Bela Fleck & The Flecktones meld diverse sounds

In a studio full of virtuoso musicians with diverse artists such as Bobby McFerrin and The Chieftans sitting in, a recording session could spiral and lose its focus.

But staying loose is what gives Bela Fleck & The Flecktones its unique sound. The Grammy Award-winning band, which blends bluegrass, jazz and pop, isn’t afraid of exploring new musical realms. And that spirit is reflected in the group’s latest release, “Little Worlds,” which features Bobby McFerrin, The Chieftans, Divinity, Branford Marsalis and Nickel Creek.

“We were just trying to be open,” explained banjo virtuoso and New York City native B?la Fleck, who will perform with The Flecktones at the Maine Center for the Arts in Orono at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 8. “And once we opened that Pandora’s box of ‘Oh, it’s OK to have a few people play on it,’ things can get out of control, which they did, and we decided that that was OK.”

When a European tour was called off in the fall of 2001, Fleck along with his bassist, Victor Wooten, percussionist Future Man and saxophonist Jeff Coffin, found themselves without a rigid time limit as they began working on a new album. This meant more time to play, more time to record and more time to experiment.

“After we got stuff recorded we started wanting to try adding things to it,” Fleck recalled, speaking from Nashville where he lives. “It was kind of natural, like somebody would show up in town and we’d say ‘Wow, Branford [Marsalis] is in town, maybe it’d be OK just to have Branford on the record.’ Or then we’d go ‘Wow, Chris Thile just sat in with us and it was really great, maybe we ought to have him on that tune, it’d be OK.’ And pretty soon it started to mushroom.”

And mushroom it did. “Little Worlds,” the follow-up to their 2000 Grammy-winning album “Outbound,” is three discs of the group’s trademark fusion of diverse musical styles. Along with melding jazz, pop and bluegrass, the band features guest artists Bobby McFerrin, Branford Marsalis, The Chieftains and Nickel Creek.

“Every collaboration had a wonderful thing about it,” Fleck said.

One of the album’s most unique collaborative tracks is a cover of the Flatt & Scruggs song “The Ballad of Jed Clampett,” which first inspired Fleck to pick up the banjo at age 15. On “Little Worlds,” the song is re-imagined as rap with vocals provided by McFerrin and female artist Divinity.

“I guess that song is in my head more than I want to admit. It keeps popping up, like when I’m playing a banjo solo, suddenly I’ll find myself playing it or if I’m doing a radio show and they ask me to bring my banjo,” Fleck explained.

While not all the Flecktones were sure whether or not the song would actually work, they all seemed pleased with the end result.

“It ended up being real cool and sort of a microcosm of what the band is all about in terms of blending all kinds of different things,” Fleck said.

For tickets, call the Maine Center for the Arts Box Office at 581-1755.