Victor Wooten

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Biography

Victor Lemonte Wooten (born September 11, 1964) is an United States|American Bass (guitar)|bass player, composer, author, and Record producer|producer , and has been the recipient of five Grammy Award s.

Wooten has won the "Bass Player of the Year" award from Bass Player (magazine)|Bass Player magazine three times in a row, and was the first person to win the award more than once. In addition to a solo career and collaborations with various artists, Wooten has been the bassist for Béla Fleck and the Flecktones since the group's formation in 1988.

In 2008, Wooten joined Stanley Clarke and Marcus Miller to record an album. The trio of bassists, under the name SMV (band)|SMV , released Thunder (SMV album)|Thunder in August 2008 and began a supporting tour the same month.

Wooten was also a judge for the 4th annual The Independent Music Awards|Independent Music Awards to support independent artists' careers.

Early life

Born to Dorothy and Pete Wooten, Victor is the youngest of the five Wooten Brothers, the other four being Regi, Roy Wooten|Roy , Rudy and Joseph Wooten, all of whom are musicians. His brother Regi began to teach Victor to play bass when he was two, and by the age of six, Victor was playing in front of crowds with his brothers in their family band, The Wooten Brothers Band, and toured supporting Curtis Mayfield , among others.
When his family moved east, they continued to hone their skills. His brothers began a residency at Busch Gardens . When his brother Roy asked if Victor could learn the fiddle to play with them on quick notice, he complied, adding another instrument to his repertoire.

Instruments

Wooten is most often seen playing Fodera basses, of which he has a signature model.Fodera Guitars , Fodera Guitars website, Retrieved on January 10, 2007. His most famous Fodera, a 1983 Monarch Deluxe he refers to as "number 1," sports a Kahler Tremolo System model 2400 bridge. Fodera's "Yin Yang" basses (co-designed by and created for Wooten) incorporates the Yin and yang|Yin Yang symbol —which Wooten uses in various media—as a focal point of the top's design and construction. The symbol is created from two pieces of naturally finished wood (Ebony and Holly, for example), fitted together to create the Yin-Yang pattern.Fodera Guitars , Fodera Guitars website, Retrieved on January 10, 2007.

Though Wooten's basses receive much attention, his most frequent and consistent response when asked by his fans about his equipment (or equipment in general) is that "the instrument doesn't make the music ... you do". He'll often go on to state that the most important features to look for in a bass are comfort and playability. During a question and answer session at a 1998 concert, Wooten stated that "If you take a newborn baby and put them on the instrument, they're going to get sounds out of it that I can't get out of it, so we're all the best."Victor Wooten. (1999). Victor Wooten Live at Bass Day 1998 . Hudson Music. This philosophy seems closely related to Wooten's approach to music in general, which is that music is a language. According to Wooten, while speaking or listening, one doesn't focus on the mouth as it is forming words; similarly, when a musician is playing or performing the focus shouldn't be on the instrument.

As well as playing electric bass (both fretted and fretless) and the double bass, Victor also played the cello in high school. He still plays cello occasionally with the Flecktones. This is the instrument to which he attributes his musical training.

Discography

;Solo

A Show of Hands (Victor Wooten album)|A Show of Hands (1996)

What Did He Say? (1997)

Yin-Yang (album)|Yin-Yang (1999)

Live in America (Victor Wooten album)|Live in America (2001)

Soul Circus (2005)

Palmystery (2008)

;With Bass Extremes

Cookbook (1998)

Just Add Water (2000)

;With Vital Tech Tones

Vital Tech Tones (1998)

Vital Tech Tones 2 (2000)

;With The Wootens

The Wootens (1985)

;With Greg Howe

Extraction (album)|Extraction (2003)

;With SMV

Thunder (SMV album)|Thunder (2008) (with Stanley Clarke and Marcus Miller , as SMV (band)|SMV )

;With Béla Fleck and the Flecktones

Béla Fleck and the Flecktones (1990)

Flight of the Cosmic Hippo (1991)

UFO Tofu (1992)

'' Three Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1993)

Live Art (1996)

Left of Cool (1998)

Greatest Hits of the 20th Century (1999)

Outbound (Béla Fleck and the Flecktones album)|Outbound (2000)

Live at the Quick (2002)

Little Worlds (2003)

Ten From Little Worlds (2003)

The Hidden Land (2006)

Jingle All the Way (Béla Fleck and the Flecktones album)|Jingle All the Way (2008)

Rocket Science (Béla Fleck and the Flecktones album)|Rocket Science (2011)

Religious beliefs

While Wooten considers himself a spiritual individual, he is not a part of any particular religion. He believes that, "God is too big for any one religion."

Bibliography

The Music Lesson: A Spiritual Search for Growth Through Music , ISBN 978-0-425-22093-1, Penguin Group , 2008

Copyright Citations

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1. Dennis Chambers 2. Scott Henderson 3. Greg Howe 4. The Dave Matthews Band 5. B%e9la Fleck & The Flecktones 6. B%e9la Fleck 7. Bootsy's Rubber Band 8. Bela Fleck & The Flecktones 9. Larry Coryell 10. Larry Graham 11. Soul Circus 12. Graham Central Station

Undetermined Music Artists