Béla Anton Leoš Fleck, who is named after famous Hungarian composer Béla Bartók and Czech composers Antonín Dvořák and Leoš Janáček, was drawn to the banjo when he first heard Earl Scruggs play the theme song for the television show Beverly Hillbillies. He received his first banjo at age fifteen from his grandfather (1973).[1][2] He was a member of the class of 1976 at P.S. 75 (the Emily Dickinson School) in Manhattan. Later, Fleck enrolled in New York City’s High School of Music and Art where he studied the French horn, though he couldn’t make a sound on it. He was a banjo student under Tony Trischka.
Almost immediately after high school, Fleck traveled to Boston to play with Jack Tottle and Mark Schatz in Tasty Licks. During this period, Fleck released his first solo album (1979): Crossing the Tracks and made his first foray into progressive-bluegrass composition.
Fleck played on the streets of Boston with bassist Mark Schatz; and the two formed Spectrum: the Band in 1981. Fleck toured with Spectrum until 1981. That year, Sam Bush asked Fleck to join New Grass Revival. Fleck performed with New Grass Revival for nine years. During this time, Fleck recorded another solo album, Drive. It was nominated for a Grammy Award in the then first-time category of Best Bluegrass Album (1988).
Bela Fleck and Victor Wooten formed Béla Fleck and the Flecktones in 1988, rounded out with harmonica player Howard Levy and Wooten’s percussionist brother Roy "Future Man" Wooten, who played synthesizer-based percussion. Levy left the group in 1992, making the band a trio until Saxophonist Jeff Coffin joined the group onstage part-time in 1997, eventually becoming a permanent member. His first studio recording with the band was their 1998 album Left of Cool.In 1996 he appeared on the tribute Album to Hank Marvin one of his influences and The Shadows "Twang" playing a Shadows UK hit from the 1960s "The Stranger". With the Flecktones, Fleck has been nominated for and won several Grammy awards.