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What IS that thing? Futureman explains the Drumitar By Jefferson Graham, USA TODAY DEER VALLEY, Utah  Most fans who attend Béla Fleck and the Flecktones concerts walk away wondering about that strange instrument being played by the guy in the pirate hat. Futureman plays the Drumitar, as we behold it with wonder. Janice Pierce, for USA TODAY It's called a "Drumitar," an electronic drum set-up in the shape of a beat-up guitar. It has a bunch of colorful buttons that the musician who calls himself "Futureman," taps at while Fleck plucks at his banjo and Jeff Coffin blows his sax. His brother Victor Lemonte Wooten holds down the rhythm on bass. Futureman was born Roy Wooten, but fans and friends call him Futch (pronounced footch). He invented his unusual instrument in his garage in 1985: "It was an experiment to see if I could play the drums on a guitar. That's all it was." When rhythmic sounds started coming out clearly, he tried it out with a dance band in Virginia. "It was scary," says Futureman, interviewed backstage before a recent concert here. "I saw that I could really make the dance floor move with it." When Victor joined forces with Fleck to help put together his unique jazz fusion group, Fleck was seeking a drummer, and Wooten recommended his brother. "I played Béla the Drumitar over the phone and told him what I was trying to do," he recalls. "I wasn't sure it would really work on a record, but he said, 'Bring it on and we'll see if it's a novelty or not.' We've flown with it ever since." The Drumitar samples different drum sounds; it's plugged into a bank of Roland synthesizers. While hitting the machine, Futureman also often plays a traditional drum set during shows. "It's sleight-of-hand," he says. "I look like a crazy one-handed drummer, but I'm using both hands, just like any other drummer." Futureman sells copies of his solo album, Evolution de la Musique, at his evolutiondamour.com. The album features collaboration between drums, tables, Irish uilleann pipes, and such natural sound producers as frogs and water. The Flecktones will take a touring hiatus in 2005, and Futureman plans to spend his time working to invent another off-beat instrument, one he calls a "Fiano." It's a drum in the shape of a piano — apropos, he says, when you consider the history of the instrument. "A piano is a percussive instrument," he says. "It's got nothing but hammers in there."