0% Controversy 100% Musical genius. Victor Wooten is the reason I ever picked up any instrument and I bet that's true for a lot of Bass players or Banjo players because of these guys. Also any other instrument they have ever had on stage with them. They are just amazing
I went to see them as a tween in the late 80s/maybe 1990. We got our tickets and had time to kill so we walked around the block the theater was on. What did I see? Bela, Futureman, and Victor standing silently outside the back stage door watching a street busker the Chapman Stick - a beast to play in the best of circumstances. We all stood there watching him play, we all applauded like star struck idiots when his song finished, and we all bought his cassettes from his instrument case, and I got everyone to sign my ticket. They were infinitely humble and kind. I don’t know if the stick player knew who they were, and they never mentioned, but I ALWAYS remember that they treated him with all the respect the Flecktones themselves god when the show started. 100% class acts. The best kind of humans. Edit: this was THE album we all bought. The artist didn’t have it on his bandcamp until I emailed him asking to upload it. I might be biased, but I love it.
On the opening song, Coffin is switching back & forth from alto to tenor sax and I'm thinking, "He probably could've played all of that on either sax. It was neither really high nor really low." Then I see him start to play both saxes at the SAME TIME!! I will never question you again Jeff Coffin!! As you were...
That’s an old trick started by the trumpeter Clark Terry, he would switch between trumpet and flugelhorn and play both at once..Jeff’s awesome...I remember him at North Texas
i'm just here because of victor... but man i never knew what kind of musician bela fleck is.. i'm blasted! he has very beautiful ideas and his way to tell storys trough his banjo is... oh man its unbelievable! great great great
Victor is NUTS!! I caught him semi-solo after bein' a Bela fan for a while. His whole first set was just him and a bass and you couldn't turn away!! No idea how one guy and one bass can do that. Second set was with his brother who is a SICK guitar player and plays the way Vic plays the bass. I think future man is his brother, too. Vic also does crazy survivalist stuff where he gets dropped off in a remote location with very little (if any) supplies & a map and compass and has to get to civilization!! GUYS CRAZY!!! (~);}
HuhnK0t I'm glad you discovered the wonderful world of Bela Fkeck and the Flecktones. Someone showed me a video of the band playing a song called, "Sinister Minister" way back in 1991, and I've been a fan ever since. They had a guy who played harmonica and piano/synths on the first 3 albums, named Howard Levy. His harmonica playing was a big part of the Flecktones' sound, so it wasn't the same when he left. That is until they got Jeff Coffin, a killer horn player. Eventually, Howard Levy came back and they recorded another album with him. Meanwhile, Jeff Coffin joined the Dave Matthews Band because they were in need of a sax player after their sax player died as a result of complications from an ATV accident. As for the future of the Flecktones, Futureman told me they were done. I met him at a drum clinic in Nashville and asked him what was next for the Flecktones. He said that unless there was some kind of reunion, then they were done, at least for the time being. And that's the basic gist of it so far.
I miss when Jazz Alley used to be on Saturday nights here in Denver. I could usually catch a Bela Fleck and the Flecktones performance or two on there every week or two. But now there's the Internet, so I can just listen to this all day long...and that makes me glad.
Victor wooten is a beast ofcourse, bela fleck been a beast, but the sax guy played 2 sax's at once.... thats wild and the percussionist made a drum guitar machine? where have ii been?
+Seymour Hylton Actually he's not 100% right about the Drumitar. It's one of less than 100 SynthAxes that were manufactured in England and sold until 1988. It's a midi controller that Futureman has customized and uses to trigger a drum machine. Futureman has also created a micro-tonal scale based on the Periodic Table and written music based on it. He's Roy Wooten, Victor's brother. Gotta love the Flecktones. They redefine "Far Out", man!
Rahsaan Roland Kirk was perhaps the first to play multiple saxes at once. He was blinded as a newborn because a nurse mistook some sketchy chemicals for eyedrops at the hospital. Theres a great documentary on him called I Aye Eye
I saw that feat in person when I was young. I play Alto and Baritone sax, and my parents blessed me with seeing the BF & the Fs when I was young. What really impressed me was that he could circular breath while simultaneously maintaining his embouchure for both! He's a witch for sure!
Bela Fleck is the only Bluegrass musician that kept it 100% REAL in terms of the banjo, its roots and where it actually came from. This level of 'honesty' should always be celebrated about him.
Béla's a quiet guy, so I appreciate the interview. One of my first album's was Bela's first one (Crossing the Bridge), and I followed him through his early phases, including NGR. Of course I saw the Flecktones when I had the chance to see them in New Haven on their first tour back in 1991 at Toads. I'm so happy they rode their future ship as far as they did, cuz this 2007 was fantastic. Wish I'd been there. I hope they launch again because I only saw them a few times after that early spot. Oh, and hooray to Future Man for the right-hand snare/high hat setup to accompany the synth-axe-drumitar. Since you're here checking out interesting stuff by Béla, Tabula Rasa is worth a listen.
First time i heard them was at Byron Bay Blues and Roots festival 2005. Fantastic. Asked Bela to come to NZ because it was costing me to go to Australia every year! Havent made it yet.
I would never have guessed that a guy with a voice as high as Futureman's would be able to sing and sustain such low notes. At the beginning of their double cd "Live Art" you can hear him singing in the same manner, but to watch him do it? Wow! I got to see these guys at the Ryman Auditorium in Nashville, TN last year. What an incredible show! It was a nice break from all of the rock/alternative shows that I normally attend.
First big "Mahalo" for the upload!! Thumbs up!! 1K likes and 34 thumbs up their ASS! I do look for spiritual pleasure and them comes close. Just give it up and enjoy. The victor dude is something else! But the banjo is the shit too and of course the others. Wish i would have seen them. Never too late and i might get the chance.
I hate Banjos BUT Bela changed all that for me, these musicians are the cream of the crop in any field & they are certainly the masters of the music they choose to play anyone that cant see this is simply a Moron with no concept of how good these guys are on their respective instruments & as far as their ensemble playing goes it is flawless.
I always thought the point of the Flecktones was to just have a “different” sound. Only thing different was adding a banjo into jazz. Reminded me of walking into a high school jazz band session.
So a thumbs down means it is bad, right? If Bela Fleck and the Flecktones is not your thing, that's cool. Just go watch something else. Who are these 12 people who think this bad? ...
Jonathan Zilk That might be it. I have a friend who plays banjo and he likes Bela Fleck but he says some other "traditional" banjo players don't like his playing.
Mike B they think it's bad because they got a brain like a mouse and they can listen only to manistream songs, made with four notes for the majority of humans: the assholes.
Great stuff... Really enjoy listening. Does my head in to try and watch though because for me the audio isn't lining up with the visual... Is it just me? Thanks for bothering to upload though, I'm still enjoying just listening.
Why is he afraid to call this wonderful music "jazz?" By any definition I can think of, jazz is what this music is. Is he afraid the word will scare people off?
Most of this is definitely jazz. Maybe he is saying that because some of their music doesn't have a jazz beat. Some uptight jazz purists/musicologists would say "true" jazz must always have swing feeling in the beat to be jazz - in addition to syncopation and improvisation, which are also musts. This usually has all 3, but not always. Same could be said for Miles Davis' more experimental stuff.
Flecktones never really had guest guitarists, but Derek Trucks played on the Little Worlds album, and Adrian Belew played on the Outbound album. The most impressive guest I ever saw (and heard) was Chris Thille on mandolin. He's on the Little Worlds album and I saw him guest with the Tones in 2002. Wow is that guy amazing.
I wish producers would get over themselves and just present the music. If you want to do interviews, that's great but if the interviews are actually interesting they should stand on their own, so give us the whole interview by itself, and the music by itself, instead of interrupting the music so you can show what great editing skills you have. This format was getting old 20 years ago, now it's just mindlessness-doing things the way they're always done. How about trying to actually show some respect for the music? Music doesn't need people to talk about it.
![Dave Matthews Band - #41 w/ The Flecktones - 4/20/02 - Ottawa - [32min Version] - [Upgrade]](/img/n.gif)
A band full of musical BEASTS who happen to be SUPER nice guys as well!
💥
0% Controversy
100% Musical genius. Victor Wooten is the reason I ever picked up any instrument and I bet that's true for a lot of Bass players or Banjo players because of these guys. Also any other instrument they have ever had on stage with them. They are just amazing
I went to see them as a tween in the late 80s/maybe 1990.
We got our tickets and had time to kill so we walked around the block the theater was on.
What did I see? Bela, Futureman, and Victor standing silently outside the back stage door watching a street busker the Chapman Stick - a beast to play in the best of circumstances. We all stood there watching him play, we all applauded like star struck idiots when his song finished, and we all bought his cassettes from his instrument case, and I got everyone to sign my ticket.
They were infinitely humble and kind. I don’t know if the stick player knew who they were, and they never mentioned, but I ALWAYS remember that they treated him with all the respect the Flecktones themselves god when the show started.
100% class acts. The best kind of humans.
Edit: this was THE album we all bought. The artist didn’t have it on his bandcamp until I emailed him asking to upload it. I might be biased, but I love it.
On the opening song, Coffin is switching back & forth from alto to tenor sax and I'm thinking, "He probably could've played all of that on either sax. It was neither really high nor really low." Then I see him start to play both saxes at the SAME TIME!! I will never question you again Jeff Coffin!! As you were...
That’s an old trick started by the trumpeter Clark Terry, he would switch between trumpet and flugelhorn and play both at once..Jeff’s awesome...I remember him at North Texas
Roland Kirk ?
...might be an old trick to stuff more than one horn in your mouth, it takes talent to make beautiful sounds
i'm just here because of victor... but man i never knew what kind of musician bela fleck is.. i'm blasted! he has very beautiful ideas and his way to tell storys trough his banjo is... oh man its unbelievable! great great great
Victor is NUTS!! I caught him semi-solo after bein' a Bela fan for a while. His whole first set was just him and a bass and you couldn't turn away!! No idea how one guy and one bass can do that. Second set was with his brother who is a SICK guitar player and plays the way Vic plays the bass. I think future man is his brother, too. Vic also does crazy survivalist stuff where he gets dropped off in a remote location with very little (if any) supplies & a map and compass and has to get to civilization!! GUYS CRAZY!!! (~);}
HuhnK0t I'm glad you discovered the wonderful world of Bela Fkeck and the Flecktones. Someone showed me a video of the band playing a song called, "Sinister Minister" way back in 1991, and I've been a fan ever since. They had a guy who played harmonica and piano/synths on the first 3 albums, named Howard Levy. His harmonica playing was a big part of the Flecktones' sound, so it wasn't the same when he left. That is until they got Jeff Coffin, a killer horn player. Eventually, Howard Levy came back and they recorded another album with him. Meanwhile, Jeff Coffin joined the Dave Matthews Band because they were in need of a sax player after their sax player died as a result of complications from an ATV accident. As for the future of the Flecktones, Futureman told me they were done. I met him at a drum clinic in Nashville and asked him what was next for the Flecktones. He said that unless there was some kind of reunion, then they were done, at least for the time being. And that's the basic gist of it so far.
drewper73 aaaawwww
Bela IS the best banjo player on earth. No matter who he plays with, he makes them better. Him and the Flecktones though...magic. Nuff said.
I miss when Jazz Alley used to be on Saturday nights here in Denver. I could usually catch a Bela Fleck and the Flecktones performance or two on there every week or two. But now there's the Internet, so I can just listen to this all day long...and that makes me glad.
Victor wooten is a beast ofcourse, bela fleck been a beast, but the sax guy played 2 sax's at once.... thats wild and the percussionist made a drum guitar machine? where have ii been?
+Seymour Hylton Actually he's not 100% right about the Drumitar. It's one of less than 100 SynthAxes that were manufactured in England and sold until 1988. It's a midi controller that Futureman has customized and uses to trigger a drum machine. Futureman has also created a micro-tonal scale based on the Periodic Table and written music based on it. He's Roy Wooten, Victor's brother. Gotta love the Flecktones. They redefine "Far Out", man!
Rahsaan Roland Kirk was perhaps the first to play multiple saxes at once. He was blinded as a newborn because a nurse mistook some sketchy chemicals for eyedrops at the hospital. Theres a great documentary on him called I Aye Eye
Don't forget about Howard Levy - Chromatically playing keyed harmonicas. He rejoined Bela in 2011.
I saw that feat in person when I was young. I play Alto and Baritone sax, and my parents blessed me with seeing the BF & the Fs when I was young. What really impressed me was that he could circular breath while simultaneously maintaining his embouchure for both! He's a witch for sure!
Probably the best musicians in the world together... Amazing!
You forgot the Anisotropy members, Mr Mark...
;)
DMB.
Truly amazing in my opinion. If you don't like this, you have no soul, or ears.
Seriously some of the best musicians to ever walk the face of the planet. Note that I said some, not THE, don't fucking argue with me lol :3
Bela Fleck is the only Bluegrass musician that kept it 100% REAL in terms of the banjo, its roots and where it actually came from. This level of 'honesty' should always be celebrated about him.
Saw this configuration a few times live. High quality music and super inspiring. Love these guys.
Béla's a quiet guy, so I appreciate the interview.
One of my first album's was Bela's first one (Crossing the Bridge), and I followed him through his early phases, including NGR. Of course I saw the Flecktones when I had the chance to see them in New Haven on their first tour back in 1991 at Toads. I'm so happy they rode their future ship as far as they did, cuz this 2007 was fantastic. Wish I'd been there. I hope they launch again because I only saw them a few times after that early spot.
Oh, and hooray to Future Man for the right-hand snare/high hat setup to accompany the synth-axe-drumitar.
Since you're here checking out interesting stuff by Béla, Tabula Rasa is worth a listen.
Bela's first album was Crossing the Tracks. The second one was Natural Bridge.
My hat's off to any guy who has the balls to play Bach on the banjo.
A friend plays Vivaldi, Bach, and Scarlatti on the Ukulele!
@William Boyle OMG!!! Please post!!
If you like Bach on banjo, you should check out Chris Thile doing Bach on the mandolin.
I played (Robin Trower's) Bridge of Sighs & Little Wing
(Jimi Hendrix) on a pedal steel.
More people should do the Dead Kennedy's "Chickenshit Conformist"
country, jazz, new age etc. style for exactly this reason!
Music doesn't have to have clear labels to be fabulous, excellent and moving!
First time i heard them was at Byron Bay Blues and Roots festival 2005. Fantastic. Asked Bela to come to NZ because it was costing me to go to Australia every year! Havent made it yet.
So goooooooood!!!!🎉🎉🎉
Bela is one of Chicago's treasures, for sure!
Bela is from New York. Howard Levy is from Brooklyn, but I believe lives in Evanston now.
My favourite instrumental band of all time .... Long live Bela Fleck and the Flecktones!!!!
Dear Bela
You have the greatest support players ever ! treasure Vic , Futch and Coff ! Pure magic !
Throwdown at the Hoedown melted my face off…Jeez.
I would never have guessed that a guy with a voice as high as Futureman's would be able to sing and sustain such low notes. At the beginning of their double cd "Live Art" you can hear him singing in the same manner, but to watch him do it? Wow! I got to see these guys at the Ryman Auditorium in Nashville, TN last year. What an incredible show! It was a nice break from all of the rock/alternative shows that I normally attend.
Like a slow running river gathering music with it's flow. Q
These guys are ALL monsters...like wow, where do they come from. Amazing
es un placer escucharlos !!!!!!!!
Unreal. Thanks for posting!
GREAT … BRILLIANT … MIND MELD AWAY YOU GENIUS MUSICIANS!
Increíble! Muchas gracias.
awesome. First time i ever heard these guys. Just absolutely awesome. Wonderful beyond words.
Proud to be up-clicker #1001!
Super! Thanks for sharing!
Hist stand-alone solo around 50:00 reminds me of harpsichord music!
Amazing would be an understatement.
First big "Mahalo" for the upload!! Thumbs up!! 1K likes and 34 thumbs up their ASS! I do look for spiritual pleasure and them comes close. Just give it up and enjoy. The victor dude is something else! But the banjo is the shit too and of course the others. Wish i would have seen them. Never too late and i might get the chance.
Excellent! I have 2 of their cd's.
Bluegrass and jazz sounds amazing
If you ever get a chance, check out Wooten's memoir on how his philosophy of music developed. He is exta-sensory or something.
What's the name of the book?
Deeply spiritual both brothers indeed. I feel Sojourn of Arjuna in every cell of my being..
Brilliant !!
Just Splendid!
😍
Amazing!❤️
Personally, I could do without the drum solo. But, I've seen these guys more than a dozen times, and they always leave me mindblown.
Marvelous Bach thème in thé last improvisation by Béla Feck
THANK YOU for posting this!! wicked cool!!
I hate Banjos BUT Bela changed all that for me, these musicians are the cream of the crop in any field & they are certainly the masters of the music they choose to play anyone that cant see this is simply a Moron with no concept of how good these guys are on their respective instruments & as far as their ensemble playing goes it is flawless.
Futureman's crazy with the beat.
love it !
Four of the world's finest.
I think these guys are actually aliens from planet "Holy Smokes!"
So, is that where "Cosmic Hippos," come from?
That bassist is really getting it ✌😎🔥🔥🔥
Victor wooten
OH.MY.GOD.
THANKS!
wow i really like teh man with teh boom boom noise
I always thought the point of the Flecktones was to just have a “different” sound. Only thing different was adding a banjo into jazz. Reminded me of walking into a high school jazz band session.
So, you want it to be different, it is different but you don't like the difference. You think good.
Music man… music… 🤩
The best in the world.
That's a first for me. Two saxes played simultaneously. Not bad.
Holy shit,!
Very beautiful music, a harmonica would've sounded great in there too!! -love Bela's pickin!💥
why can't this type of music be on the radio? (=
one word ! AMAZING ! well actually that is three ...
So apparently in the future there are pirates.
he has converted to pastafarianism.
you can really see that he was touched by his noodly appendage. may the sauce be with him.
¿What is the name for the first track? (Sorry for the bad English)
very first clip is Sunset Road. Throwdown at the hoedown is the first full track.
Bluejazz!!!
why do I always miss out on local shows like this.... GOD DAM PROMO SUCKS IN AUSTRALIA
Gooblento sure blame promo
So a thumbs down means it is bad, right? If Bela Fleck and the Flecktones is not your thing, that's cool. Just go watch something else. Who are these 12 people who think this bad? ...
Mike B it's probably just all his anal bluegrass fans that complain about how nontraditional these songs are.
Jonathan Zilk That might be it. I have a friend who plays banjo and he likes Bela Fleck but he says some other "traditional" banjo players don't like his playing.
Mike B they think it's bad because they got a brain like a mouse and they can listen only to manistream songs, made with four notes for the majority of humans: the assholes.
I bet a lot of these bluegrass purists who are put off by Bela's main use of the banjo have probably never heard him play bluegrass.
Hahaha right on reggie
spettacolari
What is that first song they are playing?
badass
we're not done yet
Is there anywhere I can get a high quality version of this? Maybe without the interview. I want good sound :(
No
Haha this version of P'lod is for crazy people. Love it!
... but at the end it's bluegrass prog/fusion.
+Reggie Postlethwaite or it's music.
22:00 Amazing Grace on bass solo?
Yes
Great stuff... Really enjoy listening. Does my head in to try and watch though because for me the audio isn't lining up with the visual... Is it just me? Thanks for bothering to upload though, I'm still enjoying just listening.
Sen Craine Seems in sync to me
it's fusion.
What's the name of the song they play right after Bela talks about Jeff Coffin's introduction to the band?
What the hell happened from about 1.44.21...that wasn't the tune he was playing.
Too bad its not sync might be a little behind for sure but who can tell/ he got lighting fingers.
Why does the video repeat after an hour?
OH MY GOD! O.O
It's so shame all pièces are in G (exept when thé band change keys) : the last track (Come together by thé Beatles : have a Naked City feelling)
Well, you have arrived.........unsurpassed.
I wonder how many drumitars Future Man has? I figure he must have at least one back-up when they're on tour, in case one stops working.
Can't leave out Howard Levy.
35:20
Why is he afraid to call this wonderful music "jazz?" By any definition I can think of, jazz is what this music is. Is he afraid the word will scare people off?
Most of this is definitely jazz. Maybe he is saying that because some of their music doesn't have a jazz beat. Some uptight jazz purists/musicologists would say "true" jazz must always have swing feeling in the beat to be jazz - in addition to syncopation and improvisation, which are also musts. This usually has all 3, but not always. Same could be said for Miles Davis' more experimental stuff.
@@daniellillian8604 What? Swing is one subgenre of jazz. There's much more to it than that
Could you please send me this concert in high quality?
Almost the lick at 31:52
Monkey See they’re playing?
wow A-MAY-ZANG!
0 dislike, of course
BlueJazz or JazzGrass?
Does humour belong in music? Without it, where's the fun? My wife is goin' to see Bela & Abigail at Womad in March, me can't go ☹
Mè cò!
i WATCHED loadsa bela fleck videos...WHY ? are there no Decent guitar players featured?
+liam deery I think he's still looking... ha! just kidding!
Hear ya Denny!..haha (",)
Flecktones never really had guest guitarists, but Derek Trucks played on the Little Worlds album, and Adrian Belew played on the Outbound album. The most impressive guest I ever saw (and heard) was Chris Thille on mandolin. He's on the Little Worlds album and I saw him guest with the Tones in 2002. Wow is that guy amazing.
Thanks for the heads up Ram4...Agreed Chris Thile is something else...will check out the other guys you mentioned...Cheers! (",)
Subterfuge!! Hell yes!!
Toe jam and earl
where? I love this game!
anyone else think the bass player looks like theo cosby?
I wish producers would get over themselves and just present the music. If you want to do interviews, that's great but if the interviews are actually interesting they should stand on their own, so give us the whole interview by itself, and the music by itself, instead of interrupting the music so you can show what great editing skills you have. This format was getting old 20 years ago, now it's just mindlessness-doing things the way they're always done. How about trying to actually show some respect for the music? Music doesn't need people to talk about it.
That doesn't make sense to me. I thought it was interesting to hear them talk and then listen to them play.
Philip +1 - Interview was nice to hear.
Saving the Banjo from the Racist/Inbred stereotype.
0:50
Bela Fleck will be the next Batman while Victor Wooten's gonna be Nightwing.