A 15-time Grammy Award winner, banjo master Bela Fleck excels in such a dizzying array of styles — from bluegrass, folk and jazz to classical, country and world music — that it was fitting when he named "Vertigo" the opening number on his captivating new album, "My Bluegrass Heart." Then, reality threw him an unexpected curve ball.

"I actually got vertigo after writing the song, which was not fun," Fleck said. "I thought it was a funny song name, but it's not funny anymore."

He chuckled wryly at the memory of his thankfully short-lived vertigo experience.

"I only had it once, for about a week, and got over it just in time to hit the road and do a solo concert," said Fleck.

"I had vertigo all the way up to when I went on stage and started to play. By the end of the concert, I didn't have it anymore. Music really does have healing powers!"

As knotty in melodic and rhythmic construction as its title suggests, "Vertigo" kicks off Fleck's first bluegrass album in 20 years.

Hearing him enthusiastically describe "Vertigo's" serpentine framework underscores a few key components of Fleck's exceptionally far-ranging career. His collaborators have included jazz piano greats Chick Corea and McCoy Tyner, funk bass king Bootsy Collins, Grateful Dead co-founder Jerry Garcia and classical violin mainstay Joshua Bell. Other artists he has worked with range from Dolly Parton, the Nashville Symphony and the Dave Matthews Band to Malian kora innovator Toumani Diabate and Indian percussion master Zakir Hussain.

"The rhythmic approach in 'Vertigo' is one of the first things you learn if you hang with Indian musicians," Fleck explained. "It's got three phrases that all land on the down beat. I thought to myself: 'I've never heard that in bluegrass.'

"Then I wrote it in 4/4, but it sounded like two bars of five and one bar of six. It could have been called 'Whiplash!' But if you tap your foot through it, it is in 4/4. So, the title seems fun for people who don't know where the time signature is."

Fleck's musical dream began when he was a kid and heard the theme song for the TV comedy series "The Beverly Hillbillies." Titled "The Ballad of Jed Clampett," it featured spiraling lines by banjo pioneer Earl Scruggs, accompanied by guitarist Lester Flatt.

Flatt & Scruggs was one of the top duos in bluegrass music, and New York City native Fleck was instantly hooked. But his love of music soon extended to jazz, classical and beyond, as befits a banjo prodigy whose parents named him after famed Hungarian composer Bela Bartok.

The music on "My Bluegrass Heart" is crafted to celebrate the genre's traditions at the same time it twists and extends them.

That combination of reverence and daring, of pushing forward while saluting the past, has long been one of Fleck's trademarks. In the 1980s, he so thoroughly redefined the possibilities of his instrument — thanks in part to the Crossfire electric banjo he played that was specially made for him by San Diego's Deering Banjos — that he was hailed as a twang-free combination of Jimi Hendrix and Niccolo Paganini.

"My goal to take the bluegrass out of banjo and the banjo out of bluegrass has gone pretty well," said Fleck, who is married to fellow banjo ace Abigail Washburn. "And I've been able to make a living and keep my idealistic view about the music I make, which I consider to be a pretty resounding success.

"I feel very, very fortunate and still love what I get to do. But with bluegrass, we all come back to it. You have it in your blood and you want to come back to it."

But returning to bluegrass banjo-playing can be physically demanding, as the now-63-year-old Fleck, now back on tour, can attest. And doing so after not touring for after nearly 17 months because of the pandemic has made matters even more demanding.

"With bluegrass, I had to get used to playing standing up again," Fleck noted. "For many years, I was playing sitting down, whether it was with Chick Corea, orchestras or Zakir Hussain. All of a sudden you stand up, with a very heavy instrument and your back is in rivets!

"So, it's best if you do that in increments and work back to what it will take to stand up for two-and-a-half-hours on stage. Plus, your hands work differently standing up. But practicing has been good and I've been able to get most of it back.

"Certain types of speed and dexterity are harder to get back. You have to do it all the time or you can't play like that. So, how much time do you want to spend when you're home for months with your family? In a perfect world if I practiced 45 minutes a day, I'd keep my chops up. For me, its feast or famine. I lost my callouses during the pandemic. Now, they're back."

If you go

Who: Bela Fleck

When: 8 p.m. April 9

Where: Garde Arts Center, 325 State St., New London

Tickets: $48-$68

Contact: gardearts.org, (860) 444-7373