VICTOR WOOTEN - Victor Wooten
redefines the word musician. Regaled as the most influential bassist since Jaco
Pastorius, Victor is known for his solo recordings and tours, and as a member of
the Grammy-winning supergroup, Béla Fleck & The Flecktones. He is an innovator
on the bass guitar, as well as a talented composer, arranger, producer, vocalist
and multi-instrumentalist. But those gifts only begin to tell the tale of this
Tennessee titan. Victor is the loving husband and devoted father of four; the
youngest sibling of the amazing Wooten brothers (Regi, Roy, Rudy and Joseph),
and the bassist in their famed family band; the student in the martial art of
Wing Chun and the nature survival skill of Tracking; the teacher of dozens of
bass players at his acclaimed annual Bass & Nature camp; and the master
magician.
Victor Lemonte Wooten got to music early, growing up in a military family in
which his older brothers all played and sang. By the time he was 3, Victor was
being taught bass by his oldest brother Regi, and at age 5 he was performing
professionally with the Wooten Brothers Band. He recalls, “My parents and
brothers were the foundation. They prepared me for anything by teaching me to
keep my mind open and learn to adapt.” Working their way east from Sacramento,
the band played countless clubs and eventually opened concerts for Curtis
Mayfield and War.
Victor was influenced by bass mentors, Stanley Clarke, Larry Graham and Bootsy
Collins, while learning about the music business at a wildly accelerated pace.
By the early ’80s, with the family settled in Newport News, Virginia, the
brothers became mainstays at Busch Gardens theme park in nearby Williamsburg,
making numerous connections with musicians in Nashville and New York.
In 1988 Victor moved to Nashville, where he worked with singer Jonell Mosser and
met New Grass Revival banjo ace Béla Fleck. A year later, Fleck enlisted Vic,
his brother Roy (a.k.a. Future Man) and harmonica-playing keyboardist Howard
Levy to perform with him, and the Flecktones were born. After three highly
successful albums, Levy departed in 1993, and the band’s new trio format enabled
Victor to develop and display a staggering array of fingerboard skills that
turned him into a bass hero of Pastorian-proportions and helped earn the band a
Grammy.
With the Flecktones in full flight, Victor set his sights on a solo career,
first forming Bass Extremes with fellow low-end lord Steve Bailey (leading to an
instructional book/CD and two CDs, to date), and finally releasing his
critically-acclaimed solo debut, A Show of Hands, in 1996. Soon after, Vic took
his solo show on the road with drummer J.D. Blair. Momentum and accolades built
with successive tours and the release of What Did He Say? in 1997, the
Grammy-nominated Yin-Yang in 1999 and the double CD, Live In America in 2001.
Wooten won two Nashville Music Awards for Bassist Of The Year and is the only
three-time winner of Bass Player magazine’s Bass Player Of The Year. With the
honors came sideman calls, leading to recordings and performances with artists
like Branford Marsalis, Mike Stern, Bruce Hornsby, Chick Corea, Dave Matthews,
Prince, Gov’t Mule, Susan Tedeschi, Vital Tech Tones (with Scott Henderson and
Steve Smith), the Jaco Pastorius Word Of Mouth Big Band, and the soundtrack of
the Disney film Country Bears.
Fresh off sold-out tours with the Flecktones and Bass Extremes (with Bailey,
Watson and Oteil Burbridge) in 2004, Victor is re-focusing on his solo side in
2005 thanks to a remarkable new CD, his Vanguard Records debut, Soul Circus. A
three-ring affair, the disc boasts such guests as the Wooten brothers, Bootsy
Collins, Arrested Development rapper/vocalist Speech, Howard Levy, Dennis
Chambers, Saundra Williams, J.D. Blair, Derico Watson, Flecktone Jeff Coffin,
and a who’s-who of bassists, including Bailey, Burbridge, Will Lee, Rhonda
Smith, Christian McBride, T.M. Stevens, Bill Dickens and Gary Grainger.
On Soul Circus, Victor performs his usual high-wire act on a bevy of basses, but
the real ringmaster here is his collection of songs: The poignant “Prayer” and
Prince-charged flipside “Natives” provide a thought-provoking look at our native
Americans. The epic “Bass Tribute” pays homage to great thumpers past and
present. “On and On” is an instant soul classic. “Cell Phone” makes a
chuckle-filled, cutting-edge connection. “Higher Law” stands as a stadium-ready,
rock-funk protest anthem in the best Sly Stone tradition. “Back to India” currys
up simmering musical flavors. And the hip hop/jazz title track marks the sonic
coming-out of the long-rumored eight-armed character seen on the CD’s cover and
in the liner notes: Yes, Virginia (and the rest of the world), there is a
funktopus!
Victor Wooten has the rare ability to continuously raise the bar, always growing
as an artist, and he’s excited to have joined the Vanguard roster with the
release of Soul Circus.
Muriel Anderson's All Star Guitar Night benefits the
Music For Life Alliance
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