# Video: Regaled as the most influential bassist since Jaco Pastorius, Victor is known for his solo recordings

- Link: https://jazzblues.eu/2017/09/11/video-regaled-influential-bassist-since-jaco-pastorius-victor-known-solo-recordings/
- Published: 2017-09-11T22:31:45+01:00
- Author: https://JazzBlues.EU

**11.09. – Happy Birthday !!! Victor Wooten redefines the word musician. Regaled
as the most influential bassist since Jaco Pastorius, Victor is known for his solo
recordings and tours, and as a member of the Grammy-winning supergroup, Béla Fleck&
The Flecktones. **

He is an innovator on the bass guitar, as well as a talented composer, arranger,
producer, vocalist and multi-instrumentalist. But those gifts only begin to tell
the tale of this Tennessee titan.

Victor is the loving husband and devoted father of four; the youngest sibling of
the amazing Wooten brothers (Regi, Roy, Rudy and Joseph), and the bassist in their
famed family band; the student in the martial art of Wing Chun and the nature survival
skill of Tracking; the teacher of dozens of bass players at his acclaimed annual
Bass & Nature camp; and the master magician.

Victor Lemonte Wooten got to music early, growing up in a military family in which
his older brothers all played and sang. By the time he was 3, Victor was being taught
bass by his oldest brother Regi, and at age 5 he was performing professionally with
the Wooten Brothers Band. He recalls, “My parents and brothers were the foundation.
They prepared me for anything by teaching me to keep my mind open and learn to adapt.”
Working their way east from Sacramento, the band played countless clubs and eventually
opened concerts for Curtis Mayfield and War.

Victor was influenced by bass mentors, Stanley Clarke, Larry Graham and Bootsy Collins,
while learning about the music business at a wildly accelerated pace. By the early’
80s, with the family settled in Newport News, Virginia, the brothers became mainstays
at Busch Gardens theme park in nearby Williamsburg, making numerous connections 
with musicians in Nashville and New York.

In 1988 Victor moved to Nashville, where he worked with singer Jonell Mosser and
met New Grass Revival banjo ace Béla Fleck. A year later, Fleck enlisted Vic, his
brother Roy (a.k.a. Future Man) and harmonica-playing keyboardist Howard Levy to
perform with him, and the Flecktones were born. After three highly successful albums,
Levy departed in 1993, and the band’s new trio format enabled Victor to develop 
and display a staggering array of fingerboard skills that turned him into a bass
hero of Pastorian-proportions and helped earn the band a Grammy.

With the Flecktones in full flight, Victor set his sights on a solo career, first
forming Bass Extremes with fellow low-end lord Steve Bailey (leading to an instructional
book/CD and two CDs, to date), and finally releasing his critically-acclaimed solo
debut, A Show of Hands, in 1996. Soon after, Vic took his solo show on the road 
with drummer J.D. Blair. Momentum and accolades built with successive tours and 
the release of What Did He Say? in 1997, the Grammy-nominated Yin-Yang in 1999 and
the double CD, Live In America in 2001.

Wooten won two Nashville Music Awards for Bassist Of The Year and is the only three-
time winner of Bass Player magazine’s Bass Player Of The Year. With the honors came
sideman calls, leading to recordings and performances with artists like Branford
Marsalis, Mike Stern, Bruce Hornsby, Chick Corea, Dave Matthews, Prince, Gov’t Mule,
Susan Tedeschi, Vital Tech Tones (with Scott Henderson and Steve Smith), the Jaco
Pastorius Word Of Mouth Big Band, and the soundtrack of the Disney film Country 
Bears.

Fresh off sold-out tours with the Flecktones and Bass Extremes (with Bailey, Watson
and Oteil Burbridge) in 2004, Victor is re-focusing on his solo side in 2005 thanks
to a remarkable new CD, his Vanguard Records debut, Soul Circus. A three-ring affair,
the disc boasts such guests as the Wooten brothers, Bootsy Collins, Arrested Development
rapper/vocalist Speech, Howard Levy, Dennis Chambers, Saundra Williams, J.D. Blair,
Derico Watson, Flecktone Jeff Coffin, and a who’s-who of bassists, including Bailey,
Burbridge, Will Lee, Rhonda Smith, Christian McBride, T.M. Stevens, Bill Dickens
and Gary Grainger.

On Soul Circus, Victor performs his usual high-wire act on a bevy of basses, but
the real ringmaster here is his collection of songs: The poignant “Prayer” and Prince-
charged flipside “Natives” provide a thought-provoking look at our native Americans.
The epic “Bass Tribute” pays homage to great thumpers past and present. “On and 
On” is an instant soul classic. “Cell Phone” makes a chuckle-filled, cutting-edge
connection. “Higher Law” stands as a stadium-ready, rock-funk protest anthem in 
the best Sly Stone tradition. “Back to India” currys up simmering musical flavors.
And the hip hop/jazz title track marks the sonic coming-out of the long-rumored 
eight-armed character seen on the CD’s cover and in the liner notes: Yes, Virginia(
and the rest of the world), there is a funktopus!

Victor Wooten has the rare ability to continuously raise the bar, always growing
as an artist, and he’s excited to have joined the Vanguard roster with the release
of Soul Circus.

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