, The Alash Group. They were all highly influenced by our friend Kongar-ol Ondar, who appeared on Live at the Quick and Outbound. They were coming through Nashville and wanted to meet the Flecktones, as they were big fans of Live at the Quick DVD. After listening to their recording, and knowing how much the guys were into throat singing (Jeff, Futch and Vic had all learned the rudiments and could even do it, somewhat) I suggested that we add them in, as an unusual element for our holiday album. The other odd duck guest was Andy Statman, one of the giants of klezmer music and modern bluegrass. I knew him from when he played a lot with my teacher Tony Trischka, and I was looking for ways to play with this musical iconoclast. So he played mandolin and clarinet on a couple of tunes as well. A piece on the album that we worked very hard on was The 12 days of Christmas. We came up with the idea of playing in all 12 keys and 12 time signatures. This was fairly tough to figure out how to do, but eventually the piece surrendered to us and it really came together well. We’ve been told that this is a Christmas album for people that hate Christmas albums.

Abigail Washburn & The Sparrow Quartet

2008

Béla Fleck, Casey Driessen, Ben Sollee, Abigail Washburn
Label: Nettwerk Records

The jury was in, and our unholy combo of instruments was actually endearing; the Sparrow Quartet EP had been well loved, and we all loved playing and hanging out together. We decided to go for it, to make a real record and go out on tour with it. This was no longer a side project but now a full on band, and we took our time to make the record we wanted to make (in my basement). A lot of creativity and invention went into the creation of this one. I love it.

The Enchantment — Chick Corea & Béla Fleck

2007

Featuring Jeff Coffin, Edgar Meyer, Andy Statman, Victor Wooten, FutureMan, and The Alash Ensemble
Label: Concord LG

I was standing around backstage at the Newport Jazz Festival, where I was playing with Stanley Clarke and Jean Luc Ponty, when Ted Kurland walked up to chat. He mentioned that next year, my hero Chick Corea was looking to tour in a duo format, and I was on the list of possible collaborators. That was an exciting conversation, and I was thrilled at the idea of spending that kind of time making music with Chick. We started sending music to each other on line, and finally met to record in LA at Mad Hatter. We ran through a few things on the night before the session at the hotel, and that was the whole rehearsal. The album was recorded in just a few days, and immediately mixed. This was the first time since Drive that I had made an album so fast and with so little rehearsal. And it turned out great. Then we went out on tour, and did a lot of live dates where we got deeper into the music – and the spontaneity that is possible in an intimate setting like this. We’ll be doing some select dates in 2014. And we intend to release a live album in the not too distant future. This album won a Latin Grammy.

The Sparrow Quartet (EP) — Abigail Washburn & The Sparrow Quartet

2006

Béla Fleck, Casey Driessen, Ben Sollee, Abigail Washburn
Label: Nettwerk Records

This project came out of a trip to China I took with my girlfriend at the time (now we are married) Abigail Washburn. She invited three musicians to China to play with her, Ben Sollee, Casey Driessen and myself. We knew it would be a weird line-up for a band, but since we were in China perhaps noone would notice! And really we were there to experience China, and have fun together, not to start a band. But when we got there and started playing, we realized that the bizarre string quartet combo of cello, violin and two banjos was actually a viable offering. We recorded this EP just for the heck of it, to show what it sounded like, and to see what people thought about it.

The Hidden Land — Béla Fleck & The Flecktones

2006

Béla Fleck, Howard Levy, Victor Wooten, FutureMan
Label: Sony

It felt like it was time to go back to just the four of us again, after our ‘community’ records, with lots of guests (Little Worlds and Outbound). We went back to the roots for a final album of stripped down original music with Jeff Coffin in the line-up.

Music for Two (Live) — Béla Fleck & Edgar Meyers

2004

Label: Sony

Edgar and I decided it was time to play together some more, and this time as a duo. My little brother Sascha got tapped to road manager the tour, and he agreed only on the condition that he be allowed to film a documentary about us, and not a puff piece, either. In fact he promised to make us look bad. We needed him so bad as road manager that we accepted his terms. For anyone who picked this CD up, hidden under the CD was Sascha’s film Obstinato, which is absolutely great and delivers on his promise to make us look bad. The first time I saw it, I was scowling watching it until I realized everyone else watching was laughing uproariously. Oh – it’s a comedy!

Little Worlds – Béla Fleck & The Flecktones

2003

Béla Fleck, Howard Levy, Victor Wooten, FutureMan featuring The Chieftains, Bobby McFerrin and Others
Label: Sony

We started recorded stuff for this and before we knew it we had way more than we needed for an album. Sony folks came down from New York to give it a listen and said – ‘hey why don’t you put it all out?’ I wasn’t expecting this response from a label, especially with what was starting to happen to record sales, so I said yes before they could change their mind! But if it was going to be triple album, maybe we should invite some friends in, to make it more diverse. That led to a lot of new and old friends taking part in what became more of a community release. Bobby McFerrin, The Chieftians and Derek Trucks, are a few of our new friends. We did put out the triple CD, but just to play it safe, also put out the single 10 from Little Worlds, which was the only one that lots of stores ordered. I imagine the triple CD is a bit of a collector’s item at this point. One other fun item was the manufactured comedy conversation that we assembled between Yankee’s center fielder Bernie Williams, and David St Hubbins (actually Micheal McKean) from Spinal Tap. They are driving around flipping the stations, and hear all this different crappy music before they find the opening track of the recording. All the bands you hear as they flip around the stations are us,and we’re playing altered and dumb versions of the songs on the record – as a heavy metal band, a country band, a madrigal vocal group, etc. We thought we were being really cagy and smart by making an introduction that could only be found by starting the first track and then holding the rewind tab on the CD player til it got to the beginning of the intro. It was called a hidden track; these were popular at the time. Now I think it was really stupid because nobody every heard the darn thing and it was a lot of fun to make. I have only a few regrets about the records I have made, and this is one of them. We should have started the record with this, loud and proud.

Live at the Quick — Béla Fleck & The Flecktones

2002

Béla Fleck, Howard Levy, Victor Wooten, FutureMan featuring Paul McCandless, Paul Hansen, Sandip Burman, Andy Narell, and Kongar-ol
Label: Columbia

The idea that we should make a live DVD came about through the support of an old friend of mine from New Grass days, Joanne Gardner. She was now the head of video for Sony Records. Without Joanne, this project would never happened, and certainly not on the level that it did. DVDs were starting to move more than CDs now, which were stalling. Honestly the Outbound CD sales had been kind of disappointing after all the hoopla about signing to Sony. This project appealed to me because it was a way for us to bring more attention to that music, which really hadn’t been that widely heard. So we did the Live at The Quick DVD at the Quick Center in Fairfield, Ct with our instrumental guests and Kongar-ol Ondar from the Outbound CD. We called it the Flecktone Big Band, and had 9 people on stage. Marc Smerling directed, and he did a great job. The DVD did very well internationally, and a live album culled from this performances did nearly as well as Outbound. So in the end, that music got it’s due and made it out into the world quite well.

Perpetual Motion

2001

Featuring Joshua Bell, Evelyn Glennie, John Williams, Edgar Meyer, Gary Hoffman, and Chris Thile
Label: Sony Classical

This CD was my chance to learn and perform true classical pieces on the banjo. Pieces by Bach, Chopin, Beethoven, Debussy, Scarlatti and Paganini were included. Edgar helped me with the production and the arrangements. And I was able to play with some of the top classical musicians on the scene, partly due to Edgar’s involvement. This was one of those projects that did not come easy for me. I had to fight for it. These pieces can all be played on the banjo, but they use every bit of the banjo’s range, and I had to come up with specific new techniques to deal with trills, and other ornaments. In the end it was well worth the time spent, and this album made a lot of noise, even winning a couple of grammies in the classical field.

Outbound — Béla Fleck & The Flecktones

2000

Béla Fleck, Jeff Coffin, Victor Wooten, FutureMan featuring Joshua Bell, Evelyn Glennie, John Williams, Edgar Meyer, Gary Hoffman, and Chris Thile
Label: Columbia

What a difference a year makes. We had moved to Sony Records, after a bidding war between three major labels. Sony had the bonus aspect of being a place where I could record on the classical side for Peter Gelb, who worked with Edgar. At this time Branford Marsalis was heading up the Jazz side, and we also had the commitment for some pop marketing for the Flecktones, so it seemed like a pretty good fit all the way around. We decided that more is more, and we added a pile of special guests to the line up for this album. They included Paul McCandless, Paul Hansen, Dave Mathews, John Anderson from Yes, throat singer Kongar-ol Ondar, Sandip Burman on tablas and Andy Narel on Steel Pans. Future Man sang a couple of vocals on this album, and we were getting better at that, I believe. But vocals were just a piece of the puzzle, not the center of what we were about.

Greatest Hits of the 20th Century — Béla Fleck and the Flecktones

1999

Béla Fleck, Jeff Coffin, Victor Wooten, FutureMan
Label: Warner Brothers

Record Labels like selling the same music over and over if they can, so they put reissue options into the contracts. The artist tries to put it off as long as possible, and then try to make sure that when it does happen, he likes the way it’s done. Warners allowed us to choose the tracks for the best of. I liked the title Greatest Hits of the 20th Century, because we never have had a single actual hit. So it was supposed to be a joke title, but nobody ever got it. We did take a pair of unfinished tracks and complete them so there could be some fresh material on here as well, for anyone who didn’t realize they were buying previously released tracks. Mostly the album contained the essential tunes that everyone wanted to hear from us, except for the two new tracks, which really had no place on a ‘best of album’. Jim McGuire’s album cover shot is great.

Tales from the Acoustic Planet Vol 2, The Bluegrass Sessions

1999

Featuring Earl Scruggs, Vassar Clements, John Hartford, Sam Bush, Tony Rice, Jerry Douglas, Mark Schatz, and Stuart Duncan
Label: Warner Brothers

It had been over 10 years since the making of the Drive album, and by now it was a very highly regarded album. Every time I saw Tony Rice he’d say in that scratchy voice of his – “Hey man, when are we making ‘Drive Two’?” I wasn’t into calling it Drive Two, but I was sure into playing that kind of music again with those guys. Warners was dubious about a bluegrass recording, but I convinced them it would be something awesome, and they let me have my head. I pointed out that bluegrass was really coming on strong these days. And in fact it was proving to be a very vital form, with a place in the modern world. And this was not going to be your grampa’s bluegrass. I wanted to write some new music that would bring some different ideas to bluegrass, and take advantage of my experiences outside of the music over the last decade, to inform a new perspective. I was very aware that the movers and shakers in jazz were all influenced by music outside of it, and whenever there was a big shift, it was because outside influences had enriched the form. Charlie Parker and John Coltrane are two great examples of people bringing ideas from outside that changed the flow of the mainstream. I liked the idea that I should not be afraid or ashamed of all my time away from Bluegrass, but should find a way to use the time away to grow fresh ideas. So I wrote with all of this in mind. When we recorded this album, in my home in Belview,Tn, we were lucky enough to have Earl Scruggs, John Hartford and Vassar Clements join the core band of Tony Rice, Sam Bush, Jerry Douglas, Mark Schatz and Stuart Duncan. There is a great Austin City Limits TV special which features everyone but Tony, who wasn’t available for the tour. We substituted the very capable Bryan Sutton and did a ton of wonderful live shows, in which we played everyone’s music, but with a focus on the album.

The Melody of Rhythm — Béla Fleck, Zakir Hussain, Edgar Meyer

1998

With Detroit Symphony Leonard Slatkin conducting, Co-produced with Steve Epstein, Zakir Hussain and Edgar Meyer
Label: E1 Records

Edgar and I enlisted Zakir to help us write a triple concerto for the Nashville Symphony’s opening of their brand new world class concert hall, the Schermerhorn Center. Zakir was a guy Ed and I both felt we could learn a lot from, and he proved to be all of that, and a wonderful person as well. We composed The Melody of Rhythm Concerto, and also created 6 trio pieces to go with it, to complete the recording, and give us an excuse to play together – whether we got any symphony gigs or not. We ended up doing tons of trio shows, and a few Symphony dates – the last ones in Mubai and Oman.

Left of Cool — Béla Fleck & The Flecktones

1998

Béla Fleck, Jeff Coffin, Victor Wooten, FutureMan featuring Dave Matthews and Amy Grant
Label: Warner Brothers

Flecktone time once again! Now that we had connected with Jeff Coffin, a fantastic multi-instrumentalist who excelled on saxophones, flutes, and bass clarinet, we stuck his shaved head on the cover of the album and we stood on it. He grew to like that over the new 14 years, or at least he said he did! This was our first album with Jeff, and he brought a hard edged funkiness to the band. We were back with a fresh sound, and it was the beginning of new glory days for us. At this point our friendship had kindled with Dave Matthews Band. We were opening piles of shows for them, and we sat in with DMB on all of them. I had found myself writing some songs with lyrics, and this was a new development that I didn’t know quite what to make of. But Future Man has a great voice and was into trying some of these out. Of course there was a significant backlash, from folks that thought we were selling out. Well, we wouldn’t have minded some widespread pop acclaim, but if we really wanted it badly enough, we probably shouldn’t have had Dave Matthews sit in on such an odd song, in such a strange meter. At any rate, along with the sometimes maligned vocal songs, we had some classic Flecktone instrumentals, such as Sojourn of Arjuna, Big Country and shanti, and the new sounds of Jeff Coffin loud in the mix.

Uncommon Ritual — Edgar Meyer with Béla Fleck & Mike Marshall

1997

Label: Sony Classical

My pal Edgar Meyer was making recordings for Sony Classical at this time. He had done the marvelous Yo Yo Ma and Mark O’Connor collaboration, Appalacian Waltz, and was now looking for a new setting to explore. We had talked about working together again, and loved the idea of playing with our friend Mike Marshall in a trio format. Edgar was the first to say that this would function as a band, as well as a solo project for him, and Mike and I were both happy with the plan. We all wrote music for the project, and Edgar steered the ship. This is where my composition Big Country first saw the light of day. We did some significant touring with this group, and it developed into a very special recording and live experience. It’s a very acoustically satisfying recording and has elements of classical composition blended in with whatever the heck it is that you call the stuff me and Mike and Edgar like to do.

Water Lily Acoustics — Tabula Rasā

1996

Béla Fleck, V.M. Bhatt, Jie-Bing Chen featuring Ronu Majumdar, Poovalur Srinivasan, and Sangeeta Shankar
Label: Water Lily Acoustics

I was aware of a beautiful recording called Meeting By The River, which featured the meeting of Indian slide guitarist V.M. Bhatt with Ry Cooder. A while later V. M. Bhatt made another lovely recording with Edgar Meyer and Jerry Douglas. These recordings were done in a church in Santa Barbara, and recorded with amazing fidelity to analog tape on one stereo mike. The musicians were arranged around that mike until the correct balance was achieved and all the reverb came from the amazing room that the recording was done in. Th genius behind this was a burmese cat named Kavi Alexander. When he invited me to join the illustrious list of musicians who had recorded there, I suggested that we bring in some other elements along with V. M. Bhatt. We brought in a brilliant chinese er-hu player named Jeibing Chen, and we utilized some of the other musicians traveling with Bhatt on tour, Ronu and Sangeeta. Also on board was a great mridungum player named Srinivas. I love this project, perhaps it’s the sleeper – a favorite unsung album in my discography.

Live Art — Béla Fleck & The Flecktones

1996

Featuring many special guests
Label: Warner Brothers

The double live album

The band was realizing the strength of our live show at this point. We had had so many amazing guests sit in, and people always told us that they felt the live show was preferable to the records. As hard as we worked on making records we could be proud of, something happened on stage that we could not get to happen in the studio environment. So we decided to go thru our archives and put together an impossible and cosmic live show that was careened from year to year with no regard for linear timelines. We pulled tracks from the Howard days, the trio days, from a show where we did Acoustic Planet music at the Ryman Theatre with Chick Corea, John Cowan singing with us at Telluride, and Bruce Hornsby sitting in in Louisville. We also scheduled and recorded a 5 day tour with Sam and Paul together. I had learned a lot about digital editing in the making of Tales from the Acoustic Planet, and I knew that the cost of completing a live album in the studio from 100 plus shows was cost prohibitive. We could’t afford to do it. That’s when Warner Brothers bought us a Pro Tools rig. The home studio revolution hadn’t happened yet, but it sure was about to. When I realized what kind of control I could have by making records at home, I never looked back. Noone was going to tell me that we were out of time, or that the budget didn’t allow for us to make our record properly ever again. I went through all these shows at home, and picked out the performances, and we edited and mixed them there. One interesting story – I had fallen in love with a track we did in Louisville with Bruce Hornsby sitting in with the band. But we couldn’t find the multi tracks that were recorded at the performance – just a rough board mix. Richard Battaglia, my sound man/road manager since 1982 felt sure that they had been given to him, but he could not for the life of him figure out where they were. He even went to a psychic who told him that they were safe, and in a dark place. They turned out to be under his desk in a lock box he had forgotten about. We got them just in time to mix and still make it onto the record. The song was More Love. Another interesting item – Warners did not want to count this recording as part of our deal, citing the fact that live albums don’t typically sell. We fought that, saying that it should count, because live was what people always said they wanted to hear from us, and what if it was a big success? Not counting it would mean they got an additional album beyond the ones we’d been contracted for, and now we were worth a lot more than we were when the deal was struck. So it was in our interest to get thru the deal and either renegotiate or move to another label. The album went on to be one of our biggest sellers, with well over 200,000 sold.

Tales From The Acoustic Planet

1995

Featuring Chick Corea, Sam Bush, Bruce Hornsby, Edgar Meyer, Branford Marsalis, Jerry Douglas, Paul McCandless, Tony Rice, Matt Munde, Victor Wooten, and FutureMan
Label: Warner Brothers

My deal with Warner Brothers included the option for occasional solo albums, and it felt like it was time to exercise it. I decided to bring the acoustic side of things back to front and center, and I loved the idea of an Acoustic Planet. I wasn’t quite sure what it actually was, but it resonated. Just as we released the album, we received word that guitarist Craig Chaquico was putting out an album with the same name. I wasn’t prepared to change titles at this point and we decided to go with it anyway. I don’t think we impacted each other in any way, looking back – so we made the right decision. One highlight of this recording was the first chance to record with my hero Chick Corea, in LA. In one day we cut a track with Chick and Edgar, a duet with me and Chick, a trio with Branford and Edgar and a track with Chick, Branford, Future Man and Victor, called Backwoods Galaxy (which I guess could have been a good alternate album title actually, but maybe too Flecktone’y for my solo project). We were done recording by 3 pm… I also used this album as a way to sniff out some possible collaborators for the Flecktone’s future. Paul McCandless was a guy I was particularly interested in, and he came and played beautifully. Matt Munde from Aquarium Rescue Unit was brought in to play mandolin on some stuff after Sam Bush broke his arm playing football, I think. Tony Rice played, Bruce Hornsby and Stuart Duncan and Jerry Douglas and Edgar came too. As time went on Paul, Sam, Bruce, Stuart and Edgar all did shows guesting with the Flecktones. Paul and Sam did over a year with us each.

Three Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest — Béla Fleck & The Flecktones

1993

Trio album with Béla Fleck, Victor Wooten and FutureMan plus guests Branford Marsalis and Bruce Hornsby
Label: Warner Brothers

At the end of 1992 after 3 nonstop years of intense touring, Howard Levy decided to leave the group. It was a tough moment, and we didn’t know if we could survive his departure, at the time. We mulled over a variety of options, and ended up going with the idea of trying the band as a trio. What could we do with less, and how could the three of us be more? We locked ourselves into my back room for a month of serious practicing and reinvention. After that, we went down to ST Thomas and did a residency at Barnacle Bill’s, where we got free pizza and a chance to try out the new material in a secluded area. The trio was a really strong period of growth for the three of us. Instead of handing all the complicated sections of songs to Howard to deal with, we had to find ways to solo through or arrange them on our own, and we got better at it. The fans accepted the change in the band, and it didn’t seem to impact our success. If anything,our audience continued to grow steadily. And though Howard was missed, I don’t remember anyone telling us they were disappointed in the trio; some folks still tell me it was their favorite period. In the studio, we did mostly trio stuff, but used the space to justify adding two of our favorite musicians as guests, Branford Marsalis and Bruce Hornsby, both of whom made wonderful contributions to our music.

Solo Banjo Works — Béla Fleck & Tony Trischka

1992

Label: Rounder Records

Tony and I were both cheerleading the idea of a solo banjo album to Rounder. But it seemed silly and competitive to both do one at the same time. So we decided to play solo together. He did a half hour or so, and I did the same. And we met in the middle playing a couple of quick duets to pass off the ball. One was an improv called Killer Bees on Caffeine. I believe it was Pat Flynn’s title. I stole it. No one will ever know.

UFO TOFU — Béla Fleck & The Flecktones

1992

Béla Fleck, Howard Levy, Victor Wooten, FutureMan
Label: Warner Brothers

I wrote a tune on a bus in Europe, and showed it to the guys. In those days if we had a couple of days off, we’d find a place to set up and practice. So knowing we had a day off coming, I was looking for something challenging to throw into the guy’s greedy creative maws. We were all way into Baby Gramps’ song ‘Palindromes, Palindromes, where do you roam’, which Howard turned us on to. The song had some amazing long palindromes that went way beyond the perennials like ‘Live Evil’, UFO TOFU, or even ‘Eva, can I stab bats in a cave?’. I strongly recommend that you check this song out. After I played Gramps for Chick Corea, he remarked that if he could sing, he’d want to sing like Baby Gramps. Anyway, I wondered what it might be like to take a long complicated musical line and play it forward and backwards – a musical palindrome. The guys were into the idea, and we planted several palindromes in the piece. One was a simple riff, played in both directions. One was the actual form of the piece, where the order of the sections was a palindrome too. And one was a minute long tongue twister of a line that was very challenging to play. We enjoyed that sort of thing.

Flight Of The Cosmic Hippo — Béla Fleck & The Flecktones

1991

Béla Fleck, Howard Levy, Victor Wooten, FutureMan
Label: Warner Brothers

The Flecktones hit the road hard in 1990, now that I was no longer in NGR. Everyday at soundcheck, we worked on new ideas – so we had lots of music to record when the time came. We played the new tunes live and developed them in front of an audience, which always helped us to know when we had the arrangement right. These days we don’t do that so much. The first rough version gets so widely distributed, and people assume that it’s the final version and not a rough draft, and might judge the tune on that first run-through. Back then, the internet was newer and the downside of playing brand new music and letting people pass it around it hadn’t occurred to me. You don’t get to reveal a brand new record, when everyone already knows and has recordings of all the tunes. And they might even prefer the live early version, which is frustrating! Would Picasso put his first draft version out, or wait til he finished the painting? Moot point, we’re not Picasso. We also asked the crowd for ideas for titles, and ended up with a shopping bag full of handwritten suggestions after every show. We went through them on the bus. One day the title ‘Flight of the Codeine Hippo’ popped up on a slip of paper, and we all thought that was pretty funny – and actually sounded like the song. But we didn’t want to have drugs in the titles of our songs, not even a drug that was legal in Canada. So we let that one go. Some time later, the idea of the Cosmic Hippo occurred to me, and although at first we worried that it might be too Disney, it stuck. One of our bus driver used to always say – I like the album with the pig on it. What are you gonna do?

Béla Fleck & The Flecktones

1990

Béla Fleck, Howard Levy, Victor Wooten, FutureMan
Label: Warner Brothers

The first Flecktones album...

While Strength and New Grass Revival were both active and thriving, I was up to my own solo mischief. I had met Howard Levy in Chicago when he sat in with Jethro Burns – who was opening up shows for New Grass at Holstein’s. Howard was a shockingly good harmonica player, who I later found out was equally incredible on piano. We really connected at the Winnipeg Folk Festival, where we stayed up all night jamming. When Victor Wooten called me up one day and played the bass over the phone for me, it was equally impressive. He came by and we had a thrilling first jam. Into the equation arrived an offer from Dick Van Kleek, who ran the Lonesome Pine Specials TV series up in Louisville. Having already had New Grass, and Strength in Numbers up to perform, he offered me a chance to head my own show, and let me put together a ‘dream band’ for it. I immediately thought of Howard and Victor. Victor told me about his unique brother, soon to be known as Future Man, and FM rounded out the ensemble with his forward thinking drum invention, sensitive musicianship and unusual concepts. After a surprisingly strong first gig – on TV, we decided to record; I self financed the recording. I thought it was time to make a break from Rounder, and attempt to get into the majors, as several of my friends already had. After making the recording, and hearing it back – I realized that I had come to a turning point in the road, and this this was a unique chance to play my new music, and step completely outside of the bluegrass world. The right musicians only fall into place once in a blue moon, and I knew this one one of those times. I gave something like 8 months notice to New Grass Revival, and Warner Brothers picked up the album. The die was cast.

The Telluride Sessions — Strength In Numbers

1989

Béla Fleck, Sam Bush, Jerry Douglas, Edgar Meyer, Mark O’Connor
Label: MCA

After Edgar Meyer moved to town, he invited Mark 0’Connor, Jerry Douglas, Sam Bush and myself to play on his first solo recording (which I co-produced), called Unfolding. We did a set at a downtown street festival called Summer Lights with this band that really surprised all of us. It wasn’t only the music, which was different than anything any of us had done or heard before, but the audience reaction was stunning. I mentioned the combo to the folks at Telluride Bluegrass Festival, where most of us already had considerable profile. We took over the slot that was typically the festival jam set and played all of our tunes together to another amazing reception. This led to us recording ‘The Telluride Sessions’, which occurred in Nashville. Edgar Meyer, using his prodigious mathematical skills – or maybe it was Mark – figured out that if we each cowrote a tune with each other member of the group, it would come out to 10 tunes and be an equal compositional collaboration. So that’s what we did. We recorded for 7 days, if I remember correctly. And we recorded the tunes in the order that they appear on the record.

Friday Night in America – New Grass Revival

1989

Béla Fleck, Sam Bush, Pat Flynn, John Cowan
Label: Capitol

This was our final album as a band. I’m really proud of what we were able to achieve together. We may not have rung the bell at the top of the charts, but we made music that was strong and true, and so many people loved it.

Places

1988

Label: Rounder Records

A compilation featuring selections from Deviation, Snakes Alive!, Double Time and Inroads.

Drive

1988

Featuring Sam Bush, Jerry Douglas, Stuart Duncan, Mark O’Connor, Tony Rice, and Mark Schatz
Label: Rounder Records

Following Deviation and Inroads, both fairly modern and forward leaning albums, it seemed like a good time to reconnect to my roots. After guesting on Tony Rice’s Cold on the Shoulder album, I was convinced that an instrumental band that included Tony, Sam and Jerry would be able to take my tunes – and the music in general – to an amazing new place. And I wasn’t wrong. Mark Schatz was the perfect choice for bass, Stuart Duncan and Mark O’Connor alternated on the fiddle duties and played together on a couple of tunes as well. Stuart was a brand new face in Nashville, and I loved his deep connection to an older rootsy way of playing – yet his playing is packed with startling invention. Mark continued to be what Alan O’Bryant once called the ‘Mount St Helens’ of the fiddle, with an unrelenting flood of mind boggling ideas. Having both of them was just awesome. We cut this album over a three day weekend. I remember starting on Friday and finishing on Sunday, but I could be wrong. Everything seemed to happen by itself. Ironically this album didn’t sell much at the time, although it did get a grammy nomination, it didn’t seem to be highly recognized in the Bluegrass world. However as time has gone on, this album has become one of the special ones that people still talk about. If anyone asks me what bluegrass oriented project of mine they should check out out first – it’s always Drive.

Hold to a Dream – New Grass Revival

1987

Béla Fleck, Sam Bush, Pat Flynn, John Cowan
Label: Capitol

Daybreak — Béla Fleck

1987

Featuring selections from Crossing The Tracks, Fiddle Tunes For Banjo, Anchored To The Shore and Natural Bridge
Label: Rounder Records

New Grass Revival — New Grass Revival

1986

Béla Fleck, Sam Bush, Pat Flynn, John Cowan
Label: Capitol

This was our major label debut. Capitol Records signing a band like us in Nashville was a pretty much unheard of development. Now were walking the line, trying to figure out how to completely be ourselves and still crack the top 40 country music charts. It was a tough line to walk. But we made a lot of headway and a lot of new friends during the course of the next 4 years.

Inroads

1986

Featuring Sam Bush, Jerry Douglas, Pat Flynn, Kirby Shelstad, Mark O’Connor, John Cowan, Timothy Britton, and Edgar Meyer
Label: Rounder Records

At this point, I was eager to play some of the music I was writing that wasn’t really appropriate for the bluegrass lineup of instruments. I put together a band called ‘Banjo Jazz’ that played occasionally in Nashville when I was off the road. We went on one or two very short tours, but it was just too tough to make touring happen, and the band parted. Many of the tunes on Inroads feature ‘Banjo Jazz’. Vibes was an unusual instrument to combine with banjo. I also had New Grass Revival together for track called Four Wheel Drive, and some other great cameos

Live — New Grass Revival

1984

Béla Fleck, Sam Bush, Pat Flynn, John Cowan
Label: Sugar Hill

Live concert from Toulouse, France

We had the opportunity to play an amazing festival in Toulouse – several times actually. This festival was well promoted and it was a huge success. One year when we came, they put my likeness on billboards all over town. My head swelled up almost as big as the billboards. I remember our friends in Hot Rize were always there, and one year the Seldom Scene came. John Duffy and Mike Auldridge insisted on going to MacDonalds every day – in Toulouse France where they have the greatest food in the world! Anyhow – we recorded this record there at the festival and mixed it at the Honky Tonk Chateau.

On the Boulevard — New Grass Revival

1984

Béla Fleck, Sam Bush, Pat Flynn, John Cowan
Label: Sugar Hill

Hey we finally put out a record! After being in NGR for 3 years, this was the first recording we released. There is a purity about this recording that still makes it my favorite NGR record.

Deviation

1984

Featuring Sam Bush, John Cowan, Pat Flynn, Mark O’Connor, Jerry Douglas, and others
Label: Rounder Records

Also this year, I got excited about trying drums out for the first time on record with Kenny Malone. I added him to the New Grass Revival line-up, peppered in Jerry Douglas and Mark O’Connor, and a very special session ensued.

Double Time

1984

Featuring David Grisman, Mark O’Connor, Tony Rice , Mark Schatz, Sam Bush, Pat Flynn, John Hartford, Ricky Skaggs, Edgar Meyer, and Mike Marshall
Label: Rounder Records

Around the end of 1983, New Grass was taking a break, while Sam Bush recovered from a medical situation. I drove from Nashville to San Francisco, and got to record and hang out with Mike Marshall, Darol Anger, David Grisman and Tony Rice. My dream of playing with Dawg and Tony came true at the Great American Music Hall, where we did a benefit for Sam. When I got home, I made recordings with all the Nashville folks, which included Edgar Meyer’s recording debut.

Live in Japan — Spectrum

1983

Béla Fleck, Jimmy Mattingly, Mark Schatz, Glenn Lawson, Jimmy Gaudreau
Label: Rounder Records

This was recorded on tour in Japan, and released after we had split up. I love the album cover – us guys surrounded by Japanese school kids, all of them wearing the same black outfits. We covered a hit Japanese song on this album, and played our stuff with Jimmy Mattingly still on board. He didn’t get to drive here.

Snakes Alive! — The Dreadful Snakes

1983

Béla Fleck, Jerry Douglas, Pat Enright, Blaine Sprouse, Mark Hembree, Roland White
Label: Rounder Records

Having moved to Nashville to join New Grass Revival, after Jerry promoted me as a possible new band member to Sam Bush, I was also excited about the idea of playing some trad grass with Jerry and my old friend Pat Enright. We had a jam at the Station Inn with these personnel. I sent a cassette of the show to Rounder on a lark, and they got excited about this all star bluegrass mash-up. We barely ever played live, but it sure was a cool album.

It’s Too Hot For Words — Spectrum

1982

Béla Fleck, Jimmy Mattingly, Mark Schatz, Glenn Lawson, Jimmy Gaudreau
Label: Rounder Records

This was our second studio record. A cool young fiddle player had turned up, named Jimmy Mattingly, so we made him drive our turtle topped van late at night at high speeds through Kentucky, in order to toughen him up. Later he got his revenge by scoring an amazing gig as Garth Brooks’ fiddle player for many years.

Natural Bridge

1982

Featuring Mark O’Connor, David Grisman, Mike Marshall, Sam Bush, Jerry Douglas, and others
Label: Rounder Records

Part 1:
This album started out with a different plan altogether, which was to reunite David Grisman and Tony Rice from DGQ for some tracks with me. Mark O’Connor was excited to be back on fiddle, since he was playing guitar full time with David at the time. But it was just too soon to get David and Tony back together, and the session self combusted on the night before Schatz and I were to fly out west to record. We went back to the drawing board, Darol Anger came on fiddle, O’Connor went over to guitar and also did some spectacular double fiddling with Darol. Grisman played and Mike Marshall guested. It turned out the way it was supposed to, and I still love the tracks we recorded.

Part 2:
Having become pretty good friends at this point with Jerry Douglas, he floated the idea that we make our records with similar bands, at the same time, in a studio in Ashland City, Tn. He recorded his album Tennessee Fluxedo, while I recorded the remaining tracks for Natural Bridge with Jerry, Sam Bush, Jimmy Gaudreau, Mark Schatz and David Parmely.

Fiddle Tunes For Banjo — Tony Trischka, Bill Keith, Béla Fleck

1980

Featuring Russ Barenberg, Andy Statman, Sam Bush, and others
Label: Rounder Records

An album celebrating the long tradition of playing fiddle tunes on the 5-string banjo. 

While I was living in Lexington, Ky. the idea of this record came into being. I recorded my tracks at Lemco, with the legendary Cecil Taylor, and took the chance to play some lead guitar as well, something I never did again in a bluegrass context. My elbow never liked it when I flat picked so I gradually had to let it go. I was proud to be on a record with these two banjo icons, who were both massive influences on me. Tony and Bill and I recorded a track together at my folks house, which I’m really glad about. I wish we had done more together, now.

Opening Roll — Spectrum

1980

Béla Fleck, Mark Schatz, Glen Lawson, Jimmy Gaudreau
Label: Rounder Records

When Tasty Licks disbanded in 1981, Mark Schatz and I spent a summer playing in the street in Harvard Square. Then an opportunity presented itself for us to move to Kentucky and play with Jimmy and Glenn, a couple of excellent musicians who had played in one of JD Crowe’s great bands. Jimmy was also in the Country Gentlemen, and the Second Generation among other groups. I was particularly keen to avoid being pegged as simply a wild northern banjoist, and wanted the experience of being part of JD’s world. JD is still one of the most powerful traditional banjo players, although his bands have certainly had progressive elements. Being in this band gave me the opportunity to live in his town and get to know and study him, and connect with the bluegrass community in Lexington and Louisville, generally focusing in on the traditional side. Ironically, Spectrum was not really a trad band at all, although we maintained some of JD’s template. We did lots of originals, swing, offbeat instrumentals, and pop covers, as well as some bluegrass standards.

Anchored to the Shore — Tasty Licks

1979

Béla Fleck, Jack Tottle, Stacy Philips, Paul Kahn, Robin Kincaid
Label: Rounder Records

Tasty Licks had undergone a major face lift, with Pat and Mark now in the band. Pat being such a strong traditional singer and guitar player, we embraced the opportunity to go in that direction. He taught me so much…At the point when the band was ready to disband, we decided to go and record every tune we had, before hanging it all up. It took us 5 hours to record this album.

Crossing the Tracks

1979

First Solo Album
Label: Rounder Records

Making my first solo album was a dream come true for me. I had quite a lot that I wanted to say, but didn’t really know how to work the medium that well yet. The band I was able to assemble included some heroes who later became virtually family to me – Jerry Douglas and Sam Bush. Mark Schatz and Pat Enright already were (see Anchored To The Shore). Russ was also a big hero for his tone and melodic depth, and his involvement in some of my favorite music with Country Cooking, Tony Trischka, and Russ’s own albums, and I greatly admired Bob Applebaum’s jazz mandolin work. I wanted to show my commitment to bluegrass, and my interest in jazz on this recording, and also that I loved to write tunes.

Tasty Licks

1978

Béla Fleck, Jack Tottle, Stacy Philips, Paul Kahn, Robin Kincaid
Label: Rounder Records

I moved to Boston late in 1976 to play in my first full time professional band. This was a touring band, and gave me my first experience of existing in a band situation. I liked it a lot. We toured all over New England, and sometimes even went south to DC, Kentucky and Tennessee. The first album was pretty progressive, and it was my first time making a record.