Victor Wooten

Victor Lemonte Wooten (born September 11, 1964) is an American bassist, songwriter, and record producer. He has been the bassist for Béla Fleck and the Flecktones since the group's formation in 1988 and a member of the band SMV with two other bassists, Stanley Clarke and Marcus Miller.[1][2] Since 2017 he has played bass for the metal band Nitro.

Victor Wooten
Wooten plays his headless bass guitar known as his "Sitar Bass" at the Belly Up in San Diego 2006
Background information
Birth nameVictor Lemonte Wooten
Born (1964-09-11) September 11, 1964
Mountain Home, Idaho, U.S.
GenresJazz fusion, jazz funk, bluegrass, pop, Progressive Metal[1]
Occupation(s)Musician, songwriter, record producer
InstrumentsBass guitar
Years active1980–present
Associated actsBéla Fleck and the Flecktones, Vital Tech Tones, Bass Extremes, SMV, Nitro, Octavision
Websitevictorwooten.com

He owns Vix Records, which releases his albums.[3] He wrote the novel The Music Lesson: A Spiritual Search for Growth Through Music.[4][5]

Wooten is the recipient of five Grammy Awards.[6] He won the Bass Player of the Year award from Bass Player magazine three times[1] and is the first person to win the award more than once.[6] In 2011, he was ranked No. 10 in the Top 10 Bassists of All Time by Rolling Stone magazine.[7]

Early life and career

Born to Dorothy and 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 he was two, and by the age of six, he was performing with his brothers in their family band, The Wooten Brothers Band.[1][8] As a United States Air Force family, they moved often when Wooten was young. The family settled in Newport News, Virginia in 1972. Wooten graduated from Denbigh High 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 to Nashville, Tennessee, to visit friends that he made at the theme park. One of them was a studio engineer who introduced him to Béla Fleck, with whom he has often collaborated.[9]

In 2000, Wooten created a music program called Bass/Nature camp that was expanded into Victor Wooten's Center for Music and Nature and includes all instruments. His camps are at Wooten Woods, a 147-acre retreat in Only, Tennessee, near Nashville.[10] 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.[11] The two bassists have been teaching together since the early 1990s.

He was featured on the May/June 2014 cover of Making Music Magazine[12] to discuss the camps.

Instruments
Wooten performing in 2009

Wooten is most often seen playing Fodera basses, of which he has a signature model. 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.[13]

As well as playing electric bass (both fretted and fretless) and the double bass, he played cello in high school. He still plays cello occasionally with the Flecktones as well as in the 2012 Sword and Stone/Words and Tones tour.[14]

Discography
See also: Béla Fleck and the Flecktones § Discography, Bass Extremes, and Vital Tech Tones

As leader
  • The Wootens with The Wootens (Arista, 1985)
  • A Show of Hands (Compass, 1996)
  • What Did He Say? (Compass, 1997)
  • Vital Tech Tones with Vital Techtones (Tone Center, 1998)
  • Cookbook with Bass Extremes (Tone Center, 1998)
  • Yin-Yang (Compass, 1999)
  • VTT2 with Vital Techtones (Tone Center, 2000)
  • Just Add Water with Bass Extremes (Tone Center, 2001)
  • 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)

With Béla Fleck and the Flecktones

As sideman

With Mike Stern

  • These Times (ESC, 2003)
  • Who Let the Cats Out? (Heads Up, 2006)
  • All Over the Place (Heads Up, 2012)
  • Trip (Heads Up, 2017)

With others

Bibliography
  • The Music Lesson: A Spiritual Search for Growth Through Music, ISBN 978-0-425-22093-1, Penguin Group, 2008
  • Tonya Jameson, Pop Music Writer. "Pushing the Envelope; Flecktones Bassist Victor Wooten hits a new stride in two-disc album." Charlotte Observer, The (NC) 01 Dec. 2000: NewsBank - Archives. Web. 11 Oct. 2012.
  • Ron, Wynn. "Victor Wooten expands his profile with two ambitious solo records; To the Victor .." Nashville Scene (TN) 20 Sept. 2012: NewsBank. Web. 11 Oct. 2012.
  • Robert, Bell. "Friday To-Do: Victor Wooten." Arkansas Times: Blogs (AR) 27 Sept. 2012: NewsBank. Web. 11 Oct. 2012.
  • Gary, Demuth. "Bassist Victor Wooten takes spiritual approach to music.; Victor Wooten 2/1;." Salina Journal, The (KS) 1 June 2007: NewsBank. Web. 11 Oct. 2012.
  • "Victor Wooten's Mystical Quest." Downbeat 77.7 (2010): 26–35. Academic Search Premier. Web. 11 Oct. 2012.
  • Michael, Deeds. "Music runs in Victor Wooten´s family." Idaho Statesman, The (Boise, ID) 31 Jan. 2003: 20. NewsBank - Archives. Web. 11 Oct. 2012.
  • Wooten, Victor. "I Saw God." YouTube. Google, n.d. Web.[15]
  • The Baltimore Sun; Sam, Sessa. "A Natural Language; Star Bassist Victor Wooten says music is best taught through performance, not practice; Concerts." Sun, The (Baltimore, MD) 2 July 2010: NewsBank. Web. 11 October 2012.

References
  1. Phares, Heather. "Victor Wooten". AllMusic. Retrieved September 2, 2018.
  2. "Marcus Miller News". Marcusmiller.com. Archived from the original on February 11, 2012. Retrieved June 19, 2008.
  3. "Victor Wooten Announces A Show of Hands 15". antimusic.com. February 8, 2011. Retrieved December 1, 2013.
  4. Salina Journal (2010)
  5. "Biography". Victorwooten.com. Archived from the original on May 19, 2010. Retrieved November 18, 2013.
  6. "Victor Wooten official website/biography". Official website. VixLix Music. 2010. Archived from the original on May 19, 2010. Retrieved May 27, 2010.
  7. "Rolling Stone Readers Pick the Top Ten Bassists of All Time". rollingstone.com. March 31, 2011. Retrieved December 1, 2013.
  8. Brodkin, Fran (November 29, 2013). "The Wootens: Band of brothers grow up with music and values". Montgomery News.
  9. McDonald, Sam (February 21, 2000) "High Profile: Victor Wooten", Daily Press, Retrieved 2016-03-04
  10. "Victor Wooten chosen in 'Rolling Stone' 'Greatest Bass Players of All Time' poll". Tennessean.com. April 7, 2011. Retrieved December 1, 2013.
  11. "Victor Wooten/Berklee Summer Bass Workshop | Berklee College of Music". Berklee.edu. Retrieved March 4, 2016.
  12. Freddy Villano (May 1, 2014). "Victor Wooten's Music and Nature Camps". Makingmusicmag.com. Retrieved March 4, 2016.
  13. "Victor Wooten Yin Yang 4 String". fodera.com. Archived from the original on March 6, 2010. Retrieved December 25, 2013.
  14. "Playing with Words and Music". NoTreble. Retrieved July 24, 2014.
  15. "Victor Wooten - I Saw God (Live Gărâna '08)". YouTube. July 20, 2008. Retrieved November 18, 2013.
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