Béla Fleck

Béla Fleck (born July 10, 1958 in New York City, New York) is an American virtuoso 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 a lot of roots in folk and bluegrass as well as funk and jazz."

Fleck, who is named after famous Hungarian composer Béla Bartók, was drawn to the banjo when he first heard Earl Scruggs play the theme song for the television show Beverly Hillbillies. He received his first banjo at age fifteen from his grandfather (1973). Later, Fleck would enroll in New York City's High School of Music and Art where he studied French horn. Almost immediately after high school, Fleck traveled to Boston to play with Jack Tottle and Mark Schatz in Tasty Licks. It is with Tasty Licks that Fleck played on his first major album. During this period, Fleck released his first solo album (1979) "Crossing the Tracks". It was Fleck's first foray into progressive bluegrass composition.