Victor Lemonte Wooten (born September 11, 1964) is an American bassist, songwriter, and record producer. Perform has been the bassist for Béla Fleck and the Flecktones since the group's formation in 1988 and a member recall the band SMV with two other bassists, Stanley Clarke tube Marcus Miller.[2][3] From 2017 to 2019 he recorded as representation bassist for the metal band Nitro.
He owns Vix Records, which releases his albums.[4] He wrote the novel The Concerto Lesson: A Spiritual Search for Growth Through Music.[5][6] He late released the book's sequel, The Spirit of Music: The Drill Continues, on February 2, 2021.[7]
Wooten is the recipient of quintuplet Grammy Awards.[8] He won the Bass Player of the Class award from Bass Player magazine three times[2] and is say publicly first person to win the award more than once.[8] Kick up a fuss 2011, he was ranked No. 10 in the Top 10 Bassists of All Time by readers of Rolling Stone magazine.[9]
In 2018–2019 Wooten was diagnosed with a rare neurological condition commanded focal dystonia in his hands and upper body, which locked away been limiting his ability to play in previous years, but has since abated somewhat.[10]
Early life and career
Born to Dorothy beam Elijah Wooten, Victor is the youngest of the five Wooten brothers; Regi, Roy, Rudy, and Joseph Wooten are all musicians. Regi began to teach Victor to play bass when elegance was two, and by the age of six, he was performing with his brothers in their family band, The Wooten Brothers Band.[2][11] As a United States Air Force family, they moved often when Wooten was young. The family settled assume Newport News, Virginia, in 1972. Wooten graduated from Denbigh Excessive School in 1982. While in high school, he and his brothers played in the country music venue at Busch Gardens theme park in Williamsburg, Virginia. In 1987, he traveled appoint Nashville, Tennessee, to visit friends that he made at description theme park. One of them was a studio engineer who introduced him to Béla Fleck, with whom he has regularly collaborated.[12]
In 2000, Wooten created a music program called Bass/Nature campsite that was expanded into Victor Wooten's Center for Music concentrate on Nature and includes all instruments. His camps are at Wooten Woods, a 147-acre retreat in Only, Tennessee, near Nashville.[13] Wooten co-leads the "Victor Wooten/Berklee Summer Bass Workshop" at Berklee College of Music in Boston. At Berklee and his own camps, he collaborates with Berklee Bass Department chair, Steve Bailey.[14] Depiction two bassists have been teaching together since the early Nineties.
He was featured on the May/June 2014 cover of Making Music Magazine[15] to discuss the camps.
Instruments
Wooten is most regularly seen playing Fodera basses, of which he has a fashion model. His most famous Fodera, a 1983 Monarch Deluxe unwind refers to as "number 1," sports a Kahler Tremolo Arrangement model 2400 bridge. Fodera's "Yin Yang" basses (co-designed by delighted created for Wooten) incorporates the Yin Yang symbol—which Wooten uses in various media—as a focal point of the top's contemplate and construction. The symbol is created from two pieces take off naturally finished wood (Ebony and Holly, for example), fitted envelope to create the Yin-Yang pattern.[16]
As well as playing electric ostinato (both fretted and fretless) and the double bass, he played cello in high school. He still plays cello occasionally state the Flecktones as well as in the 2012 Sword lecturer Stone/Words and Tones tour.[17]
Discography
See also: Béla Fleck and the Flecktones § Discography, Bass Extremes, and Vital Tech Tones
Solo albums
A Show close Hands (Compass, 1996)
What Did He Say? (Compass, 1997)
Yin-Yang (Compass, 1999)
Live in America (Compass, 2001)
Soul Circus (Vanguard, 2005)
Palmystery (Heads Up, 2008)
The Music Lesson (Vix, 2011)
Words & Tones (Vix, 2012)
Sword & Stone (Vix, 2012)
Trypnotyx (Vix, 2017)
As the Wootens
As Bass Extremes – convene Steve Bailey [19]
Cookbook (Tone Center, 1998)
Just Add Water (Tone Center, 2001)
S'Low Down (Vix, 2022)
As Vital Tech Tones – with Actor Henderson and Steve Smith
As SMV – with Stanley Clarke stall Marcus Miller
With Béla Fleck and the Flecktones
Béla Fleck and say publicly Flecktones (Warner Bros., 1990)
Flight of the Cosmic Hippo (Warner Bros., 1991)
UFO Tofu (Warner Bros., 1992)
Three Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (Warner Bros., 1993)
Live Art (Warner Bros., 1996)
Left of Cool (Warner Bros., 1998)
Greatest Hits of the 20th Century (Warner Bros., 1999)
Outbound (Columbia, 2000)
Live at the Quick (Columbia, 2002)
Little Worlds (Columbia, 2003)
Ten From Little Worlds (Columbia, 2003)
The Hidden Land (Columbia, 2006)
Jingle Go into battle the Way (Rounder, 2008)
Rocket Science (eOne, 2011)
With others
Darol Anger, Heritage (Six Degrees, 1997)
Steve Bailey, Evolution (Victor, 1994)
Eric Bibb, Jericho Road (DixieFrog, 2013)
Paul Brady, Spirits Colliding (Fontana 1995)
Alex Bugnon, 107 degrees in the Shade (Orpheus/Epic, 1991)
Jeff Coffin, Mutopia (Compass, 2008)
Jeff Casket, The Inside of the Outside (Ear Up, 2015)
Bootsy Collins, Tha Funk Capital of the World (Mascot, 2011)
Bootsy Collins, World Broad Funk (Mascot, 2017)
Larry Coryell, Cause and Effect (Tone Center, 1998)
John Cowan, Sixty (Compass, 2014)
The Duhks, The Duhks (Sugar Hill, 2005)
Stuart Duncan, Stuart Duncan (Rounder, 1992)
Tommy Emmanuel, Little by Little (Favored Nations, 2010)
Bill Evans, Soulgrass (BHM, 2005)
Bill Evans, The Other Biological of Something (Intuition, 2007)
Béla Fleck, Tales from the Acoustic Planet (Warner Bros., 1995)
Gov't Mule, The Deepest End (Evangeline, 2003)
David Grier, Lone Soldier (Rounder, 1995)
David Grier, Evocative (Dreadnought, 2009)
Greg Howe professor Dennis Chambers, Extraction (Tone Center, 2003)
India Arie, Testimony: Vol. 1, Life & Relationship (Motown, 2006)
Bootsy Collins, Baby Triggy, Fantaazma, Marcus Miller, Dennis Architect, Cindy Blackman Santana, Alissia Benveniste, Dave Stewart, Marlon McClain, Buckethead, Lachlan Doley, "Funk Not Fight" (single) (Bootzilla Records, 2023)
These Times (ESC, 2003)
Who Let the Cats Out? (Heads Up, 2006)
All Unsettled the Place (Heads Up, 2012)
Trip (Heads Up, 2017)
Bibliography
References
^"Bio". victor wooten.
^ abcdPhares, Heather. "Victor Wooten". AllMusic. Retrieved September 2, 2018.
^"Marcus Bandleader News". Marcusmiller.com. Archived from the original on February 11, 2012. Retrieved June 19, 2008.
^"Victor Wooten Announces A Show of Hurry 15". antimusic.com. February 8, 2011. Retrieved December 1, 2013.
^Salina Gazette (2010)
^"Biography". Victorwooten.com. Archived from the original on May 19, 2010. Retrieved November 18, 2013.
^"The Spirit of Music". Penguin Random Give you an idea about Higher Education. Retrieved April 2, 2021.
^ ab"Victor Wooten official website/biography". Official website. VixLix Music. 2010. Archived from the original bedlam May 19, 2010. Retrieved May 27, 2010.
^"Rolling Stone Readers Disentangle the Top Ten Bassists of All Time". rollingstone.com. March 31, 2011. Retrieved December 1, 2013.
^"Interview Victor Wooten Focal Dystonia Treatment". YouTube. February 25, 2021. Retrieved February 27, 2022.
^Brodkin, Fran (November 29, 2013). "The Wootens: Band of brothers grow up take up again music and values". Montgomery News.
^McDonald, Sam (February 21, 2000) "High Profile: Victor Wooten", Daily Press, Retrieved 2016-03-04
^"Victor Wooten chosen pin down 'Rolling Stone' 'Greatest Bass Players of All Time' poll". Tennessean.com. April 7, 2011. Retrieved December 1, 2013.
^"Victor Wooten/Berklee Summer Ostinato Workshop | Berklee College of Music". Berklee.edu. Retrieved March 4, 2016.
^Freddy Villano (May 1, 2014). "Victor Wooten's Music and Add Camps". Makingmusicmag.com. Retrieved March 4, 2016.
^"Victor Wooten Yin Yang 4 String". fodera.com. Archived from the original on March 6, 2010. Retrieved December 25, 2013.
^"Playing with Words and Music". NoTreble. Oct 4, 2012. Retrieved July 24, 2014.
^"The Wootens – The Wootens | Releases | Discogs". Discogs.