Béla Fleck to play Dublin

For the first time in almost 20 years, Béla Fleck will reconvene with his fellow Flecktones for a virtuoso show at the National Concert Hall. The quartet are famous for their legendary jam sessions that mix jazz, folk, bluegrass, electric and all manner of other things to produce epic performances that often send the audience into trance-like awe.

It’s not quite everyone’s cup of tea, but The Flecktones are a must-see for drooling musos and students alike. If anything, Fleck himself is the holy grail of banjo players, and Victor Wooten has a similar effect on aspiring bassists the world over.

In a band of equal parts, pianist and harmonica player Howard Levy will be welcomed back into the fold after a two-decade hiatus. And if you’ve never heard of a Drumitar (clue: it’s not quite a drum, not quite a guitar) then you’ve a real treat in store with oddball percussionist Futureman.

“All the different things I do come together to make a new ‘hybrid’,” Béla Fleck says. “Everybody else in the group is doing the same things, collaborating with different people, and pursuing a wide variety of ideas, so when we come together and put all of our separate soups into one big stockpot it turns into a very diverse concoction.”

The band have also just released a brand new album called Rocket Science. Tickets are priced €35/€20 for students with no booking fee and are on sale via The National Concert Hall Box Office – telephone 01 417 0000 or online [link]www.nch.ie[/link]