In the hands of Béla Fleck, a banjo is a skeleton key, capable of unlocking almost any musical door. Among the most acclaimed artists of our era, Fleck has brought his fretboard finesse not only to bluegrass settings but also to progressive fusion; chamber and orchestral works; African folk music; and much more. This episode catches him in the banjo parlor of Vintage Instruments, a retail and repair shop just down Broad Street from the Kimmel Center. Fleck was in town with the Flecktones, his proudly uncategorizable flagship band, and the conversation naturally touched on musical legacies, personal histories, and how his perspective has changed (and how it hasn’t) over the course of a nearly five-decade career.
Watch this episode via the link below:
