Bela Fleck & The Flecktones Perform at Jorgensen, 3/24

Béla Fleck & the Flecktones are back in session. Fleck, the banjoist, composer and bandleader, toured last year with Zakir Hussain and Edgar Meyer, stopping at Jorgensen in April. This year he's back at Jorgensen with the original Grammy-winning lineup of his swinging combo, the Flecktones, on Saturday, March 24, at 8 p.m.

Fleck and the Flecktones will be performing new music from "Rocket Science," the first recording in 20 years by the original fab four Flecktones – Howard Levy, pianist/harmonica player who returned in 2009; bassist Victor Wooten, and RoyEl "Futureman" Wooten, percussionist and "Drumitarist."

"Rocket Science" leapt to No. 1 on both Billboard's and Soundscan's jazz charts.

This latest fare is no reunion tour but a communion of styles, from jazz, classical and African to bluegrass and electric blues, with a little Eastern European folk dance blended in, to once again showcase the unique sound of this indescribable quartet.

"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."

Fleck initiated the Flecktones in 1988 for what he thought would be a single PBS performance on "Lonesome Pine Special." But the kinship of innovators was special, yielding live performances and three breakthrough recordings before Levy left in 1992. Enter saxophonist Jeff Coffin, who stayed for an era that netted five Grammy Awards before he left, joining the Dave Mathews Band in 2008, upon the death of sax player LeRoi Moore.

The Flecktones went on a brief hiatus but, feeling the pull, recruitEd Levy in 2009 to join them on tour in the United States and Europe. In early 2010, Fleck and Levy began collaborating on new material at Levy's Illinois home, resurrecting Levy's own "Joyful Spring" and co-writing "Life In Eleven" – winner of the 2012 Grammy for Best Instrumental Composition – for the new album. Inspired by Levy's passion for Bulgarian dance rhythm, Fleck and Victor Wooten wrote "Almost 12," earning a "Best Instrumental Composition" Grammy in 1998. But with Levy back, writing a Flecktones piece, using a rare 11/8 or 11/16 time signature was to Fleck "unfinished business," and voilà, another Grammy winner.

Other past compositions, such as Futureman's "The Secret Drawer," Victor Wooten's "Like Water," and Fleck's own "Earthling Parade" and "Storm Warning" have been resurrected for "Rocket Science," recorded in Fleck's home studio in Nashville.

In this renewal, Fleck calls Levy "an incendiary player" who forces the band out of its comfort zone and "into our higher selves." 

Many Flecktones fans have never heard the charter members perform live. As Futureman says, "It's like people that started watching 'Star Trek: The Next Generation' and never got to meet Captain Kirk. So here we go, the original crew of the Enterprise coming together on a new mission."

Jorgensen Center for the Performing Arts is located at 2132 Hillside Road on the UConn campus in Storrs. Tickets are $30, $27 and $25, with some discounts. For tickets and information, call the Box Office 11 a.m.–5 p.m. Mon–Fri at 860.486.4226, or order online at: jorgensen.uconn.edu. Free, convenient parking is available across the street in the North Garage.

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