Limited red colored vinyl LP pressing. 2025 release. Banjo. Drums. Harp. Huh? To be sure, the new all-star trio of Bela Fleck, harpist Edmar Castaneda and drummer Antonio Sanchez features instrumentation that might safely be called uncommon. Unless, of course, you're already familiar with 19-time Grammy-winner Fleck - the genre-blurring virtuoso who has done more to expand the possibilities of the banjo than any other player in the instrument's history. From his bluegrass beginnings through his otherworldly Flecktones, his duo with Chick Corea and his reimagining of Rhapsody in Blue, Fleck's work never fails to surprise. What doesn't surprise is the impeccable caliber of his collaborators - and this new trio includes two of the most gifted musicians of their generation. The harpist, Castenada, hails from Bogota, Colombia, and has led his own bands in addition to sharing projects with such masters as Hiromi, Paquito D'Rivera and Gregoire Maret. 5-time Grammy-winner Sanchez grew up in Mexico City and built a reputation as one of the great jazz drummers through his work with guitarist Pat Metheny. He's also been a visionary bandleader, helming progressive groups like Bad Hombre, and collaborated with Chick Corea, Gary Burton, Charlie Haden, Michael Brecker and other giants. His Golden Globe nominated drum-set score for Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu's 2014 film Birdman earned him renown far outside the jazz world. Playing original repertoire, much of it collaboratively written, this trio embarks nightly on fearless explorations that audiences will find irresistible - rich with strong melodies, gorgeous harmony and grooves that twist and turn while feeling fantastic.

2025 release. Banjo. Drums. Harp. Huh? To be sure, the new all-star trio of Bela Fleck, harpist Edmar Castaneda and drummer Antonio Sanchez features instrumentation that might safely be called uncommon. Unless, of course, you're already familiar with 19-time Grammy-winner Fleck - the genre-blurring virtuoso who has done more to expand the possibilities of the banjo than any other player in the instrument's history. From his bluegrass beginnings through his otherworldly Flecktones, his duo with Chick Corea and his reimagining of Rhapsody in Blue, Fleck's work never fails to surprise. What doesn't surprise is the impeccable caliber of his collaborators - and this new trio includes two of the most gifted musicians of their generation. The harpist, Castenada, hails from Bogota, Colombia, and has led his own bands in addition to sharing projects with such masters as Hiromi, Paquito D'Rivera and Gregoire Maret. 5-time Grammy-winner Sanchez grew up in Mexico City and built a reputation as one of the great jazz drummers through his work with guitarist Pat Metheny. He's also been a visionary bandleader, helming progressive groups like Bad Hombre, and collaborated with Chick Corea, Gary Burton, Charlie Haden, Michael Brecker and other giants. His Golden Globe nominated drum-set score for Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu's 2014 film Birdman earned him renown far outside the jazz world. Playing original repertoire, much of it collaboratively written, this trio embarks nightly on fearless explorations that audiences will find irresistible - rich with strong melodies, gorgeous harmony and grooves that twist and turn while feeling fantastic.

Remembrance, a new double album out May 10, serves as a moving final document of the profound creative and personal rapport that banjoist Bela Fleck and pianist Chick Corea first showcased at album length with 2007's Latin Grammy-winning The Enchantment. It's also a crucial addendum to Corea's legacy, featuring three previously unreleased Corea compositions as well as five short free improvisations, or impromptus, that Fleck has infused with written music. "We pushed this duo to a new place before we ran out of time," says Fleck, who produced Remembrance. "We have here another cool look at Chick Corea, at the different ways that he can play that we wouldn't have had. There's a lot of great Chick Corea out there, and this is different."

2024 release. Remembrance serves as a moving final document of the profound creative and personal rapport that banjoist Bela Fleck and pianist Chick Corea first showcased at album length with 2007's Latin Grammy-winning The Enchantment. It's also a crucial addendum to Corea's legacy, featuring three previously unreleased Corea compositions as well as five short free improvisations, or impromptus, that Fleck has infused with written music. "We pushed this duo to a new place before we ran out of time," says Fleck, who produced Remembrance. "We have here another cool look at Chick Corea, at the different ways that he can play that we wouldn't have had. There's a lot of great Chick Corea out there, and this is different."

2024 release from banjo great Bela Fleck expands and explores George Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue by paying homage to the legendary composer while redefining an American classic-just in time for it's centennial. Available February 12, 2024, a hundred years to the day Gershwin premiered the work at Aeolian Hall in New York City, Fleck's Rhapsody in Blue album includes three variations: "Rhapsody in Blue (grass), " "Rhapsody in Blue(s), " and the classic orchestration, but with banjo featured instead of piano, performed by the Virginia Symphony Orchestra and conducted by Eric Jacobson. The set also features Gershwin's "Rialto Ripples" and "Unidentified Piece for Banjo, " an unrecorded and unreleased gem discovered at the Library of Congress.

2023 release. The first time banjo legend Bela Fleck, tabla master Zakir Hussain, and double bass virtuoso Edgar Meyer got together to make an album, it was to write, not to play. Fleck had met Hussain at a workshop where, as Bela put it, "I thought Edgar and I could learn a lot from him." Later, when Fleck and Meyer were looking for a third partner for a triple concerto they had been commissioned to write to mark the opening of Nashville's Schermerhorn Symphony Center, they thought of Hussain, who wanted to learn more about orchestral writing. The result was The Melody of Rhythm (2009), recorded with the Detroit Symphony Orchestra under Leonard Slatkin. "We tried to write some pieces that took the melodies and compositions in the concerto and developed them into different areas," explains Fleck. "But we really hadn't performed at all." It wasn't until the three began touring to promote the album that the trio's true potential became apparent. Although each had a base in a different musical realm - bluegrass for Fleck, Indian classical music for Hussain, and Western classical music for Meyer - they shared a gift for improvisation as well as an ability to reach across musical genres as casually as neighbors might chat over a backyard fence." When we are performing on stage, in composing mode or creating mode, we are basically having a conversation," says Hussain. "So the music emerges as we speak." Hence As We Speak, an album that not only showcases the group's breathtaking abilities as instrumentalists, but underscores the wide range of musical influences at their command. Across a dozen tracks, the group glides easily between the cerebral complexity of Indian rhythm and the gut-level groove of a funky bass line, sounding equally at home with the rigors of raga.