Featured Music Story

Featured Music Story

Count bassey
Victor Wooten reigns supreme as best bassist in all the land
by Celeste Tabora

Who did you look up to when you were growing up? Who were the heroes you wanted to emulate? In most cases, we all had someone to idolize, and sometimes these influences show up loud and clear in our lives. With some people, however, it’s difficult to pinpoint who might have inspired them. Victor Wooten unquestionably has me perplexed. Although he states unquestionably that his family influenced his music, no one sat the man down and said, "This is how you break all the bass playing rules.” And maybe that’s how you separate truly innovative thinkers from mere disciples flattering their idols.
    Victor Wooten is a widely celebrated electric bass player. From his work with the two-time Grammy award winning Béla Fleck and the Flecktones, to his solo work, Wooten has gained the admiration and respect of many of his bass-playing peers.
    Take 1998 for example. Aside from walking away with his second Grammy, he received his third Bass Player of the Year award from Bass Player Magazine (making him the only bassist to have received this award more than once). The same publication also named him one of the Top 10 Bass Innovators of the ‘90s. In addition, Down Beat magazine voted him their Talent Most Deserving Wider Recognition. Talk about a good year.
The following year wasn’t too shabby for Wooten either: he received a Grammy nomination for his third solo album, Yin Yang.
    Surprisingly down-to-Earth, Wooten credits the work of his peers as a constant inspiration for his music. First naming his brothers and parents as his musical foundation, he adds that they taught him to be ready for anything; that an open mind and the ability to adapt are invaluable commodities.
“Musically, that means not being rigid and not having to play in a certain way,” interprets Wooten, the youngest of five brothers in a military family. With his brothers all singing and playing instruments, it was only natural that Wooten started learning how to play bass by age three, with oldest brother Regi at the helm. Wooten credits his early start with his ability to be a flexible player. The older you get, the more hesitant you may be to try something new because you’re too self-conscious about it.
    Making his professional stage debut at five with “The Wooten Brothers Band,” Wooten and his four siblings started out playing covers and later opened concert tours for Curtis Mayfield and War. In 1985, the Wootens were recording an album for Arista Records, and learning the ups and down of the biz. Two brothers played on Whitney Houston’s debut album. Today Joseph is the keyboardist in the Steve Miller Band, Regi plays guitar and teaches, and Rudy is a saxophonist in Nashville.          Nashville, incidentally, is where Wooten moved in 1988, and where he eventually met Béla Fleck. In 1996 Wooten released A Show of Hands, his solo debut (Compass Records). With no band and no overdubs, he revealed an unprecedented technical brilliance, along with unique musical compositions utilizing just the strings of his bass. Fans and critics alike went nuts over this release. Two more studio albums ensued: ‘97’s What Did He Say? and ‘99’s aforementioned double disc set, Yin Yang.
    Aside from touring with the Flecktones or solo, Wooten keeps busy with bass workshops, clinics and master classes, and organizes a bass camp called “Victor Wooten’s Bass/Nature Camp.”
    This year, Wooten is touring in support of his recently released live two-disc CD, Live in America. Included in the 18 tracks are previously unreleased versions of his first three albums, as well as two brand new tracks. The album includes everything you look for in a live disc: (read: extended jams—he is a bassist after all with bass peer Marcus Miller and another with guitar noodler and brother Regi Wooten). One standout track has a spoken word intro by Bootsy Collins.
    “We are a very lucky group of people,” says Wooten of his band. “We know this; and we try not to take it for granted. Traveling around the world playing music is a wonderful thing and it produces many wonderful moments.
    “Many of these moments are on this CD,” he continues. “My first time on stage with Marcus Miller, the intro that Bootsy recorded especially for us, MC Divinty and Anthony Wellington on their first tours, and the night that I improvised a second verse on “Good People” because I had neglected to write one, and which the guys wouldn’t let me erase for this CD. I had just written the song on the airplane ride the day before.”
    Wooten can name dozens of bass players who have been influential to him: Bootsy Collins, Larry Graham, Stanley Clarke, Motown’s James Jamerson, Jaco Pastorius ...
    “Overall, it’s about the music,” he says. “Bass is just my way of playing the music.” pulse

Victor Wooten performs Mon., Feb. 11, at First Avenue. 8 p.m. $10/12. 21+. 701 1st Ave. N., Mpls. 612-338-8388.