VICTOR WOOTEN EXPLORES THE MYSTERY
OF CREATION
ON HEADS UP INTERNATIONAL DEBUT
Palmystery set for April
1 worldwide release, simultaneous with
Wooten’s new book, The Music Lesson
We live in an age when science and technology have answers
for almost every question, and there’s little if any
room left for the unsolved or the unexplained. In the highly
accelerated, digitally-driven culture of the 21st century,
the mystery and mysticism of the world around us has slipped
almost completely out of our collective grasp.
And yet, there are those fortunate few who are still tapped
into the less concrete – but perhaps more real –
dimensions of the human experience. Among them is bassist
Victor Wooten, whose sense of creative exploration has fueled
a highly successful career that spans more than two decades,
five solo recordings, a diverse resumé of guest-artist
work and a longstanding collaborative relationship with the
innovative Béla Fleck and the Flecktones.
Wooten makes his debut on Heads Up International with the
worldwide release of Palmystery (HUCD
3135) on April 1, 2008. In keeping with the ongoing
philosophy of genre-bending eclecticism that has driven all
of his solo work, Palmystery embraces
a range of styles – jazz, funk, pop, soul, gospel, world
music and more – and boasts a diverse guest list that
includes Mike Stern, Richard Bona, Keb’ Mo’ and
several others. The result is an amalgam of voices, styles
and grooves, but one that never fails to hold together at
its rock-solid core – in much the same way that Wooten’s
legions of devoted fans hail from all walks of life and all
corners of the globe, yet share a common affinity for artistic
diversity.
VICTOR
WOOTEN EXPLORES THE MYSTERY OF CREATION
ON HEADS UP INTERNATIONAL DEBUT
Palmystery set for April 1 worldwide release, simultaneous
with
Wooten’s new book, The Music Lesson
We live in an age when science and
technology have answers for almost every question, and there’s
little if any room left for the unsolved or the unexplained.
In the highly accelerated, digitally-driven culture of the 21st
century, the mystery and mysticism of the world around us has
slipped almost completely out of our collective grasp.
And yet, there are those fortunate few who are still tapped
into the less concrete – but perhaps more real –
dimensions of the human experience. Among them is bassist Victor
Wooten, whose sense of creative exploration has fueled a highly
successful career that spans more than two decades, five solo
recordings, a diverse resumé of guest-artist work and
a longstanding collaborative relationship with the innovative
Béla Fleck and the Flecktones.
Wooten makes his debut on Heads Up International with the worldwide
release of Palmystery (HUCD
3135) on April 1, 2008. In keeping with the ongoing
philosophy of genre-bending eclecticism that has driven all
of his solo work, Palmystery embraces
a range of styles – jazz, funk, pop, soul, gospel, world
music and more – and boasts a diverse guest list that
includes Mike Stern, Richard Bona, Keb’ Mo’ and
several others. The result is an amalgam of voices, styles and
grooves, but one that never fails to hold together at its rock-solid
core – in much the same way that Wooten’s legions
of devoted fans hail from all walks of life and all corners
of the globe, yet share a common affinity for artistic diversity.
Palmystery’s April 1 release
date is simultaneous with the release of The Music Lesson,
Wooten’s new novel published by Berkley Trade Paperback
(The Penguin Group USA). The Music Lesson is the story
of a struggling young musician who is unexpectedly visited by
a mysterious, seemingly mystic music teacher who guides him
through a spiritual journey of higher education in both music
and life.
The themes of spirituality and mysticism at the core of The
Music Lesson dovetail perfectly with those of Palmystery.
A few of the twelve tracks on the album were written over the
past couple years, and have since been road tested in Wooten’s
live shows. Others were written only recently. Whatever the
time frame, Wooten maintains a great respect for the mystery
of the creative process – something that is very real,
yet can never be completely explained.
“It doesn’t matter how you go about writing songs,”
says Wooten. “The music is coming from somewhere. If we
think it’s our brain, or some strictly intellectual source,
I would say we’re mistaken. Sometimes the songs show up
quickly, almost completely. That’s when you realize, ‘Wow,
I didn’t even write this song. It happened on its own.’
But whether it comes together in 30 minutes or several months,
it’s coming from the same place. Call it what you want
to – spirituality, mysticism, whatever – that energy
is there. The musician is the conduit that enables that energy
to enter the world.”
The Palmystery shows up with an initial
bang. The set opens with “2 Timers,” a track that
bounces back and forth between three-four and four-four time,
courtesy of drummers Derico Watson and JD Blair, respectively.
Riding atop this rhythmic tug-of-war is a full horn section,
harmonica, violin and mandolin. “This song is stacked,”
says Wooten.
“I Saw God” is an intriguing discourse into the
who, what, where and why of God, with Wooten delivering a spoken-word
narrative over an upbeat African groove that features Richard
Bona in the vocal chorus. “This was one of those songs
that just came to me one day,” says Wooten. “It
turned out to be one of the songs that everyone was talking
about after our shows were over. I think it’s a powerful
piece of music. It’s going to make people think and ask
questions. And it might even make some die-hard religious people
a little nervous. To me, that’s exactly what some music
should do.”
The highly syncopated “Left, Right, & Center”
came from Wooten’s idea of recording a song with three
drummers. He enlisted Blair, Dennis Chambers and Will Kennedy
on cans, along with B3 player Neal Evans and guitarist Mike
Stern. “Mike just burned through that song in one take,”
says Wooten. “He took a solo that was so incredible that
I started learning it. I thought it would be awesome to double
his solo all the way through, so I did.”
“The Gospel” marries two generations of the Wooten
family with the help of a snippet from an old Southern Baptist
hymn sung by Wooten’s mother. “I recorded her singing
it to me over the telephone and it just happened to fit into
the song perfectly,” says Wooten. “I had my aunts
and uncles sing along to give it the genuine sound. My brother
Joseph added the second section. We recruited the younger generation
of relatives to sing on that section. It’s a bringing
together of the old and the new.”
The closer, “Us 2,” is a quiet, melodic piece with
acoustic slide guitar accents courtesy of Keb’ Mo’.
“I thought of Keb’ when I first wrote this song,”
says Wooten. “He added the grit that the song needed.
I also play slide bass on this one, which creates a unique blend
of the two sounds. ‘Us 2’ shows a softer side of
my playing, and I like how it leaves you in a peaceful place
at the end of the record.”
While Palmystery is distinctly Wooten,
the diversity of guest players adds a flavor to the stew that
Wooten himself could never have concocted on his own. “When
I bring people into the studio to play on a song, I’ve
rarely ever completely finished writing the song,” he
explains. “I leave it open for these people’s interpretation.
Unless I really wanted the song to go in a specific direction,
I’d say, ‘Here’s the idea, but if you hear
it differently, go for it.’ They came up with their own
contributions to the songs better than I could. If I just want
my interpretation, I’ll just play the part myself…But
usually the song is going to be better if I bring someone else
into it.”
Wooten sees himself and his collaborators as channels who tap
into a higher creative power to bring music into the world and
deliver it to an audience. “Creating music is a lot like
the eternal question about whether a tree falling in a forest
really makes a sound if there’s no one there to hear it,”
he says. “A song is just an idea until someone brings
it into the world. That’s the great mystery of music or
any creative endeavor. The power is in the palm of your hand.
You just have to release it to the world.”
Victor Wooten redefines the word “musician.”
Regarded as one of the most influential bassists since Jaco
Pastorius, Wooten is known for his solo recordings and tours,
and as a member of the GRAMMY-winning supergroup, Béla
Fleck & The Flecktones. He is a brilliant technician and
innovator on the bass guitar, as well as a talented composer,
arranger, producer, vocalist and multi-instrumentalist. But
those gifts only begin to tell the tale of this Tennessee titan.
Wooten is the loving husband and devoted father of four; the
youngest sibling of the amazing Wooten Brothers (Regi, Roy,
Rudy and Joseph) and the bassist in their famed family band;
a student of the martial arts and nature survival skills; and
a teacher of hundreds of students at his camp.
Victor Lemonte Wooten embraced the musical life early, growing
up on the West Coast in a military family in which his older
brothers all played and sang. By age 3, he was learning bass
riffs from his oldest brother Regi, and at age 5 he was performing
professionally with the Wooten Brothers Band. “My parents
and brothers were the foundation,” he recalls. “They
prepared me for anything by teaching me to keep my mind open
and learn to adapt.” While still on the West Coast, the
band opened for high-profile acts of the ‘70s like Curtis
Mayfield and War, and then headed east to eventually conquer
new territory.
Victor was influenced by bass mentors Stanley Clarke, Larry
Graham and Bootsy Collins, and at the same time learning about
the music business at a wildly accelerated pace. By the early
’80s, after the family had already settled in Newport
News, Virginia, the brothers became mainstays at Busch Gardens
theme park in nearby Williamsburg, making numerous connections
with musicians in Nashville and New York.
In 1988 he moved to Nashville, where he worked with singer Jonell
Mosser and met New Grass Revival banjo ace Béla Fleck.
A year later, Fleck assembled Victor, his brother Roy (a.k.a.
Future Man) and harmonica-playing keyboardist Howard Levy to
perform with him, and the Flecktones were born. After three
highly successful albums, Levy left the Flecktones in 1993,
and the band’s new trio format enabled Victor to develop
and display a staggering array of fingerboard skills that turned
him into a bass hero of Pastorian-proportions and helped earn
the band their first GRAMMY Award.
With the Flecktones in full flight, Victor set his sights on
a solo career, first forming Bass Extremes with fellow low-end
lord Steve Bailey, and finally releasing his critically-acclaimed
solo debut, A Show of Hands, in 1996. Soon after, Wooten
took his solo show on the road with drummer J.D. Blair. The
momentum escalated and the acclaim grew louder with each successive
album – What Did He Say? in 1997, the GRAMMY-nominated
Yin-Yang in 1999 and the two-disc Live In America
in 2001 – and the rigorous touring that accompanied each
release.
Wooten won two Nashville Music Awards for Bassist of the Year
and is the only three-time winner of Bass Player magazine’s
Bass Player of the Year award. With the honors came scores of
session and sideman calls, leading to recordings and performances
with artists like Branford Marsalis, Mike Stern, Bruce Hornsby,
Chick Corea, Dave Matthews, Prince, Gov’t Mule, Susan
Tedeschi, Vital Tech Tones (with Scott Henderson and Steve Smith),
the Jaco Pastorius Word Of Mouth Big Band, and the soundtrack
to the Disney film Country Bears.
After a four-year hiatus from solo recordings, Wooten released
Soul Circus on the Vanguard label in 2005. The recording
included a small army of guest players: the Wooten Brothers,
Bootsy Collins, Arrested Development rapper/vocalist Speech,
Howard Levy, Dennis Chambers, Saundra Williams, J.D. Blair,
Derico Watson, Flecktone Jeff Coffin, and a who’s-who
of bassists, including Steve Bailey, Oteil Burbridge, Will Lee,
Rhonda Smith, Christian McBride, T.M. Stevens, Bill Dickens
and Gary Grainger.
Wooten joins the Heads Up label in the spring of 2008 with the
April 1 release of Palmystery, a twelve-track
set that embraces a range of styles – jazz, funk, pop,
soul, gospel, world music and more – and boasts a diverse
guest list that includes Mike Stern, Richard Bona, Keb’
Mo’ and several others. The result is an amalgam of voices,
styles and grooves, but one that never fails to hold together
at its rock-solid core.
Simultaneous with the release of Palmystery,
Berkley Trade Paperback (The Penguin Group USA) will release
Wooten’s debut novel, The Music Lesson, the story
of a struggling young musician who is unexpectedly visited by
a mysterious, seemingly mystic music teacher who guides him
through a spiritual journey of higher education in both music
and life.
Whether his medium is music or the written word, Wooten sees
the creative process in the context of the eternal question
about whether a tree falling in a forest really makes a sound
if there’s no one there to hear it. “A song is just
an idea until someone brings it into the world,” he says.
“That’s the great mystery of music or any creative
endeavor. The power is in the palm of your hand. You just have
to release it to the world.”
