The Story
Béla Fleck was born in New York City in 1958 and built a solo career alongside his work fronting Béla Fleck and the Flecktones, moving between bluegrass, jazz, classical and world music on his own records — including banjo concertos performed with orchestras and duet albums with pianist Chick Corea, starting with The Enchantment (2007).
In 2009, Throw Down Your Heart took Fleck to Uganda, Tanzania, Mali and Gambia to record with local musicians and trace the banjo's roots back to African instruments the enslaved brought to the Americas — a documentary and album pairing directed by his brother, Sascha Paladino.
My Bluegrass Heart (2021) returned Fleck to the genre he grew up on, recorded with a rotating cast of bluegrass and acoustic musicians including Billy Strings, Chris Thile, Sam Bush and Jerry Douglas.
Fleck has won 18 Grammy Awards from 43 nominations, and Guinness World Records credits him with more Grammy nominations across different musical categories than any other musician — including country, pop, jazz, bluegrass, classical, folk, spoken word and composition/arranging.
