Victor Lemonte Wooten is one of the greatest technical and expressive bass players ever. He has been called "the Bach of the bass." He started playing bass at the age of 3 when his older brother taught him. By the age of 5, he had made his stage debut playing with his 4 older brothers in a group called the Wootens. The group did covers of groups like Sly and Family Stone, War, James Brown, and Curtis Mayfield, and the next year, they were actually OPENING for Mayfield and War. By the time he was 8, he was a seasoned professional. In 1985, the group released an album.
In 1988, Wooten moved to Nashville and joined blues singer Jonell Mosser. The next year, he met the banjo extraordinaire Bela Fleck from the group New Grass Revival. Wooten and his brother Roy joined Fleck and keyboardist/harmonica player Howard Levy for a "Lonesome Pine Special" TV special and Bela Fleck and Flecktones was born. The group is a jazz/blue grass/pop fusion with a very unique sound and instrumental virtuosity. In 1997, they picked up a Grammy Award.
In 1996, Wooten released a long-awaited solo project A Show of Hands. The album features no band and no overdubs. The album received critical acclaim from publications ranging from Jazz Times to Playboy. The album received album of the year from Bass Player magazine's reader poll and Wooten received the Gibson award for best bass player. With the album, he displays the bass as a lead instrument, and the playing is so rich and intense, that at times you may find yourself forgetting that there isn't a band behind him!
The next year, he released his 2nd solo album What Did He Say, which is one of my favorite CDs. The album is radically different from his first album. He uses overdubs, guest musicians, and various styles, including jazz, funk, and pop. It also received critical claim, as Down Beat magazine compared it to the best works of Jaco Pastorious and Stanley Clarke. The record also features the reuniting of the Wooten brothers.
To learn more about Victor Wooten, go here:
Victor Wooten - the official site
