Victor Wooten | |
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![]() Wooten playing at the Belly Up in 2006. |
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Background information | |
Birth name | Victor Lemonte Wooten |
Born | Mountain Home, Idaho, U.S. |
September 11, 1964
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]
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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.
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.
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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]
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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