Béla Fleck, leader of the Flecktones, is the go-to guy of the banjo. His versatility and do-it-all mantra have put him all over the musical map — defining a soundscape that seems to have no boundaries.

"It's amazing — there's so much on the banjo that can be done," Fleck, 50, said of his appeal among jazz, country, folk and classical audiences.

He goes symphonic, with a Christmas tingle, when he and the Flecktones join the Honolulu Symphony Pops for "Jingle All the Way" shows tonight and tomorrow at Blaisdell Concert Hall.

"I never run out of things to try," he said from San Francisco last week. "My music is seldom pigeonholed. You think about a South Appalachian instrument, and you take it outside of this world, and you show off its true heritage. The banjo has a broader history than most people realize."

Fleck said he never imagined a career in music.

"It sorta just happened," he recollected. "At 15, I was given a banjo by my grandfather when I was in high school. It lit a fire in me, something I was not expecting. I was a mediocre folk guitarist, and my grandfather saw this banjo; he knew I liked music, and it was great when I made the connection.

"It's an earthy instrument; the mud and the wood and the bone and the skin — you think of bluegrass, fast tempos and all that kind of stuff, but it goes way beyond these borders."

The banjoist's full name is Béla Anton Leos Fleck — he's named after world-class musicians, like Hungary's Béla Bartok, Austria's Anton Webern and Czechoslovakia's Leos Janacek — so one would imagine he might have taken the classical musical route.

And he has dwelled in the classics: His acclaimed 2001 release, "Perpetual Motion," won a pair of Grammys, including best classical crossover album.

Crossover might well be his middle name.

Fleck and the Flecktones have been an innovative force in music, including pop, rock, jazz, bluegrass and world beat. Its hybrid sound — often called "blu-bop" — has reimagined the breadth of the banjo. The combo includes Victor Lemonte Wooten, bassist; Future Man (Roy Wilford Wooten), drumitar and acoustic percussionist; and Jeff Coffin, saxophone and woodwinds.

"I think what happened is I grew up in New York City in the 1960s," said Fleck of his roots. "There was a folk boom, too, and there were The Beatles, when music was changing. It was a wonderful time to fall in love with all the influences. I fell in love with jazz, rock, folk music.

"And playing instruments gave me a lot of opportunities. Kids were into Led Zeppelin, and Led Zep had more excitement than a banjo. It was a personal crusade to make the banjo fit into different settings. It's in my DNA and it's gotten hard-wired over the years."

With their just-out "Jingle All the Way" CD, Fleck and the Flecktones will give their concerts a holiday overcoat this weekend.

The CD adds inventive tonal veneers to familiar tunes, like exotic chanting on "Jingle Bells" and a jazzy groove on "Sleigh Ride."

Fleck's unorthodox career this year also included a documentary film, "Throw Down Your Heart," recently screened at the Honolulu Academy of Arts Doris Duke Theatre.

"It kind of has become my passion project over the last four or five years," said Fleck. "We've been playing it at film festivals all year, where it won five audience awards for best documentary, and a theatrical release and network TV release are yet to come. We want to do the music for a CD release, too, with a February target date for a recording."

The film, directed by Sascha Paladino, depicts the banjoist's journeys to Uganda, Tanzania, Gambia and Mali to explore the banjo's African roots. En route, he proves that his music is a universal language as he strums and improvises while locals thump and hit the marimbas for a jam session — and in a surprise move, a woman chimes in on a thumb piano with ecstatic results.

"The truth is, I was there, and the five weeks were a blur," Fleck said about the experience. "It wasn't till I came home, editing and mixing the music, that I got to live the music, which worked into me in a deeper way later than when I was actually there. This visit has come out in my writing, in my improvisations, and the trip is just the beginning of greater things."

In March, for instance, he will tour with some of the African musicians from the film to expand the experience and interaction. "I want to let the people know that I am committing myself to this for a long time," said Fleck.

He enjoys improvs and innovation in his music — that's why he earlier showcased Hawai'i's 'ukulele maestro, Jake Shimabukuro.

"His promoter asked if we'd feature him the first time we were in Hawai'i, and we were able to bring him on tour with us," said Fleck. "It was a wonderful fusion of music."