Béla Fleck

• Illustration — Fleck in Raleigh, North Carolina, June 6, 2011 Fleck played banjo on Before These Crowded Streets by the Dave Matthews Band, including the album's debut single "Don't Drink the Water". In 1989 Fleck was invited to join the supergroup Strength in Numbers, headed by Sam Bush on mandolin, with Jerry Douglas on resonator guitar (dobro), Edgar Meyer on bass, and Mark O'Connor on violin. The group recorded just one album, The Telluride Sessions, before Bush disbanded the group. In 2001, he collaborated with Edgar Meyer on Perpetual Motion, an album of classical music played on the banjo. They were accompanied by John Williams, Evelyn Glennie, Joshua Bell, and Gary Hoffman. Perpetual Motion won Grammy Awards for Best Arrangement and Best Classical Crossover Album. Fleck and Meyer composed a double concerto for banjo and bass and performed its debut with the Nashville Symphony Orchestra. They were commissioned by the Orchestra to compose a trio concerto, for which they invited Indian tabla player Zakir Hussain. The concerto debuted in Nashville in 2006 when it was recorded for the album The Melody of Rhythm. Fleck premiered the Concerto for Banjo in Nashville, Tennessee on September 22, 2011, performing it with the full Nashville Symphony Orchestra. In 2005, while the Flecktones were on hiatus, Fleck undertook several new projects: recording with traditional African musicians; co-writing the documentary Bring it Home about the Flecktones; co-producing Song of the Traveling Daughter, the debut album by his wife, Abigail Washburn; forming the acoustic fusion supergroup Trio! with Jean-Luc Ponty and Stanley Clarke; and recording an album as a member of the Sparrow Quartet with Washburn, Ben Sollee, and Casey Driessen. He appeared on the cover of the July/August 2013 issue of Making Music magazine. Alone and with the Flecktones, Fleck has appeared at the High Sierra Music Festival, Telluride Bluegrass Festival, Merlefest, Montreal International Jazz Festival, Toronto Jazz Festival, Newport Folk Festival, Delfest, Austin City Limits Music Festival, Shakori Hills, Bonnaroo, New Orleans Jazz Fest, Hardly Strictly Bluegrass, Strawberry Music Festival, and Rochester International Jazz Festival. Fleck is the subject of a documentary film. In Throw Down Your Heart (2008), a film crew follows him on his travels in Africa where he collaborates with some of the best musicians and researches the African origins of the banjo. In a New York Times article about the film, Stephen Holden writes: "At every stop on a journey that takes him from Uganda to Tanzania to Gambia and finally to Mali, Mr. Fleck plays and records with gifted local musicians. Early in the film, a Ugandan villager insists that the common perception of Africa as a continent ravaged by war and disease is 'just a very small bit of what Africa is,' and Throw Down Your Heart sets out to prove him right."

Fleck has shared Grammy Awards with Asleep at the Wheel, Alison Brown, and Edgar Meyer. He has been nominated in more categories than any other musician, namely country, pop, jazz, bluegrass, classical, folk, spoken word, composition, and arranging. • Year — Category — Nominated work — Result • 1987 — Best Country Instrumental Performance (Orchestra, Group or Soloist) — "Seven by Seven" (by New Grass Revival) • 1989 — Best Bluegrass Recording (Vocal or Instrumental) — Drive • 1990 — Best Country Instrumental Performance (Orchestra, Group or Soloist) — "Big Foot" (by New Grass Revival) • 1991 — Best Instrumental Composition — "The Sinister Minister" • 1992 — "Blu-Bop" • Best Contemporary Jazz Performance — Flight of the Cosmic Hippo (by Béla Fleck and the Flecktones) • 1993 — Best Instrumental Composition — "Magic Fingers" • 1995 — Best Spoken Word Album for Children — The Creation (as producer) • 1996 — Best Country Instrumental Performance — "Hightower" (with Asleep at the Wheel and Johnny Gimble) • "Cheeseballs in Cowtown" • 1997 — Best World Music Album — Tabula Rasā (with V.M. Bhatt and Jiebing Chen) • Best Pop Instrumental Performance — "The Sinister Minister" (by Béla Fleck and the Flecktones) • 1999 — "Big Country" • Best Instrumental Composition — "Almost 12" (by Béla Fleck and the Flecktones) • Best Country Instrumental Performance — "The Ride" • 2000 — Best Bluegrass Album — The Bluegrass Sessions - Tales From The Acoustic Planet, Volume 2 • 2001 — Best Country Instrumental Performance — "Leaving Cottondale" (with Alison Brown) • Best Pop Instrumental Performance — "Zona Mona" • Best Contemporary Jazz Album — Outbound (by Béla Fleck and the Flecktones) • 2002 — Best Instrumental Arrangement — "Claude Debussy: Doctor Gradus Ad Parnassum" (with Edgar Meyer) • Best Classical Crossover Album — Perpetual Motion • 2003 — Best Country Instrumental Performance — "Bear Mountain Hop" • 2006 — "Who's Your Uncle?" • 2007 — Best Contemporary Jazz Album — The Hidden Land (by Béla Fleck and the Flecktones) • Best Pop Instrumental Performance — "Subterfuge" (by Béla Fleck and the Flecktones) • 2008 — Best Instrumental Composition — "Spectacle" • 2009 — Best Pop Instrumental Album — Jingle All the Way (by Béla Fleck and the Flecktones) • Best Country Instrumental Performance — "Sleigh Ride" (by Béla Fleck and the Flecktones) • 2010 — Best Pop Instrumental Performance — "Throw Down Your Heart" • Best Classical Crossover Album — The Melody of Rhythm • Best Contemporary World Music Album — Throw Down Your Heart: Tales from the Acoustic Planet, Vol. 3 - Africa Sessions • 2011 — Throw Down Your Heart: Africa Sessions Part 2: Unreleased Tracks • 2012 — Best Instrumental Composition — "Life in Eleven" (with Howard Levy) • 2016 — Best Folk Album — Béla Fleck And Abigail Washburn (with Abigail Washburn) • Best American Roots Performance — "And Am I Born to Die" (with Abigail Washburn) • 2021 — Best Historical Album — Throw Down Your Heart: The Complete Africa Sessions • 2022 — Best Bluegrass Album — My Bluegrass Heart • 2024 — Best Contemporary Instrumental Album — As We Speak (with Edgar Meyer & Zakir Hussain) • 2024 — Best Global Music Performance — "Pashto" (with Edgar Meyer & Zakir Hussain) • 2026 — Best Contemporary Instrumental Album — BEATrio (with Edmar Castañeda, & Antonio Sánchez) —. Pending