Apr 29, 2025 11:53 AM
Vocalist Andy Bey Dies at 85
Singer Andy Bey, who illuminated the jazz scene for five decades with a four-octave range that encompassed a bellowing…
Béla Fleck & The Flecktones (top) and Chick Corea’s Elektric Band will join forces for a multi-city tour from Aug. 5–21, 2017.
(Photo: Courtesy Kurland Agency)DownBeat Critics Poll Award winners Béla Fleck and Chick Corea proved a dynamic pairing on two albums released in the past decade, The Enchantment (2007, Concord) and Two (2015, Concord). Now, the two will join forces for a North American tour with their respective groups—The Flecktones and Elektric Band—from Aug. 5–21, 2017.
The shows will feature the original lineups of both bands.
Béla Fleck & The Flecktones have been performing and recording as a unit for more than three decades, winning six Grammy Awards in the process. For the 2017 tour, Fleck has reunited the original lineup of his band—Victor Wooten (bass), Roy Wooten/aka Future Man (drumitar) and Howard Levy (harmonica and keyboard). UFO Tofu (Warner Bros.), released in 1992, was the last album recorded by this lineup.
The Chick Corea Elektric Band, formed in 1986, has for decades experimented with musical forms and genres. With Corea on keyboards and electronics, the Elektric Band has delivered seven albums to date, the last of which, To The Stars, was released in 2004 on Stretch Records. The entire classic quintet will be on stage: John Patitucci (bass), Frank Gambale (guitar), Eric Marienthal (saxophone) and Dave Weckl (drums).
“It kind of slows down, but it’s still kind of productive in a way, because you have something that you can be inspired by,” Andy Bey said on a 2019 episode of NPR Jazz Night in America, when he was 80. “The music is always inspiring.”
Apr 29, 2025 11:53 AM
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