Future Man facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Future Man
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Future Man with the Flecktones at the Woodland Park Zoo in 2007.
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| Background information | |
| Birth name | Roy Wilfred Wooten |
| Also known as | Futche |
| Born | October 13, 1957 Hampton, Virginia, United States |
| Genres | Jazz, jazz fusion |
| Occupation(s) | Musician, composer, inventor |
| Instruments | Drumitar, Zendrum, SynthAxe, drums, vocals |
| Labels | |
| Associated acts | Béla Fleck and the Flecktones, Victor Wooten, Jonathan Scales, Jeff Coffin |
Roy Wilfred Wooten (born October 13, 1957), known by his stage name Future Man, is an American musician, inventor, and composer. He is also called RoyEl or Futche by his fans.
Future Man is famous as a member of the jazz and bluegrass band Béla Fleck and the Flecktones. In the band, he plays a special electronic instrument he invented called the Drumitar. He also sometimes sings.
Early Life and Music Career
Roy Wooten was born in Hampton, Virginia. His family moved often because his father was in the military. He is one of five brothers, and all of them are musicians.
After finishing high school in 1975, Roy took some music classes. Then, he started his professional music career. In the mid-1980s, he and his brothers moved to Nashville, Tennessee.
His brothers are also talented musicians. His older brother, Regi, is a guitarist. Roy and his three younger brothers, Rudy (who played saxophone), Joseph (keyboards), and Victor (bass guitar), performed together as The Wooten Brothers in Virginia during the 1970s.
Future Man's Unique Instruments
Future Man is a five-time Grammy Award winner with Béla Fleck and the Flecktones. He is well-known for playing the Drumitar. This is a unique electronic instrument he created himself. It looks a bit like a guitar but lets him play drum and percussion sounds.
More recently, Roy Wooten developed another electronic instrument called the RoyEl. This instrument looks like a piano. However, it can play notes that are not found in typical Western music scales. He designed this instrument using ideas from the periodic table of elements and the golden ratio.
Solo Music Projects
Like other members of the Flecktones, Future Man also works on his own music. When he performs solo, he sometimes dresses as a pirate and uses the name "RoyEl." This is also the name of the keyboard instrument he invented.
Future Man's solo albums are very creative and mix different types of music. For example, on his album Evolution de la Musique, he blends European classical music with jazz. He often adds improvisation and spoken word parts to his songs.
He has shared that his music is influenced by ideas like Pythagorean numerology and Vedic mathematics.
Here are some of Future Man's solo albums:
- The Seamless Script
- Pi Lullaby
- Evolution de la Musique
- The Black Mozart Ensemble
See also
- Afrofuturism
