Chick Corea & Bela Fleck Win 'Best Jazz Instrumental Album' GRAMMY for Final Duo LP, 'Remembrance'
Fleck also marked his Grammy stage debut with a solo banjo arrangement of “Rhapsody in Blue."
Remembrance, the final duo album from banjo great Béla Fleck and the legendary Chick Corea, earned the 2025 Grammy Award for Best Jazz Instrumental Album. “What an incredible privilege to share this honor with my hero, mentor and dear friend,” says Fleck. “There will never be another like him.”
“With Béla, our duet has become so simpatico, and comfortable–comfortable spiritually.” Corea said in 2015. “And not meaning that we’re not adventuring musically, but I know that whatever we’re going to do is going to be musical.”
“I know my father would be very grateful and proud of this award,” adds Chick’s daughter, Liana Corea. “He cherished his creative partnership with Béla so very dearly, and Remembrance is a fitting tribute to the magic they made together. Thank you to Béla and everyone else who helped make this possible.”
Fleck, now a 19-time Grammy award winner, marked his Grammy stage debut with a solo banjo arrangement of “Rhapsody in Blue.” Fleck’s Grammy-nominated album Rhapsody in Blue was released February 12, 2024, a hundred years to the day the Gershwin piece premiered the piece in New York City.
On Friday, January 31 at the 2025 MusiCares Persons of the Year tribute to the Grateful Dead, Fleck collaborated with Noah Kahan for their rendition of “Friend of the Devil.” Watch the performance below.
TOUR DATES
Feb 22 Columbia, SC South Carolina Philharmonic +
Feb 28 San Francisco, CA A Celebration of the Life and Music of Zakir Hussain +
March 24-25 Minneapolis, MN Dakota %
March 27 Knoxville, TN Big Ears Festival %
March 29-30 San Francisco, CA Presidio Theatre %
April 26 Idaho Falls, ID Idaho Falls Symphony #
May 11 Tarrytown, NY Tarrytown Music Hall %
May 12 Lebanon, NH Lebanon Opera House %
May 13 Princeton, NJ McCarter Theatre %
May 14 Norfolk, VA Virginia Arts Festival %
May 16 Bentonville, AR FreshGrass Bentonville
May 22-25 Seattle, WA Jazz Alley %
June 17 Winnipeg, CAN Winnipeg Jazz Festival %
June 19 Boulder, CO Chautauqua Auditorium %
June 21 Telluride, CO Telluride Bluegrass Festival %
June 22 Telluride, CO Telluride Bluegrass Festival*
+ with Abigail Washburn
% with Antonio Sanchez and Edmar Castañeda
# Béla solo
*with Telluride House Band
About Béla Fleck
19-time Grammy winner Béla Fleck—the world's premier banjo virtuoso and a celebrated musical adventurer—has both explored his instrument's complex global history and unlocked the breadth of its possibilities. For over 30 years, he has led Béla Fleck & The Flecktones, the groundbreaking quartet inspired by jazz, funk, bluegrass and beyond. He has written and performed three banjo concertos and traced the African origins of the banjo with the award-winning 2009 documentary Throw Down Your Heart. Collaborators include Abigail Washburn, the Brooklyn Rider String Quartet, Chris Thile, The Blind Boys of Alabama, McCoy Tyner, Zakir Hussain, Edgar Meyer, and Rakesh Churasia (their latest album As We Speak won two Grammys in 2024). His album Rhapsody in Blue was released February 12 on the centennial of its premiere, and he performed the work at Carnegie Hall with an orchestra in 2024. His Grammy-winning project My Bluegrass Heart, is named in honor of his friend and hero Chick Corea (My Spanish Heart). Béla and Chick have toured as a duo and released three acclaimed albums, including their latest and final duo project, Remembrance (2024). In 2025, he will release a trio record with drummer Antonio Sanchez and harpist Edmar Castañeda
Photo Credit: Hazel Coonagh
Comments
Videos