Victor Wooten

Wooten playing at the Belly Up in 2006.
Background information
Birth name Victor Lemonte Wooten
Born (1964-09-11) September 11, 1964 (age 47)
Mountain Home, Idaho, U.S.
Genres Jazz, jazz fusion, funk
Occupations Musician, songwriter, producer, author
Instruments Electric bass, upright bass, fiddle, cello, banjo
Years active 1980–present
Associated acts Béla Fleck and the Flecktones, Steve Bailey, Vital Tech Tones, SMV, Greg Howe, Dave Matthews Band, Chick Corea Elektric Band
Website www.victorwooten.com
Notable instruments
Fodera Monarch
Fodera Monarch Yin-Yang (4 string)
Steinberger bass guitars

Victor Lemonte Wooten (born September 11, 1964) is an American bass player, composer, author, and producer, and has been the recipient of five Grammy Awards.[1]

Wooten has won the "Bass Player of the Year" award from Bass Player magazine three times in a row, and was the first person to win the award more than once.[1] 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, released Thunder in August 2008 and began a supporting tour the same month.[2]

Wooten was also a judge for the 4th annual Independent Music Awards to support independent artists' careers.[3]

Contents

Early life [link]

Born to Dorothy and Pete Wooten, Victor is the youngest of the five Wooten Brothers, the other four being Regi, 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.[1] 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 [link]

Wooten playing his Steinberger headless bass guitar at the Belly Up in 2006.

Wooten is most often seen playing Fodera basses, of which he has a signature model.[4] 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 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.[5]

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".[citation needed] 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."[6] 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 [link]

Solo
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
With SMV
With Béla Fleck and the Flecktones

Religious beliefs [link]

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."[7]

Bibliography [link]

References [link]

  1. ^ a b c "Victor Wooten official website/biography". Official website. VixLix Music. 2010. https://www.victorwooten.com/bio.html. Retrieved 27 May 2010. 
  2. ^ "Marcus Miller News". https://www.marcusmiller.com/news_entry.html?newsid=275&color=0. Retrieved 2008-06-19. 
  3. ^ Independent Music Awards - Past Judges
  4. ^ Fodera Guitars "Victor Wooten '83 Classic", Fodera Guitars website, Retrieved on January 10, 2007.
  5. ^ Fodera Guitars "Victor Wooten Yin-Yang 4 String", Fodera Guitars website, Retrieved on January 10, 2007.
  6. ^ Victor Wooten. (1999). Victor Wooten Live at Bass Day 1998 [VHS]. Hudson Music.
  7. ^ Prasad, Anil. "If people we more like music". Web document. https://www.innerviews.org/inner/wooten.html. Retrieved Feb 28 2011. 

External links [link]


https://wn.com/Victor_Wooten

Giant Steps

Giant Steps is the fifth studio album by jazz musician John Coltrane as leader, released in 1960 on Atlantic Records, catalogue SD 1311. His first album for his new label Atlantic, it is the breakthrough album for Coltrane as a leader, and many of its tracks have become practice templates for jazz saxophonists. In 2004, it was one of fifty recordings chosen that year by the Library of Congress to be added to the National Recording Registry.

Background

In 1959, Miles Davis' business manager Harold Lovett negotiated a record contract for Coltrane with Atlantic, the terms including a $7,000 annual guarantee. Initial sessions for this album, the second recording date for Coltrane under his new contract after a January 15 date led by Milt Jackson, took place on March 26, 1959. The results of this session with Cedar Walton and Lex Humphries were not used, but appeared on subsequent compilations and reissues. Principal recording for the album took place on May 4 and 5, two weeks after Coltrane had participated in the final session for Kind of Blue. The track "Naima" was recorded on December 2 with Coltrane's bandmates, the rhythm section from the Miles Davis Quintet, who would provide the backing for most of his next album, Coltrane Jazz.

Giant Steps (disambiguation)

Giant Steps is a 1960 album by jazz musician John Coltrane.

Giant Steps may also refer to:

  • Giant Steps (book), autobiography of Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, which he co-authored with Peter Knobler
  • Giant Steps (band), dance pop duo from England that consisted of vocalist Colin Campsie and bassist/keyboardist George McFarlane
  • Giant Steps (The Boo Radleys album), the third album by The Boo Radleys, released 1993
  • Giant Steps, a compilation album by Gentle Giant
  • "Giant Steps" (composition), the first track on the album of the same name by John Coltrane
  • Mother May I?, a children's game
  • Giant Steps (The Boo Radleys album)

    Giant Steps is the third album by The Boo Radleys, released in 1993. The title is inspired by John Coltrane's album of the same name, and the record features an assortment of influences — their previous shoegazing sound backed by pop, reggae, noise pop and orchestral sounds.

    Reception

    NME and Select named it as album of the year, and it was ranked as #1 in Fanning's Fab Fifty for that year. It reached the UK Top 20, but did not spawn a Top 40 single. Reviewing the album's rerelease in 2008, Sic Magazine wrote, "For 64 minutes they were the greatest band on the planet."

    Track listing

    Original release

    All songs and lyrics written by Martin Carr, with music by The Boo Radleys.

  • "I Hang Suspended" - 3:57
  • "Upon 9th and Fairchild" - 4:50
  • "Wish I Was Skinny" - 3:37
  • "Leaves and Sand" - 4:25
  • "Butterfly McQueen" - 3:28
  • "Rodney King (Song for Lenny Bruce)" - 2:45
  • "Thinking of Ways" - 3:48
  • "Barney (...and Me)" - 4:42
  • "Spun Around" - 2:31
  • "If You Want It, Take It" - 2:47
  • "Best Lose the Fear" - 4:12
  • Podcasts:

    Victor Wooten

    ALBUMS

    PLAYLIST TIME:

    Live In America

    by: Victor Wooten

    My name is vic i'm gonna do a lil trick
    i'm gonna play my bass without usin a pick
    travel round the world and back again
    just takin my bass out for a spin
    if you know what i'm sayin
    and if you ever lookin for me
    i don't go too far
    cuz if you really wanna find me
    you know where i are
    with me and my bass guitar
    you say it
    me and my bass guitar
    that's right
    you see i try to eat right
    take care of my health
    set myself up don't upset myself
    cuz i improvise call and add lib
    and if you ever come to my house
    i'll tell you what you see
    a house full of nothin
    just my four strings and me
    and if you ever lookin for me
    i don't go too far
    cuz if you really wanna find me
    you know where i are
    with me and my bass guitar
    yea you say it now
    me and my bass guitar
    that's right
    get up off of that funk
    get up off of that uhh (yea)
    get up off of that funk
    get up off of that uhh
    get up off of that funk
    get up off of that uhh
    get up off of that funk
    get up off of that uhh
    yo vic do that uh do that yea
    me and my bass guitar
    thats right just my four strings and me
    me and my bass guitar
    if you lookin for me you know where i am
    just me and my bass guitar
    yep thats right
    me and my bass guitar
    hate to leave ya but i got to go
    me and my bass guitar
    got to go
    me and my bass guitar
    me and my bass guitar
    we're really havin fun now
    me and my bass guitar
    me and my bass guitar
    thats right thats right yea turn it back up
    turn it back up
    we still goin
    don't turn it down
    a jigga bug a jigga bug a jig jig jigga bug (repeat)
    yeeeha
    got my complection goin in my direction
    what you call me?
    cut throat minor note




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