''Béla Fleck and the Flecktones'' is the first album by the band of the same name, released in 1990. It reached number 17 on the

Billboard A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large advertise ...

Top Contemporary Jazz Albums chart. At the

Grammy Awards of 1997 The 39th Annual Grammy Awards were held on February 26, 1997, at Madison Square Garden, New York City. They recognized accomplishments by musicians from the previous year. Babyface was the night's biggest winner, with 3 awards. Celine Dion, Toni ...

, a live version of "The Sinister Minister", a track from the album, won the

Best Pop Instrumental Performance The Grammy Award for Best Pop Instrumental Performance was awarded between 1969 and 2011. *In 1969 it was awarded as Best Contemporary-Pop Performance, Instrumental *From 1970 to 1971 it was awarded as Best Contemporary Instrumental Performance ...

award.

Reception

In his

Allmusic AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the databas ...

review, music critic

Brian Mansfield Brian Mansfield (born September 24, 1963) is an American writer and journalist. Early life and education Mansfield grew up in Nashville, Tennessee. He graduated from David Lipscomb High School. In 1984, Mansfield received a bachelor's degre ...

praised the album and wrote "For all the flash, there's little pretense; the group's astonishing musicianship keeps an 'aw-shucks' accessibility that lets everybody follow the melody while they marvel."

Track listing

All songs by

Béla Fleck Béla Anton Leoš Fleck (born July 10, 1958) is an American banjo player. An acclaimed virtuoso, he is an innovative and technically proficient pioneer and ambassador of the banjo, bringing the instrument from its bluegrass roots to jazz, classi ...

unless otherwise noted. #"Sea Brazil" – 3:43 #"Frontiers" – 6:08 #"Hurricane Camille" – 2:38 #"Half Moon Bay" – 5:09 #"The Sinister Minister" – 4:38 #"Sunset Road" – 5:04 #"Flipper" – 4:21 #"Mars Needs Women: Space is a Lonely Place" – 5:01 #"Mars Needs Women: They're Here" – 3:30 #"Reflections of Lucy" (B. Fleck/

John Lennon John Winston Ono Lennon (born John Winston Lennon; 9 October 19408 December 1980) was an English singer, songwriter, musician and peace activist who achieved worldwide fame as founder, co-songwriter, co-lead vocalist and rhythm guitarist of ...

Paul McCartney Sir James Paul McCartney (born 18 June 1942) is an English singer, songwriter and musician who gained worldwide fame with the Beatles, for whom he played bass guitar and shared primary songwriting and lead vocal duties with John Lennon. One ...

) – 3:38 #"Tell It to the Gov'nor" – 4:06

Single

The only single out of the album was "The Sinister Minister". The music video received heavy airplay on

MTV MTV (Originally an initialism of Music Television) is an American cable channel that launched on August 1, 1981. Based in New York City, it serves as the flagship property of the MTV Entertainment Group, part of Paramount Media Networks, a di ...

and VH1 back in the early-90's. Because of the popularity of the video, it was featured on an episode of VH1's ''

Pop-Up Video ''Pop Up Video'' is a VH1 television show that shows music videos annotated via "pop-up" bubbles — officially called "info nuggets" — containing trivia and witticisms relating to the video in question. The show was created by Woody T ...

'' and won a

Grammy The Grammy Awards (stylized as GRAMMY), or simply known as the Grammys, are awards presented by the Recording Academy of the United States to recognize "outstanding" achievements in the music industry. They are regarded by many as the most pre ...

in 1997, despite being a 1990 song.

Personnel

–

banjo The banjo is a stringed instrument with a thin membrane stretched over a frame or cavity to form a resonator. The membrane is typically circular, and usually made of plastic, or occasionally animal skin. Early forms of the instrument were fashi ...

Howard Levy Howard Levy (born July 31, 1951) is an American multi-instrumentalist. A keyboardist and virtuoso harmonica player, Levy "has been realistically presented as one of the most important and radical harmonica innovators of the twentieth century. ...

–

diatonic harmonica The harmonica, also known as a French harp or mouth organ, is a free reed wind instrument used worldwide in many musical genres, notably in blues, American folk music, classical music, jazz, country, and rock. The many types of harmonica inclu ...

(tracks 1, 2, 4, 5, 8-11),

synth A synthesizer (also spelled synthesiser) is an electronic musical instrument that generates audio signals. Synthesizers typically create sounds by generating waveforms through methods including subtractive synthesis, additive synthesis and f ...

(tracks 5, 11),

synthesizers A synthesizer (also spelled synthesiser) is an electronic musical instrument that generates audio signals. Synthesizers typically create sounds by generating waveforms through methods including subtractive synthesis, additive synthesis and ...

(tracks 5, 6, 8, 10),

piano The piano is a stringed keyboard instrument in which the strings are struck by wooden hammers that are coated with a softer material (modern hammers are covered with dense wool felt; some early pianos used leather). It is played using a keyboa ...

(tracks 1-4, 6, 7, 10), Jew's harp (track 2),

güiro The güiro () is a Puerto Rican percussion instrument consisting of an open-ended, hollow gourd with parallel notches cut in one side. It is played by rubbing a stick or tines (see photo) along the notches to produce a ratchet sound. The güiro ...

(track 5) * Roy "Future Man" Wooten – Synth-Axe

Drumitar A Zendrum is a hand-crafted MIDI controller that is used as a percussion instrument. The Zendrum was influenced by the "Drumitar," invented by Future Man. There are several Zendrum models that are well-suited for live performances: the Z1, ZX, E ...

Victor Wooten Victor Lemonte Wooten (born September 11, 1964) is an American bassist, songwriter, and record producer. He has been the bassist for Béla Fleck and the Flecktones since the group's formation in 1988 and a member of the band SMV with two other ...

– bass *Camille Harrison (uncredited) - vocals (track 6)

Production notes

*Produced by

with the Flecktones *Carlos Grier – editing *Bil VornDick – mixing *Denny Purcell – mastering *Mark Fox – artwork, design *Laura LiPuma – art direction *Jim McGuire – photography

Chart positions

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bela Fleck And The Flecktones Béla Fleck and the Flecktones albums 1990 debut albums Warner Records albums