Banjoist Béla Fleck, harmonica and keyboardist Howard Levy, bassist Victor Wooten, and percussionist / drumitarist Roy “Future Man” Wooten have been creating some of the most forward-thinking music throughout their remarkable careers. Drawing from a vast array of genres – from classical and jazz to bluegrass, African music, electric blues, and Eastern European folk – their sound is impossible to define. It’s a unique musical language forged by the union of four brilliant minds, each contributing something distinct to the whole. Simply put, it is The Flecktones: music that only emerges when these four musicians come together.
“All the different things I do come together to make a new ‘hybrid’ Béla,” Fleck says. “Everyone else in the group is doing the same things, collaborating with others, exploring a variety of ideas. So when we come together, it’s like taking all of our separate ‘soups’ and throwing them into one big pot. The result is something incredibly diverse.”
Fleck first united the band in 1988 for a performance on PBS’ Lonesome Pine Special, but the connection between the four musicians was immediate and deep. Their bond was built on a shared commitment to pushing the boundaries of music and creativity. Three groundbreaking albums and countless performances followed, but in late 1992, Levy decided to step away.
“I wanted to pursue other things,” Levy explains. “We were playing over 150 shows a year, and that’s a lot of focus on one project. I’ve never done anything that intensely before or since.” The Flecktones continued as a trio, bringing in a rotating cast of special guests, before saxophonist Jeff Coffin joined the ensemble. The band’s acclaim continued to grow, with five Grammy Awards and a global fanbase to show for it.
By 2008, however, the band found itself at a crossroads, embarking on a temporary hiatus. Fleck, Coffin, and the rest of the group were pursuing solo projects, but the pull of the Flecktones was strong. As Future Man describes, the “paintbrushes of fate” intervened when Coffin was invited to join Dave Matthews Band after the death of saxophonist LeRoi Moore. Fleck encouraged him to take the opportunity, believing it would breathe new life into both DMB and the Flecktones.
“We were all ready for something different to happen,” Fleck says. “We’d been in a kind of holding pattern. Having the same lineup for so long had made things feel almost ‘normal,’ and we were all drifting into other projects for new inspiration. The time off was necessary, but we all knew we’d be coming back.”
Each band member had been pursuing their own artistic ventures. Fleck collaborated with world-renowned musicians like Chick Corea, Zakir Hussain, and Edgar Meyer, and explored African music in his acclaimed Throw Down Your Heart project. Victor Wooten’s solo tours, clinics, and recordings, including the SMV project with Stanley Clarke and Marcus Miller, continued to raise his profile. Future Man focused on his innovative Black Mozart project and the development of new instruments. Despite these individual pursuits, all four musicians felt the pull of the Flecktones.
In 2009, they reunited for a tour that spanned the US and Europe, with Levy back on board. "It felt just like when we first started playing together,” Wooten says. “Just with a lot less hair." Following the tour, the four musicians felt inspired to continue exploring the band’s possibilities, a sense of unfinished business lingering from when Levy had first left.
For Fleck, Levy’s return was key to fulfilling the original vision of the Flecktones: “Each of us reinventing our instruments, each of us creating something new with every note. The return of Howard gave us a chance to pick up where we left off, pushing further into that vision.”
Now, when The Flecktones come together, “It’s like discovering a different version of a legendary band,” Future Man says, likening their reunion tours to an audience experiencing an iconic group for the first time.
