Victor Wooten
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| 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 | September 11, 1964 |
| Origin | Hampton, Virginia, U.S. |
| Genre(s) | Funk, Jazz, Fusion, Progressive bluegrass |
| Occupation(s) | Bassist, Composer, Singer, Songwriter, Bandleader, Record producer |
| Instrument(s) | Bass guitar, Double bass, Cello |
| Years active | 1980 - present |
| Associated acts | Béla Fleck and the Flecktones Steve Bailey |
| Website | www.victorwooten.com |
Victor Lemonte Wooten (born September 11, 1964) is an electric bass player. He is highly regarded among his musical peers for his extraordinary technical virtuosity and his skills as musician and composer. 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]
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[edit] Techniques
Modern improvements in electric bass guitar construction, such as a lowered string " action" and additional strings, have brought the bass closer to the electric guitar, allowing new playing techniques that were essentially impossible on a bass in the 1970s. When he was a child, Wooten's older brother Regi helped him develop his double-thumbing technique which was first created by Larry Graham. This technique, also utilized by such bassists as Marcus Miller (and Larry Graham too in "Release Yourself", 1974) uses the thumb to strike the string both downwards and upwards, similar to a guitar pick. Victor is also lauded for his Stanley Jordan-like two-handed tapping and "trademark" open-hammer-pluck technique. He utilizes all of these techniques to achieve an amazing array of sounds during live performance, from growling funk to machine-gun cascading arpeggios more reminiscent of Eddie Van Halen or Steve Vai.
[edit] Instruments
Wooten is most often seen playing Fodera basses, of which he has a signature model.[2] His most famous Fodera, a 1983 Monarch Deluxe which he refers to as "number 1", sports a Kahler Tremolo System model 2400 bridge. Fodera's "Yin Yang" basses (designed/created for Wooten) incorporate the Yin Yang symbol - which Wooten often uses in various media - as a main focal point of the top's design and construction. It is often mistakenly thought that the Yin Yang symbol is painted onto the bass, but in reality, the symbol is created from two pieces of naturally finished wood (Ebony and Holly, for example), seamlessly fitted together to create the Yin-Yang pattern.[3]
Though Wooten's basses receive much attention, his most frequent and consistent response when asked by his fans about which bass is best, etc. ..., is that "the bass makes no 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."[4] This philosophy seems closely related to another fundamental truth about Wooten's stated approach to and experience of bass and music in general, which is that music is a language. According to Wooten, when speaking or listening we don'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. This is the instrument to which he attributes his musical training.
[edit] Discography
- A Show of Hands (1996)
- What Did He Say? (1997)
- Yin-Yang (1999)
- Live in America (2001)
- Soul Circus (2005)
- Palmystery (2008)
[edit] Bibliography
- The Music Lesson: A Spiritual Search for Growth Through Music (2006)
[edit] References
- ^ Elig, Jenny. He has been called the continuation of Jaco Pastorius, also incorporating numerous techniques to the legacy of Jaco's already immense prowess."Famous bass player to visit the Swindlefish tonight", The Post (Online Edition), 1999-10-11. Retrieved on December 25, 2006.
- ^ Fodera Guitars "Victor Wooten '83 Classic", Fodera Guitars website, Retrieved on January 10, 2007.
- ^ Fodera Guitars "Victor Wooten Yin-Yang 4 String", Fodera Guitars website, Retrieved on January 10, 2007.
- ^ Victor Wooten. (1999). 'Victor Wooten Live at Bass Day 1998' [VHS]. Hudson Music.
[edit] External links
- Victor Lemonte Wooten - official website
- Victor Lemonte Wooten Intervew with Anil Prasad of Innerviews
- Live performance photographs
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