| Name | Victor Wooten |
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| Landscape | Yes |
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| Background | non_vocal_instrumentalist |
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| Birth name | Victor Lemonte Wooten |
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| Born | September 11, 1964
Mountain Home, Idaho, U.S. |
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| Instrument | Electric Bass, Upright bass, fiddle, cello, banjo |
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| Genre | Jazz, jazz fusion |
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| Occupation | Musician, songwriter, producer, author |
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| Years active | 1980 - Present |
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| Associated acts | Béla Fleck and the Flecktones, Steve Bailey, Vital Tech Tones, SMV, Greg Howe, Dave Matthews Band, Chick Corea Elektric Band |
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| Url | www.victorwooten.com |
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| Notable instruments | Fodera Monarch
Fodera Monarch Yin-Yang (4 string) |
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Victor Lemonte Wooten (born September 11, 1964) is an American bass virtuoso, composer, author, and producer, and has been the recipient of five Grammy Awards.
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.
Wooten was also a judge for the 4th annual Independent Music Awards to support independent artists' careers.
Early life
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 highly regarded musicians. At age two, brother Regi began to teach Victor to play bass, 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. 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.
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". 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." 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.
Discography
;Solo
* A Show of Hands (1996)
What Did He Say? (1997)
Yin-Yang (1999)
Live in America (2001)
Soul Circus (2005)
Palmystery (2008)
;With Bass Extremes
* Cookbook (1998)
Just Add Water (2000)
;With Vital Tech Tones
* Vital Tech Tones (1998)
Vital Tech Tones 2 (2000)
;With Greg Howe
* Extraction (2003)
;With SMV
* Thunder (2008) (with Stanley Clarke and Marcus Miller, as SMV)
;With Béla Fleck and the Flecktones
* Béla Fleck and the Flecktones (1990)
Flight of the Cosmic Hippo (1991)
UFO Tofu (1992)
Three Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1993)
Live Art (1996)
Left of Cool (1998)
Greatest Hits of the 20th Century (1999)
Outbound (2000)
''Live at the Quick (2002)
Little Worlds (2003)
Ten From Little Worlds (2003)
The Hidden Land (2006)
Jingle All the Way (2008)
TBA (2011)
Bibliography
The Music Lesson: A Spiritual Search for Growth Through Music, ISBN 978-0-425-22093-1, Penguin Group, 2008
References
External links
Victor Lemonte Wooten - official website
Victor Lemonte Wooten Intervew with Anil Prasad of Innerviews
Live performance photographs
Interview from honesttune.com
The Music Lesson website
The Bass Vault
Bass/Nature Camp
Category:1964 births
Category:American bass guitarists
Category:American jazz bass guitarists
Category:Grammy Award winners
Category:Living people
Category:Jazz fusion bass guitarists
