Béla Fleck and the Flecktones have had a landmark year in 2025. The groundbreaking fusion project led by banjoist Béla Fleck reunited this summer for their first real tour since celebrating their 30th anniversary in 2019. Now, the band is gearing up for another major milestone as they embark on the Jingle All the Way tour—a trek celebrating their Grammy-winning holiday album of the same name, culminating with a festive finale at New Orleans’ historic Joy Theater on December 20th [get tickets].
For the first time ever, the original quartet—featuring Fleck and his virtuosic bandmates Victor Wooten on bass, Roy “Future Man” Wooten on his one-of-a-kind drumitar, and Howard Levy on piano and harmonica—will be joined by saxophonist and former Flecktone Jeff Coffin (Dave Matthews Band) and renowned Tuvan throat singing ensemble Alash, who both appeared on the original recording.
The tour will bring the band through multiple regions before concluding in New Orleans on December 20th at the iconic Joy Theater. Known for its enchanting holiday atmosphere, New Orleans offers a uniquely picturesque setting during the Christmas season, with its historic architecture adorned in festive lights and decorations. For fans looking to escape winter weather, this snow-less holiday getaway provides the ideal combination: world-class music in one of America’s most magical cities during the most wonderful time of year. Tickets and VIP packages are available here.
In addition to the Jingle All the Way tour, the Flecktones will release a remastered version of the album on CD and limited-edition vinyl, available November 21st, just in time for the holidays (click here to pre-order).
View this post on Instagram
Released in 2008, Jingle All the Way was the band’s 13th studio album and the last to feature Coffin, who had joined the Flecktones in 1997, restoring the group to a quartet after Howard Levy’s 1992 departure. He remained until 2010, when he left to join Dave Matthews Band. The album comprises 16 far-out arrangements of festive tunes, including an ambitious rendition of “The 12 Days of Christmas” that builds up to 12 different keys and 12 different time signatures, and a medley of several Christmas classics described by Fleck as “five or six are being played together, simultaneously.”
“I have a long habit of pulling out my banjo and playing holiday songs while waiting for flights during the holiday season,” said Fleck. “These arrangements appeared and developed over the course of several years of airport holiday play and eventually some of them, in 2008, with the help of The Flecktones, turned into the album Jingle All The Way.”
Though grounded in the familiar, Jingle All the Way, much like the band itself, was far from traditional. Also like the band, it nonetheless was met with critical acclaim, reaching #1 on the Top Contemporary Jazz chart, the group’s first album to do so since 1991, and winning the 2009 Grammy Award for Best Pop Instrumental Album. “Sleigh Ride” was nominated for Best Country Instrumental Performance.
“Christmas music is inside everyone’s DNA,” Fleck said in a 2008 interview with The Washington Post, which named the Flecktones its Editor’s Pick that year. “Jingle All the Way is an open doorway for listeners to understand the Flecktones’ music.”
Béla Fleck and the Flecktones: Jingle All The Way 2025 Tour Teaser
The Jingle All the Way tour will kick off later this month with two nights at the Mother Church of Country Music, Nashville’s Ryman Auditorium, on November 26th and 28th before snaking its way through the Midwest with stops in Cincinnati, OH (11/29), Ann Arbor, MI (11/30), Champaign, IL (12/1), Grand Rapids, MI (12/2), and Chicago, IL (12/3).
From there, the band will head to the Northeast for shows in Ithaca, NY (12/5), Boston, MA (12/6), Portland, ME (12/7), Burlington, VT (12/9), and New York, NY, where the group will play its biggest NYC show to date at the legendary Beacon Theater (12/10) before continuing on to Rochester, NY (12/11), Philadelphia, Pa (12/12), and Stony Brook, NY (12/13).
The tour will then head south with stops in North Bethesda, MD (12/14), Charlottesville, VA (12/16), Durham, NC (12/17), Athens, GA (12/18), and Atlanta, GA (12/19), before the grand finale at the Joy Theater in New Orleans, LA on December 20th. Click below for a full list of tour dates.
Limited tickets remain available here. Most shows, including the Joy Theater, will have the option for a VIP pre-show experience with an intimate soundcheck performance, Q&A with the band, and exclusive merchandise.
The band has also shared a previously unreleased solo banjo medley of “The First Noel/Joy To The World” that was recorded back in 2008 but didn’t make it on the original CD. Listen to the track below or click here to stream it on your preferred digital platform and pre-order the remastered album on CD or limited-edition vinyl.
Béla Fleck And The Flecktones – “The First Noel/Joy To The World”
Formed in 1988 for a single performance on PBS’ Lonesome Pine Special, Béla Fleck & The Flecktones began touring in 1989 and garnered widespread acclaim with their adventurous fusion of classical, jazz, bluegrass, African music, blues, and Eastern European folk.
“The band was so fresh and powerful that we all wanted more of it,” said Victor Wooten, who auditioned for the band over the phone and volunteered his brother Roy to play percussion. “I think we gave other musicians the courage to be different.”
The band accumulated a number of accolades, including 13 Grammy nominations and six Grammy wins.
