The Chick Corea Elektric Band and Béla Fleck & The Flecktones, two of the most innovative bands of the last 30 years, are finally joining forces, for their first co-headlining performances.  These two bands — led by 22-time Grammy winning piano master Chick Corea and 15-time Grammy-winning Banjo virtuoso Béla Fleck — occupy the top tier of truly thrilling improvised music.  Sharing a marquee for the first time, they now make for one of the year’s most anticipated summer concert events at Michigan Lottery Amphitheatre at Freedom Hill on Saturday, August 12 at 7:30 p.m.

Tickets at $99.50, $75, $49.50 and $29.50 in the Crest Ford pavilion go on sale Friday, April 28 at 10 a.m. at Livenation.com, Palacenet.com, The Palace Ticket Store and all Ticketmaster locations. Tickets may also be charged by phone to American Express, Discover, Visa and MasterCard by calling 800.745.3000.

The Chick Corea Elektric Band is one of very few jazz ensembles to truly revolutionize the artform. Their eponymous debut album came like a bolt from the blue in 1985, marrying the freight-train velocity of jazz, rock, latin and funk with sonic inventions that still sound futuristic.  This is the classic quintet — Chick Corea on piano, Dave Weckl on drums, John Patitucci on bass, Eric Marienthal on sax, Frank Gambale on guitar — that produced an untouchable string of albums in the 1980s.  The shockwave of their influence runs from hip-hop to EDM to today’s most essential jazz searchers like Snarky Puppy.

Groundbreaking banjoist/composer/bandleader Béla Fleck has reconvened the original Béla Fleck & The Flecktones, the extraordinary initial line-up of his incredible combo, with pianist/harmonica player Howard Levy back in the fold alongside Fleck, bassist Victor Wooten, and percussionist/drumitarist Roy “Futureman” Wooten.  Fleck first united the band in 1988, with a bond forged in a mutual passion for creativity and artistic advancement.  The Flecktones’ music is an impossible-to-pigeonhole sound all their own, a meeting of musical minds that remains, as ever, utterly indescribable.

The Chick Corea Elektric Band and Béla Fleck & The Flecktones at Michigan Lottery Amphitheatre at Freedom Hill is part of the Fifth Third Bank Concert Series.