Béla Fleck and the Flecktones is an American jazz fusion band that is known for its eclectic style and instrumentation, combining jazz improvisation with progressive bluegrass, rock, classical, funk, and world music traditions.
Béla Anton Leoš Fleck is an American banjo player. An acclaimed virtuoso, he is an innovative and technically proficient pioneer and ambassador of the banjo, playing music from bluegrass, jazz, classical, rock and various world music genres. He is best known for his work with the bands New Grass Revival and Béla Fleck and the Flecktones. Fleck has won 17 Grammy Awards and been nominated 39 times.
Chris "Buddha" Michalek was an American harmonica player.
Overblowing is the manipulation of supplied air through a wind instrument that causes the sounded pitch to jump to a higher one without a fingering change or the operation of a slide. Overblowing may involve a change in the air pressure, in the point at which the air is directed, or in the resonance characteristics of the chamber formed by the mouth and throat of the player.
Rabih Abou-Khalil is an oud player and composer born in Lebanon, who combines elements of Arabic music with jazz, classical music, and other styles. He grew up in Beirut and moved to Munich, Germany, during the Lebanese Civil War in 1978.
There are numerous techniques available for playing the harmonica, including bending, overbending, and tongue blocking.
Roy Wilfred Wooten, also known as RoyEl, best known by his stage name Future Man, is an American musician, inventor and composer.
Béla Fleck and the Flecktones is the first album by the band of the same name, released in 1990. It reached number 17 on the Billboard Top Contemporary Jazz Albums chart. At the Grammy Awards of 1997, a live version of "The Sinister Minister", a track from the album, won the Best Pop Instrumental Performance award.
Flight of the Cosmic Hippo is the second album by Béla Fleck and the Flecktones, released in 1991. It reached number 1 on the Billboard Top Contemporary Jazz Albums chart. The album title came from an audience member who suggested "Flight of the Codeine Hippo"; the band changed "codeine" to "cosmic".
UFO Tofu is the third album by Béla Fleck and the Flecktones, released in 1992. The title is a palindrome, which is also a musical theme in the title track; the idea originated with the musician Baby Gramps.
Three Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest is the fourth album released by Béla Fleck and the Flecktones, released in 1993. It is the band's only release as a trio, after the departure of Howard Levy but before the arrival of Jeff Coffin.
Live Art is the fifth album released by Béla Fleck and the Flecktones and their first non-studio album. It was recorded live at various concerts between 1992 and 1996 and features ten guest musicians.
Greatest Hits of the 20th Century is the seventh album released by Béla Fleck and the Flecktones and their first greatest hits compilation album.
The chromatic harmonica is a type of harmonica that uses a button-activated sliding bar to redirect air from the hole in the mouthpiece to the selected reed-plate desired. When the button is not pressed, an altered diatonic major scale of the key of the harmonica is available, while depressing the button accesses the same scale a semitone higher in each hole. Thus, the instrument is capable of playing the 12 notes of the Western chromatic scale. The chromatic harmonica can thus be contrasted with a standard harmonica, which can play only the notes in a given musical key.
Francisco de Jesús Rivera Figueras, known as Paquito D'Rivera, is a Cuban-American alto saxophonist, clarinetist and composer. He was a member of the Cuban songo band Irakere and, since the 1980s, he has established himself as a bandleader in the United States. His smooth saxophone tone and his frequent combination of Latin jazz and classical music have become his trademarks.
Carlos del Junco is a Cuban-Canadian harmonica player.
Jingle All the Way is a Christmas album and the thirteenth album overall by Béla Fleck and the Flecktones. Released in 2008 under Rounder, it marks the band's first record since their departure from Columbia. Jingle All the Way reached #1 on the Top Contemporary Jazz chart, the group's first album to do so since 1991. It also won the 2009 Grammy Award for Best Pop Instrumental Album.
Balkan Samba Records is a record label in Evanston, Illinois founded by multi-instrumentalist and composer Howard Levy.
Rocket Science is a studio album by Béla Fleck and the Flecktones, released in 2011. It reached number 1 on the Billboard Jazz chart and number 36 on the Top Independent Albums chart. The song "Life in Eleven" won Best Instrumental Composition at the 54th Annual Grammy Awards.
The Sultan's Picnic is an album by the Lebanese oud player and composer Rabih Abou-Khalil, fusing traditional Arab music with jazz, which was recorded in 1994 and released on the Enja label.
