Years ago, banjo player Bela Fleck could be found busking on the streets of Boston. Since then, he's been a featured performer with the Boston Pops Orchestra — and on Saturday he'll be with the Utah Symphony in a Deer Valley pops concert.
Fleck, along with his band the Flecktones, will wrap up this week's Deer Valley Music Festival offerings with their unusual blend of bluegrass, funk and jazz. (The festival continues through Aug. 21.)
"It's a band of virtuoso musicians that play music that mixes a lot of different styles into something new or something individual," Fleck said during a telephone interview, adding that the program will feature arrangements of some of their songs with the orchestra. "It really fleshes them out real big and it's a lot of fun, like making the orchestra play like a big fiddle. Sometimes it's funky or jazzy. I think it's a way, way bigger version of the Flecktones."
Named after composer Bela Bartok, Fleck has some classical leanings — in spite of his jazz and bluegrass roots. His Grammy-Award-winning CD "Perpetual Motion" features Fleck with Joshua Bell, Evelyn Glennie and John Williams on works by Bach, Chopin, Beethoven and other classical composers. And future classical ventures may not be far behind.
Recently, Fleck said that he and Edgar Meyer premiered a concerto for banjo and bass with the National Symphony. Someday, he hopes to write a Flecktones concerto, where there's greater participation by the orchestra, rather than the arrangement-type fleshing-out that is found at pops concerts.
In the meantime, Fleck spends most of his time with his band in a different musical world. This year will mark his 23rd appearance at the Telluride festival — and 14th year as bandleader of the Flecktones. "I love that festival, because it's a bluegrass festival, but it isn't a bluegrass festival at the same time. There are lots of great musicians to collaborate with, and they do a lot of different types of music. They've been very welcoming of me, very supportive of me trying to do different things with the banjo."
Fleck said that his love affair with the banjo began at a young age. "I was a little kid growing up in New York City when I heard 'The Beverly Hillbillies' coming across the TV, and I was really knocked out by that sound. It made me really excited, made me want to play music."
He said it wasn't until seven or eight years later that he actually got a banjo and began playing. By the time he was out of high school, he was already more interested in music than college. "I was lucky because my mother was pregnant while I was in high school, so she and my stepfather were very busy. So somehow I snuck through and managed to get through high school without applying to any colleges. So when I got out of high school, I went straight into playing music."
Although his parents did push him to go to college, Fleck had already set his own course for the music world. He said he'd keep his options open, but he gradually got so deep into it that there was no turning back. After living in Boston for several years, he moved to Kentucky and eventually Nashville, which is where he"s still based today.
If you go. . .
What: Bela Fleck & the Flecktones, Utah Symphony
Where: Deer Valley Resort, Park City
When: Saturday, 7:30 p.m.
How much: $34-$42
Phone: 355-2787
Web: www.arttix.org
E-mail: rcline@desnews.com