Victor Wooten facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Victor Wooten
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Wooten plays his headless bass guitar known as his "Sitar Bass" at the Belly Up in San Diego 2006
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| Background information | |
| Birth name | Victor Lemonte Wooten |
| Born | September 11, 1964 Mountain Home, Idaho, U.S. |
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| Occupation(s) | Musician, songwriter, record producer |
| Instruments |
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| Years active | 1980–present |
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Victor Lemonte Wooten (born September 11, 1964) is an American musician. He is famous for playing the bass guitar. Victor is also a songwriter and a record producer.
Since 1988, he has been the bassist for the group Béla Fleck and the Flecktones. He is also part of the band SMV with two other bass players, Stanley Clarke and Marcus Miller.
Victor Wooten owns Vix Records, which releases his music albums. He wrote a novel called The Music Lesson: A Spiritual Search for Growth Through Music. He also released a follow-up book, The Spirit of Music: The Lesson Continues, in 2021.
Wooten has won five Grammy Awards. He was named Bass Player of the Year by Bass Player magazine three times. He was the first person to win this award more than once. In 2011, readers of Rolling Stone magazine voted him No. 10 in their list of the Top 10 Bassists of All Time.
Around 2018–2019, Victor Wooten was diagnosed with a rare nerve condition. This condition affected his hands and upper body. It made it harder for him to play music. However, his condition has improved since then.
Contents
Early Life and Music Journey
Victor Wooten was born to Dorothy and Elijah Wooten. He is the youngest of five brothers. All his brothers—Regi, Roy, Rudy, and Joseph Wooten—are also musicians.
Victor's brother, Regi, started teaching him to play bass when Victor was only two years old. By the time he was six, Victor was already performing with his brothers. They played together in their family band, called The Wooten Brothers Band.
Because his father was in the United States Air Force, Victor's family moved often when he was young. In 1972, his family settled in Newport News, Virginia. Victor graduated from Denbigh High School in 1982. While in high school, he and his brothers performed country music at the Busch Gardens theme park in Williamsburg, Virginia.
In 1987, Victor traveled to Nashville, Tennessee. He visited friends he had met at the theme park. One of these friends was a studio engineer. This friend introduced Victor to Béla Fleck, a famous banjo player. Victor and Béla Fleck have worked together many times since then.
Music Camps and Teaching
In 2000, Victor Wooten started a music program called Bass/Nature camp. This program grew into Victor Wooten's Center for Music and Nature. It now includes lessons for all kinds of instruments.
His camps are held at Wooten Woods. This is a large, 147-acre retreat located in Only, Tennessee, near Nashville. Victor also helps lead the "Victor Wooten/Berklee Summer Bass Workshop." This workshop takes place at Berklee College of Music in Boston.
At Berklee and his own camps, Victor works with Steve Bailey. Steve Bailey is the head of the Bass Department at Berklee. These two bassists have been teaching together since the early 1990s.
In 2014, Victor Wooten was featured on the cover of Making Music Magazine. The article discussed his popular music camps.
Instruments Victor Plays
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Victor Wooten is most often seen playing Fodera basses. He even has a special Fodera bass model named after him. His most famous Fodera bass is a 1983 Monarch Deluxe. He calls this bass "number 1." It has a special bridge called a Kahler Tremolo System.
Fodera also makes "Yin Yang" basses. Victor Wooten helped design these. The Yin Yang symbol is a key part of the bass's design. It is made from two different types of wood, like Ebony and Holly. These pieces are fitted together to create the Yin-Yang pattern.
Besides electric bass, Victor also plays the double bass. He plays both fretted and fretless electric basses. In high school, he played the cello. He still plays the cello sometimes with the Flecktones. He also played it during his 2012 Sword and Stone/Words and Tones tour.
Music Albums
Solo Albums
- A Show of Hands (1996)
- What Did He Say? (1997)
- Yin-Yang (1999)
- Soul Circus (2005)
- Palmystery (2008)
- Trypnotyx (2017)
With The Wootens
- The Wootens (1985)
With Bass Extremes – Steve Bailey
- Cookbook (1998)
- Just Add Water (2001)
With Vital Tech Tones – Scott Henderson and Steve Smith
- Vital Tech Tones (1998)
With SMV – Stanley Clarke and Marcus Miller
- Thunder (2008)
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)
- Left of Cool (1998)
- Outbound (2000)
- The Hidden Land (2006)
- Jingle All the Way (2008)
- Rocket Science (2011)
See also
In Spanish: Victor Wooten para niños
