Victor Lemonte Wooten (born September 11, 1964 in Hampton, Virginia) is an American electric bass guitar player. He is widely regarded among his musical peers as both a technical virtuoso on the electric bass as well as a skilled 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] Image File history File links Metadata Size of this preview: 800 × 533 pixelsFull resolution (1200 × 800 pixel, file size: 152 KB, MIME type: image/jpeg) Victor Wooten playing his bass guitar at the Belly Up on March 4, 2006. ... September 11 is the 254th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (255th in leap years). ... 1964 (MCMLXIV) was a leap year starting on Wednesday (the link is to a full 1964 calendar). ... Motto: Americas First Location in the State of Virginia Coordinates: County Independent City Mayor Ross Kearney II Area    - City 352. ... This article contains a trivia section. ... This article or section does not adequately cite its references or sources. ... Funk is an African American musical style. ... This article needs additional references or sources for verification. ... Bitches Brew (1970) by Miles Davis is considered the most influential early fusion album. ... Progressive music is the name given to a certain approach to musical composition that has been applied to several different music genres. ... Bluegrass music is a form of American roots music which has its own roots in Irish, Scottish and English traditional music. ... ||/ | @___oo / / / (__,,,,| ) /^) ^/ _) ) /^/ _) ) _ / / _) / )// || | )_) < > |(,,) )__) || / )___) | ____( )___) )___ ______(_______;;; __;;; A bassist is not a musician, so much as a guy or girl trying to play an instrument with four strings and a long neck. ... A composer is a person who writes music. ... A singer is a musician who uses their voice to produce music. ... A songwriter is someone who writes the lyrics to songs, the musical composition or melody to songs, or both. ... A bandleader is the director of a band of musicians. ... In the music industry, a record producer (or music producer) has many roles, among them controlling the recording sessions, coaching and guiding the musicians, organizing and scheduling production budget and resources, and supervising the recording, mixing and mastering processes. ... A musical instrument is a device constructed or modified with the purpose of making music. ... The electric bass guitar (or electric bass) is a string instrument played with the fingers by plucking, slapping, or using a pick. ... Side and front views of a modern double bass with a French bow. ... September 11 is the 254th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (255th in leap years). ... 1964 (MCMLXIV) was a leap year starting on Wednesday (the link is to a full 1964 calendar). ... Motto: Americas First Location in the State of Virginia Coordinates: County Independent City Mayor Ross Kearney II Area    - City 352. ... This article contains a trivia section. ... The electric bass guitar (or electric bass) is a string instrument played with the fingers by plucking, slapping, or using a pick. ...

Life

The youngest of five brothers, he was taught by his older brother Regi to play bass at age two, and by age five Victor could hold simple bass lines and play gigs. The Wooten Brothers band (Regi, Rudy, Roy, Joseph and Victor) played for many years in the 1970s around Williamsburg, Virginia as well as opening up for Curtis Mayfield and War. Victor also played bass in the country show at Busch Gardens before moving to Nashville. While in Virginia, Victor met his longtime wife, Holly. The 1970s decade refers to the years from 1970 to 1979. ... Location in the Commonwealth of Virginia. ... Curtis Mayfield (June 3, 1942 – December 26, 1999) was an American soul, funk and R&B singer, songwriter and guitarist best known for his anthemic music with The Impressions and composing the soundtrack to the blaxploitation film Superfly. ... War was a multiracial, multicultural American funk band of the 1970s from Southern California, known for the hit song Low Rider. Formed in 1969, War was the first and most successful musical crossover, fusing elements of rock, funk, jazz, Latin music, R&B, and even reggae. ... Busch Gardens is the name of two amusement parks in the United States owned and operated by Busch Entertainment Corporation, a division of Anheuser-Busch. ...

After moving to Nashville, Tennessee in 1988 Victor was immediately recruited by blues and soul singer Jonell Mosser. A year later he was hired by banjo maestro Béla Fleck, along with keyboardist and harmonica player Howard Levy and Victor's brother Roy Wooten (a.k.a. Future Man). Their group, Béla Fleck and the Flecktones, became famous first by playing a mixture of jazz, funk, and bluegrass, then later becoming one of the most stylistically free-swinging bands of the modern era. (Levy eventually left the group and was replaced by saxophonist and horn player Jeff Coffin.) Nickname: Location in Davidson County and the state of Tennessee Coordinates: Country United States State Tennessee Counties Davidson County Founded: 1779 Incorporated: 1806 Government  - Mayor Bill Purcell (D) Area  - City  526. ... Year 1988 (MCMLXXXVIII) was a leap year starting on Friday (link displays 1988 Gregorian calendar). ... Blues is a vocal and instrumental form of music based on the use of the blue notes and a repetitive pattern that most often follows a twelve-bar structure. ... For other uses, see Soul music (disambiguation). ... For other uses, see Banjo (disambiguation) A modern 5-string banjo The banjo is a stringed instrument of African American origin adapted from several African instruments. ... Béla Fleck (born July 10, 1958 in New York City, New York) is an American virtuoso banjo player. ... Piano, a well-known instance of keyboard instruments A keyboard instrument is any musical instrument played using a musical keyboard. ... This article does not cite any references or sources. ... Howard Levy (b. ... Roy Wilfred Wooten (stage name Future Man; born October 13, 1957) is a drummer and member of the jazz quartet Béla Fleck and the Flecktones. ... Béla Fleck and the Flecktones is a primarily instrumental group that draws equally on bluegrass, fusion and jazz, sometimes dubbed blu-bop. ... This article needs additional references or sources for verification. ... Funk is an African American musical style. ... Bluegrass music is a form of American roots music which has its own roots in Irish, Scottish and English traditional music. ... The tenor saxophone is a medium-sized member of the saxophone family, a group of instruments invented by Adolphe Sax. ... In a symphony orchestra the horn section is the group of musicians who play the horn (sometimes referred to as the French horn). ... Jeff Coffin (born August 5, 1965) is an American jazz horn player. ...

Wooten has been a member of several fusion and progressive supergroups, including Bass Extremes (with Steve Bailey, Derico Watson and Oteil Burbridge), the Vital Tech Tones (with Scott Henderson and Steve Smith), the indian jazz fusion band PRASANNA, and the "Extraction" trio (with Greg Howe and Dennis Chambers). He recorded with renowned Cape Breton fiddler Natalie MacMaster on her 2003 album Blueprint. Victor has also been on tour with many other bands including the Dave Matthews Band. Bitches Brew (1970) by Miles Davis is considered the most influential early fusion album. ... Progressive music is the name given to a certain approach to musical composition that has been applied to several different music genres. ... In the late 1960s, the term supergroup was coined to describe music groups comprising members who had already achieved fame or respect in other groups or as individual artists. ... This article or section needs additional references or sources. ... Steve Jamming Steve Bailey is a bassist famous for his pioneering work with the six string fretless bass and was voted runnerup for Bass Player Of The Year in 1994 and 1996. ... Oteil Burbidge is a bass guitarist. ... The Vital Tech Tones were an American fusion supergroup formed in the mid-1990s. ... Scott Henderson (born August 26th 1954, West Palm Beach, Florida) is a highly acclaimed fusion and blues guitarist best known for his work with the band Tribal Tech. ... Steve Smith. ... Greg Howe Greg Howe (born 1964) is a virtuoso guitar player, originally from Easton, Pennsylvania. ... Dennis Chambers is an American drummer who has recorded and performed with John Scofield, Steely Dan, Santana, Parliament/Funkadelic, John McLaughlin, Niacin, Mike Stern, and many others. ... Cape Breton fiddling is a lively regional violin style which falls within the Celtic Music idiom. ... Natalie MacMaster (born 1973) is an award-winning fiddler from the rural community of Troy in Inverness County, Nova Scotia, Canada. ... See also: 2003 in music (UK) Musical groups established in 2003 Record labels established in 2003 other events of 2003 list of years in music 2000s in music // January - following an investigation by The International Federation of the Phonographic Industry and London detectives, police raids in England and the Netherlands... Blueprint, an album by Natalie MacMaster, was released in 2003 on the Rounder Records label. ... Dave Matthews Band (also known by the initialism DMB) is a United States rock band, originally formed in Charlottesville, Virginia, in 1991 by singer, songwriter, and guitarist Dave Matthews. ...

Victor currently tours with his solo group, and still with Béla Fleck and the Flecktones. He resides near Nashville, Tennessee with his wife and four children. Béla Fleck and the Flecktones is a primarily instrumental group that draws equally on bluegrass, fusion and jazz, sometimes dubbed blu-bop. ...

Techniques

The evolution of a higher standard in electric bass guitar construction methods, such as a lower action (the distance from the string to the fretboard measured at the 12 fret) more akin to that of a six-string electric guitar, allowed Wooten to develop many new fingering techniques that were essentially undiscovered before his time. As a child, his older brother Regi Wooten helped Victor develop his double-thumbing technique as a way to more accurately reproduce the basslines of such greats as Larry Graham. This technique, which has been independently utilized by other bassists (notably Marcus Miller, and Larry Graham too in "Release Yourself", 1974) uses the thumb to strike both downwards and upwards on a string in a manner similar to a guitar pick. Victor is also famous for his Stanley Jordan-like two-handed tapping and trademark open-hammer-pluck technique. Larry Graham on the cover of his 1981 LP Just Be My Lady. ... Marcus Miller (born June 14, 1959 in New York) is a jazz musician, composer and producer, perhaps best known as a bass guitarist with Miles Davis, Luther Vandross and David Sanborn. ... Larry Graham on the cover of his 1981 LP Just Be My Lady. ... Various guitar picks. ... Stanley Jordan (July 31, 1959) is an American jazz/jazz fusion guitarist, best known for his development of the touch technique for playing guitar. ... This article is about the music technique. ...

Instruments

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.^[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] Image File history File linksMetadata Size of this preview: 600 × 600 pixelsFull resolution (1200 × 1200 pixel, file size: 210 KB, MIME type: image/jpeg) Victor Wooten playing a bass guitar at the Belly Up on March 4, 2006. ... Image File history File linksMetadata Size of this preview: 600 × 600 pixelsFull resolution (1200 × 1200 pixel, file size: 210 KB, MIME type: image/jpeg) Victor Wooten playing a bass guitar at the Belly Up on March 4, 2006. ... Fodera is a noted american manufacturer of Electric Bass Guitars. ... The Kahler Tremolo System is bridge with a cam operated tremolo arm system for electric guitar. ... It has been suggested that this article or section be merged with Taijitu. ...

Though Wooten's beautiful and impressive 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.

Discography

• A Show of Hands (1996)
• What Did He Say? (1997)
• Yin-Yang (1999)
• Live In America (2001)
• Soul Circus (2005)

This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... Year 1996 (MCMXCVI) was a leap year starting on Monday (link will display full 1996 Gregorian calendar). ... What Did He Say? is the second solo album released by bassist Victor Wooten. ... Year 1997 (MCMXCVII) was a common year starting on Wednesday (link will display full 1997 Gregorian calendar). ... Yin-Yang is the third album released by Victor Wooten. ... Year 1999 (MCMXCIX) was a common year starting on Friday (link will display full 1999 Gregorian calendar). ... Live In America is the fourth album by Victor Wooten, released in 2001. ... Year 2001 (MMI) was a common year starting on Monday (link displays the 2001 Gregorian calendar). ... Soul Circus is the fifth album by Victor Wooten, released in 2005. ... Year 2005 (MMV) was a common year starting on Saturday (link displays full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ...

Bibliography

• The Music Lesson: A Spiritual Search for Growth Through Music (2006)

For the Manfred Mann album, see 2006 (album). ...

References

1. ^ Elig, Jenny. "Famous bass player to visit the Swindlefish tonight", The Post (Online Edition), 1999-10-11. Retrieved on December 25, 2006.
2. ^ Fodera Guitars "Victor Wooten '83 Classic", Fodera Guitars website, Retrieved on January 10, 2007.
3. ^ Fodera Guitars "Victor Wooten Yin-Yang 4 String", Fodera Guitars website, Retrieved on January 10, 2007.
4. ^ Victor Wooten. (1999). 'Victor Wooten Live at Bass Day 1998' [VHS]. Hudson Music.

External links

• Victor Lemonte Wooten - official website
• Victor Lemonte Wooten Intervew with Anil Prasad of Innerviews
• Live performance photographs