THE humble banjo does not inspire visions of the further reaches of musical ambition. Its associations are traditional, its sound reassuring. But try telling that to Bela Fleck. This five-string wizard, trained in New York's High School of the Performing Arts, and acclaimed by bluegrass aficionados for his playing with the New Grass Revival, is currently crossing the crossovers with his band, The Flecktones, and doing very nicely thank you.
"We couldn't be doing better here these days," he says on the telephone. "Instead of being seen as a strong jazz band, we are talked about as a band which could make it big, which sort of strikes me as silly, though exciting nonetheless. Because all we are doing is what we want to do musically. We are not trying to be commercial, but what we do is clearly pleasing to a lot of people."
They certainly are not bending their principles in an attempt to attract a wider audience, if their forthcoming Live Art double cd on Warner Bros is any guide. Fleck and his friends' musical journey takes them on a jazz- influenced tour with passing references to a host of influences, from South African rhythms to his old friend, bluegrass. It is a musician's set, for those who appreciate the finer points of musicianship and the fusion of any number of styles.
"I think the US is a large country and there are a lot of people out there who feel disenfranchised by the music put out on the main channels for them to soak up. A lot of people are insulted by it ... most pop music insults their intelligence. The truth is that there are a lot of people in the US who the record companies don't know how to access, who like something a little different."
But how has that gone down with traditional bluegrass lovers? "A lot of people have been pushing the banjo for a long time, so many of these battles had been fought before I came around. It's probably like if you wanted to do different things in Irish music, it was probably a lot easier after Donal Lunny. Around here there were other guys who made a lot of ground. So when I came along I was just the latest weird banjo player. And I came from New York City so I wasn't expected to be a traditionalist. I got very successful in that world and I was accepted, but that wasn't what I wanted to do with my life all the way. I was just as big a fan of Chick Corea and Return To Forever as I was of Alison Krauss."
Fleck champions diversity. Along with the other members of his band he enjoys solo projects, including a recent recording with bassist Edgar Meyer. In the recent past he produced records by Maura O'Connell among others, and he has fond memories of Co Clare. But it is the music of The Flecktones which is his current passion: "I love a lot of different kinds of music, so instead of just doing one kind of music all the time I decided it would be nice to do everything, find some way of putting it altogether." He has.