“A lot of guys who have been around a long time in this business are shocked when they see some of the things I am doing,” says bassist Victor Wooten, confidently and unapologetically. “Fortunately, they like it.”
And this is a fitting epigraph to everything that Wooten personifies: raw skill, the confidence to carve his own path and the humility to accept overwhelming praise for what he has done. A reporter from United Press International once described him as “doing more than anyone since the late Jaco Pastorious to redefine the possibilities on the electric bass,” and that’s what Wooten does: he redefines, he reevaluates, he sees infinite possibilities and, perhaps most importantly, he creates.
Wooten brings a thunderous, no-holds-barred approach to playing electric bass, always challenging himself to take his playing higher and higher. He gained notoriety both as a solo artist and as a member of the acclaimed jazz-bluegrass outfit Bela Fleck and the Flecktones. In the past decade, he has won three Grammy awards, three “bassist of the year” awards from Bass Player magazine, two Nashville Music awards and major critical citations from Bass Player and Down Beat magazines.
Having earned a loyal
fanbase and international acclaim, Wooten now aims to bring his new band into the limelight and experiment with much edgier sounds that, while remaining rooted in jazz, step into funk, soul, hard rock and even hip-hop.
“It’s not going to be a Flecktones show and I don’t want people coming to it thinking it’s going to be a Flecktones show,” Wooten said in a recent telephone interview. “Those shows are mostly bluegrass and jazz, but here, it’s a different side of me, a different vibe. Yeah, sure, we’re still all about jazz, but we’ve also mixed a lot of funk and a little bit of soul and even a little bit of hip-hop and world beat. It’s a different sound and a totally different band with a totally different mindset.”
Wooten’s newer band recently released the stellar Live in America, a two-disc journey culled from four years of touring, experimentation and improvisation. It brings to life the mind-blowing experience of Wooten’s live bass playing, as well as exhibiting the extended talent of his bandmates. Songs such as “Nobody Knows My Name” explore a soul-driven jazz beat, while up-tempo monster jams such as “Hormones in the Headphones” remind listeners of Wooten’s talents as both a musician and a bandleader.
Wooten comes from a rich musical background, which he claims is the primary factor in his open-mindedness about the power of music. “My brothers and parents were the foundation,” he says in a press release from longtime label Compass Records. “They prepared me for just about anything by teaching me to keep my mind open and to learn to adapt. Musically, that means not being rigid and not having to play a certain way.”
This attitude guides Wooten in his playing, and he tries to impress it on his bandmates, colleagues and fans. One of the first musicians ever to do so, Wooten has designed a Bass Camp: a four-day summer adventure for young bassists that brings them together and gives Wooten a forum to explore musicality and the spiritual aspects of being a musician “and being a human,” he says.
“I’ve been studying nature,” Wooten explains. “Taking classes that teach you how to exist in nature and how to understand the natural world, how to make fires, how to track animals, just how to live off the land, how to communicate with natures. There are some specific drills that I have learned that I use at the camp: being blindfolded — people are blindfolded a lot at the camp and walk around, eat meals. The loss of that major sense, sight, the way you start to feel and sense things, that’s all part of music, so it’s a direct way of allowing people to experience that.” While music is at the heart of his program, he strongly believes that “whether you call it spiritual or not, getting in touch with the world and getting in touch with yourself is paramount for anything that you do, especially any time you create.”
He has strong opinions on today’s music industry, which he agrees is a large and unwavering beast, but at the same time is “experiencing some upswings in important areas.” “When you look at the resurgence in, say, this whole jam band culture, this and that,” he says, “I think that people are really starting to look for musicians again and not so much to these idols, these teen idols. I mean, I think that’s cool and that’s fine with me because we have that plenty, but I really think it’s great that at the same time, a band like Dave Matthews Band or Bela Fleck and the Flecktones can have widespread appeal to different types of people.”
Wooten also believes that it is important to notice the effects of technology in framing an opinion on today’s music industry. “Records are easier to make today. I can go in my bedroom with a little bit of equipment and make a quality record, so it’s not the same where before you had to borrow tons of money from the record label to use their studio to make records,” he says. “Because so many people have been burnt by the record labels … it’s becoming public and fairly common, so people are learning what to do to avoid that. Musicians are getting smarter … [and] finding out ways of being able to sidestep the major record labels and all the B.S. that is generally associated with them.”
He philosophizes about the industry and also about the pros and cons of mp3 technology, as he does about his music: with a pragmatic but open mind, not willing to choose the easiest answer or find the obvious solution. “Mp3, all that stuff, I have mixed feelings,” he says. “It’s kind of displeasing, yeah, that the fact that artists are trying to sell their records, you know people are just downloading that for free, but at the same time I’m not sure that that’s hurting all the record sales. In theory it seems like it would, but in theory it seems like videotape would have hurt people going to see movies or watching TV. But record labels have been taking more money from artists than Napster or any mp3 service ever would, so to me that’s a much bigger travesty, and the thing that Napster is showing is that people want the music, they want to have what’s out there and that’s really important.”
When asked what advice he would give to aspiring musicians everywhere, Wooten urged a “knowledge of the music business. It’s important to know the ins and outs of the profession, learn what it’s all about so you can make the best of it and you won’t get taken advantage of.”
But his most important piece of advice is simply to be true to yourself. “Learn who you are, what you want to be and then become that,” he stresses. “And lastly, remain true to that, because in most cases everyone will try to change that. Record labels, rivals, even friends may try to squash your dreams. Never lose sight of who you are, wherever you are.”
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