The Story
Béla Fleck and the Flecktones formed in Nashville in the late 1980s, when banjoist Béla Fleck — named after composer Béla Bartók and already a progressive-bluegrass star with New Grass Revival — assembled harmonica and keyboard wizard Howard Levy, bass innovator Victor Wooten, and Victor's brother Roy 'Future Man' Wooten, who plays percussion on a guitar-shaped electronic 'Drumitar' of his own invention.
Their self-titled 1990 debut on Warner Bros. earned a Grammy nomination, and 1991's Flight of the Cosmic Hippo topped Billboard's contemporary jazz chart. The band's sound — bluegrass picking run through jazz harmony, funk grooves, and world-music rhythms — fit no existing category, so critics simply started calling it 'blu-bop,' after one of their own tunes.
The lineup has shifted and circled home over the decades: Levy left in 1992, saxophonist Jeff Coffin joined in 1997 and later departed for Dave Matthews Band, and Levy's return produced 2011's Rocket Science, a reunion of the original quartet. Along the way the band collected multiple Grammy Awards, including Best Pop Instrumental Album for their 2008 holiday record Jingle All the Way.
The Flecktones remain a beloved live act. In December 2025 the original four reunited with Jeff Coffin, Tuvan throat-singing ensemble Alash, and mandolinist Sierra Hull for the 'Jingle All the Way' tour, closing out the year with marathon shows at rooms like New York's Beacon Theatre — while Fleck's restless side projects, from African collaborations to concertos, keep the banjo moving between worlds.
