BELA FLEXES MUSICAL MUSCLES.

Byline: Sandra Barrera Staff Writer

Bela Fleck is at ease playing everything from bluegrass to jazz and even pop.

But classical?

``Man, it's the hardest I've ever had to work on anything,'' says Fleck, the freewheeling banjo virtuoso who recently put the finishing touches on his classical music debut.

The album is yet to be titled. But according to New York publicist Kate Andrews at Shore Fire Media, Fleck's interpretations of Bach, Beethoven and other masters' works are scheduled for release sometime in the fall on Sony Classics.

It won't be the last to come from the banjo picker, either.

Since Fleck and his progressive jazz ensemble the Flecktones signed with Columbia Records and Sony Classics last year, they agreed to release five albums between the labels.

Their first was the August release of the jazz fusion album ``Outbound,'' which brings the band to the Wiltern Theatre tonight. In addition, Fleck has committed to recording a solo jazz album and a follow-up to his classical debut.

The classical album is one of a few projects already in the can from the 42-year-old. Other projects he is working on include a bluegrass theme for the Disney feature ``The Country Bears'' and a DVD of the Flecktones taped during a concert at Fairfield University in Connecticut.

For that concert the Flecktones were joined by a horn section, tabla player, steel drummers and Tuvan throat singers, who have the ability to carry on two musical lines simultaneously.

``It was all that I could hope for on one stage,'' he says of the concert. ``It was multiracial music with all kinds of incredible people making music together. It was a special show.''

Fleck regards each of his projects as special, but puts an even greater emphasis on the classical.

It is the only style of music Fleck, named after the early-20th-century Hungarian composer Bela Bartok, has steered clear of since picking up the banjo at the age of 15.

``I almost couldn't have done it before now because technically it's so demanding,'' he says.

In fact, Fleck spent the past year up to his ears in classical music in preparation for this solo venture.

``It's taken me that long to learn it and play it in such a way that I feel it's good enough,'' he says.

The album includes the works of Bach, Beethoven, Chopin, Paganini, Tchaikovsky and Debussy as performed by Fleck and a distinguished group of musicians: Joshua Bell on violin, John Williams on guitar, Edgar Meyer on bass, Gary Hoffman on cello and Evelyn Glennie on percussion.

``I'm usually used to improvising,'' says Fleck. ``But in this case, every single note is scripted. Every single note has to be played as written.

``It's really putting the banjo into a whole different place,'' he says, ``which, of course, I love.''

BELA FLECK AND THE FLECKTONES

Where: Wiltern Theatre, 3790 Wilshire Blvd., Los Angeles.

When: 8 tonight.

Tickets: $27.50 to $35. Call [phone].

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Photo:

Banjo maestro Bela Fleck, right, and his band, the Flecktones, recorded an album of classical music due out in the fall; they are already planning a sequel.