What's happening?

Thanks for joining us in the Wong Notes podcast today.

My name is Corey Wong.

I am your host.

Today is a very special episode for me because I get to interview one of my absolute heroes.

And when I say that, I actually met it more than just musically because the first time I saw

Bela Fleck and the Flecktones live, I was a teenager.

I saw them at the Minnesota Zoo Amphitheater.

And for some reason that night, the music they played and the way they played, the way that it just connected with me emotionally, in some way, it gave me permission to do music the way that I do it now. And that sounds so weird and I don't know

how I got there or how that transpired in me. And I don't know whether that was their intention.

I think they were just there to play a fun show. But the music touched me in such a way

that I really connected. It was a fork in the road for me. I decided that music

was going to be my life after seeing them. That's such a weird and crazy thing. But, hey, I can't

explain it. It just is what it is. Baila Fleck, incredible musician. There are very few people

in the world and very few instruments that are out there that have this thing

where you say an instrument and the general population thinks of one person because of their

impact on that instrument. Chello, yo-yo-ma, mandolin, Chris Thiele, banjo, bela flak. I'm trying to

think of other things like that. I know there's a couple other instruments. Whatever.

Fact of the matter is, he is the top of the game on the banjo, and he's incredible.

And by the way, he grew up in New York City. He went to high school. His high school band,

he had a thing with Marcus Miller, Omar Hakeem, with

Kenny Washington. This is insane. I can't believe that that was a high school class. It almost

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