SOME ARTISTS PERFORM IN ORDER TO CREATE ART. YOU GET A SENSE FROM VICTOR WOOTEN THAT HE USES HIS MULTIPLE TALENTS TO TEACH. THEY MAY BE IN THE FORM OF AN ALBUM, A SHOW, A BOOK, OR AT HIS CENTER FOR MUSIC AND NATURE IN TENNESSEE, BUT EACH PROJECT THAT HE TAKES HAS THE ESSENCE OF PASSING A LESSON ON TO WHOMEVER WILL HEAR, HOPEFULLY THE FOLLOWING GENERATIONS.
MOST JAZZ FANS ARE AWARE OF WOOTEN’S FAMED STINT WITH BELA FLECK, AS WELL AS HIS BAND OF BROTHERS THAT TOUR AROUND OCCASIONALLY. SINCE PERFORMING IN THE POWER BASS TRIO THUNDER WITH STANLEY CLARK AND MARCUS MILLER, HE’S BEEN TOURING AROUND PROMOTING HIS HIGH ENERGY DISC TRYPTONIX WITH ALL STARS JOE CHAMBERS AND BOB FRANCHESCHINI.
BUT HIS PERFORMANCES AND ALBUMS ONLY TELL PART OF THE STORY. WOOTEN HAS FOUNDED A CAMP IN TENNESSEE THAT PROVIDES A UNIQUE MIX OF MUSIC AND PHILOSOPHY. GROWING UP IN A DEVOUT YET OPEN MINDED HOME, WOOTEN HAS TAKEN HIS LESSONS OF CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT AND HAS TURNED IT INTO A CREATIVE WORLD VIEW THAT TOUCHES ON A WIDE VARIETY OF ASPECTS OF LIFE.
WE RECENTLY CAUGHT UP WITH VICTOR, WHO, AS ALWAYS, WAS APPROACHABLE AND GRACIOUS
YOU ALSO WRITE BOOKS
I’ve written one novel that’s done surprisingly well. People have actually been reading it. Imagine that; write a book and people read it!
You’ve just gotta do it. I wrote mine thinking that just a few people on my web site would read it, and it just happened to get read by a guy who worked for Penguin Books, and he played guitar. He saw that it was self-published, and he asked if Penguin could publish it. That just got it around the world.
WHAT WAS YOUR MOTIVATION BEHIND WRITING THAT BOOK?
I had been teaching music a lot. I teach it in a different way, with different concepts. Students were saying, “You need to write a book.”
I didn’t want to write an instruction method, a “Wooten Method” or a book that people could argue about. I didn’t want to write any rules that I’d have to defend, so I stayed away from writing books for years.
Then it dawned on me; I could just write a novel, a story. Make it fiction. Let’s start from the standpoint that none of this is true. Then I could put in anything that I wanted.
The same way that there’s a lot of wisdom in Star Wars or Avatar. We don’t have to believe that Yoda’s a real person to argue about it.
YOU MEAN HE’S NOT?
I’m not saying either way. (laughs) All I know is that we don’t have to argue about it. But the lessons are there if you want, so I wrote my book in that fashion.
LOOKING BACK, WHAT WAS IN THE BOOK THAT SURPRISED YOU.
There were a few things that came about that the characters seemed to be writing themselves. I’ve heard authors talk about that, and there were a few places where that happened.
The main surprise was that the book poured out. It wrote itself really quickly. I had no timeline as to how long a book was supposed to take, so I just poured it out while on tours.
I would stay up late on the tour bus. Gig is over, everyone’s gone to bed, and I’d be sitting at the front desk with my computer, typing. I put it together that way.
PEOPLE GET DIFFERENT THINGS OUT OF THE SAME BOOK. WHAT AFFECTED PEOPLE IN YOUR WRITING?
One of the things that I really like, is that when I first wrote the book, I planned to just Xerox a few copies, and give it to some friends of mine.
In the book we list ten equal components of music, like phrasing, feel, dynamics and these types of things. Lots of things that people don’t teach.
One was a lady that teaches at my camp. She teaches herbalism, gardening and things. She really doesn’t play music at all. She read this list and said, “Man, I use everyone of these in my line of work.”
She went through her version of the elements of music, so that was like “Wow.” So, I realized that this does not just have to be for musicians. Which is what I wanted, and why all of my examples in the book are not music examples. There’s a lot of nature, and things like that. So, the fact that someone got that message was really nice.
One of the things I really liked was hear people saying that after reading it, they wanted to go and play. They feel like they can play, or the next time that they do play everyone in their band that hears them says “What have you been doing? You’ve been practicing!” And he’ll say, “No, I just read a book.”
It’s letting me know that people’s thought processes are changing once they read it, and that’s the number one thing that I wanted.
I REMEMBER YEARS BACK WHEN YOU WERE STARTING YOUR MUSIC CAMP THAT THIS WAS A BIG THING YOU WERE TRYING TO EMPHASIZE.
That book came out the same day as my album Palmystery (in 2008), because I have a song that’s in that book, written one measure at a time. There’s a measure of music at the beginning of each chapter; you put all of those measures together and you get the song called “The Lesson” that’s on the album.
Next year will be the ten year anniversary of that book and record.
YOU’VE BEEN DOING THE CAMP FOR YEARS AS WELL. HOW IS IT DOING?
This past Sunday we just finished our 18th year, and we’re done for the year. We had two great camps this year back to back.
One is heavily based on The Music Lesson book. The camp is called “The Spirit of Music.” It’s a five day camp that goes right into a 3 day music theory camp. We had a lot of people for those, a lot of amazing guest instructors. It was a great way to end the year.
IS IT EASY TO GET PEOPLE TO COME TO THE CAMP?
We have our ups and downs. We ended this season strong; the camps were full. We had to turn some people away, which we hadn’t done in awhile.
When we first started, there were no bass camps. We were first doing the camp only for bass players. Now, we do it for any instrument, and people have choices of where they want to go, so we’re doing multiple camps a year; every month from April to October.
We’re not always full, but we also don’t advertise. They find me on my web site
YOU SEEMED TO HAVE TAKEN A STEP BACK FROM RECORDING AS FREQUENTLY AS YOU DID 10 YEARS AGO. WAS THAT A CONSCIOUS CHOICE?
I’ve never put out a record every year, as some have done. I just do it when I think it’s time, and it felt like time right now.
But I’ve continued to tour; I’ve toured with different configurations; with my own band, or some of my brothers, or just do a tour with drummer J.D. Blair. Just the two of us; bass and drums We call it “Two Minds, One Groove.” We’ve done quite a bit of that around the world.
At the same time, I did take a little bit of time off, but I can’t take too much time off as the bulk of my income comes from touring.
YA GOTTA EAT.
And so do my kids! (laughs) My first daughter was graduating high school and about to go to college. I didn’t want to miss her final year at home. She’s in New York now, starting her third year, and she may not come back. You don’t get those years back.
THE SAYING GOES, “YOU SPEND TIME WITH THEM WHEN THEY’RE YOUNG, AND THEY’LL SPEND TIME WITH YOU WHEN YOU’RE OLD.”
Yeah, It’s the thing you’re supposed to do.
WHEN YOU DO AN ALBUM AND TOUR WITH BASS GIANTS LIKE STANLEY CLARK AND MARCUS MILLER, HOW DO YOU PICK WHERE TO FIT IN?
You have to listen. It starts with listening; it’s the same way when you talk to people. You listen, and what they say garnishes your response.
But since all three of us are bass players, we have to be able to think and hear music beyond our instrument.
Some lesser experienced bass players may only be able to think of their instrument as a “low” instrument. But if Marcus is playing a bass line, and Stanley’s playing a melody, the obvious place for me to go would be some place in the middle. But I have to find that spot. 1133
Then, if Marcus jumps up, then I need to jump somewhere else. If there’s a bass line and a melody I will think like a different instrument than a bass, because the bass player’s role is already covered. So I might become a chord instrument like a keyboard, or play a funky single line like a rhythm guitar. Or, I might not just play anything; I might just play space-lay out and add space to the music so that you can hear what they’re doing better.
The reason we finally went ahead and made that record was because we played so well together and it was so effortless. The three of us were listening that deeply.
Stanley’s usually playing his tenor bass, or his piccolo, which is high. But if he puts on his octaver (effect box), and his bass goes down low, if Marcus was down low will immediately move to a different register, and I’ll move to a different one.
It just works so seamlessly, and it was a testament to how well the three of us were listening to each other. I love it when musicians have that capability to play music beyond what their instrument is capable of.
IT’S NOT JUST A CHOP FEST
No. If anybody ever heard that record, or saw the show, you’d realize that chops were there, but it was more than musical.
IN A BAND LIKE THAT, IS THERE MORE OR LESS IMPROVISATION THAN WITH, SAY, YOUR CURRENT TRIO?
In both cases, with the SMV trio and this band (with Joe Chambers and Bob Franceschini) there is a lot of improvisation. There’s always a framework that we’re working around, but you can work around that framework any way you want.
There are lots of solos; the drum part doesn’t have to be identical every night. Neither do the sax or bass part, so there’s a lot of freedom.
I like to make sure of that, particularly if it’s my band. I want to make sure that the people feel free to interpret the music how they hear it that night. So, it can be different tonight than it was last night.
YOUR RECENT ALBUM OPENS AND CLOSES WITH A SPACE SHIP. WHAT’S THAT ALL ABOUT?
Michael Winslow can make any and all kinds of sounds that he wants; he’s amazing. But the first song that we worked on as a trio was “Dc10,” which was the first song. DC 10 is an airplane, and that’s what started me thinking about the whole journey, as if this record was taking you on one.
So I went with it. When I was in the studio with Winslow, I just had him improvise some stuff, and he just acted like he was a flight attendant. You hear all of the bells going off; I thought this was just perfect! So we went with it.
We had some titles like “Final Approach” and “Landing” and different things like that. We’re going on a trip, so it’s called Trypnotyx.
YOU DID A FEW SONGS FROM THE ALBUM, SO IS THE ALBUM A SIDEBAR?
Definitely. If you play all of the songs from the album in concert, why get the album? Now, with Youtube, everything that you play is posted around the world that night.
So, we made sure that as we were working on the album that we’d play some of the songs on it, but not all of them. That was on purpose.
Of course, there were some songs that weren’t even written until off the tour. Last minute additions.
WHAT’S THIS ABOUT YOU BEING AN ACROBAT?
(laughs) As a kid I used to love the circus. When I was young in the 80s, they had a thing on TV called “Circus of the Stars.” It would come on once a year, and they’d have a circus on TV, but it would be star-studded. They’d have stars come out and do things.
But in many cases the stars really wouldn’t do much. They might have a beautiful actress sitting on top of an elephant, but there was the trainer out there making the elephant doing all these weird things, and she’s just sitting there.
As a kid, I told myself, “Man, when I grow up and am on Circus of the Stars, I’m gonna do EVERYTHING. I wanna juggle, tightrope walk, do acrobatics and the unicycle.” So I made myself learn all of these things.
I’ve always been a fan of things like the circus, The Harlem Globetrotters, where people do tricks.
THAT MAKES A LOT OF SENSE, BECAUSE YOU DO SOME TRICKS OF HAND AND BODY WITH YOUR BASS ON STAGE.
Exactly. That’s where it all came from.
YOU ALSO HAVE LISTED IN YOUR BIOGRAPHY THAT YOU’RE A NATURALIST. ARE YOU A DESCENDANT OF JOHN MUIR OR SOMETHING?
I read a book by a man named Tom Brown Jr. A different person than the trumpet player. This man was tutored by an old Apache medicine man. He eventually wrote a bunch of books and started teaching.
When I read part of his first book, I said that I have to meet this guy.
I studied with him on and off for ten years, and learned all these skills that our ancestors had to know to still be here today. How to plant a garden. What the birds are actually saying. There used to be an old saying when you’d ask grandma how she knew something. She’d say “A little bird told me.”
That came from a truth. Birds aren’t just singing and making noises; they’re saying things, and you can learn to read into it.
Look, if the electricity went off in our houses during the winter time, most people wouldn’t have a clue of what to do.
The animals lived this way; our ancestors lived this way. They knew how to make fire without matches; they knew how to rub sticks together, grow gardens and they knew what plants were good for what medicine to help bee stings or combat poison ivy. That stuff just interested me; tracking animals.
The biggest thing that I realized while I was studying with Tom is that this stuff was helping my music.
HOW WAS THAT?
The simple short answer is this: whatever it is that we want to be good at, we want to do it naturally.
When people say “He’s a natural” what they’re saying whether they realize it or not is that “he’s like nature.” A bird doesn’t have to practice or go to conservatory to learn to sing. A squirrel builds a nest correctly the first time. They’re using their natural ability; a tree just grows.
A bird doesn’t sing to win a Grammy; it sings because the sun is coming up.
These are natural abilities that humans also have, and learning about nature was helping me become more natural at whatever I chose. The word “natural” means “to be like nature.” It also means “without sharps and without flats.” So even the dictionary makes the musical connection!
AS A KID, YOU TOURED WITH CURTIS MAYFIELD. DID YOU GLEAN ANYTHING FROM HIM?
I can’t remember if I ever chatted with him, but I would believe that we must have. I was only 5-6 years old, so I don’t quite remember the whole thing so well. I do remember bits and pieces.
I do know that through my brother’s awareness of Mayfield, I have learned how to create intensity through subtleties which is what Curtis Mayfield did. Curtis Mayfield never played loud, he always sang in that high falsetto real quietly, and he had these kind of real mellow grooves. But he still affected your emotions and created a real intensity with a softness. That was the thing that my brothers took away from it and made sure that I learned.
It’s easy to shout and get loud to create energy. But to do it the opposite way by being soft is one of the things that Curtis Mayfield was a master at.
Being around him that much, we got to hear that every night for awhile. My brothers were smart enough to pick up on that and teach us littler brothers Joseph and myself.
DOES WINNING A GRAMMY CHANGE YOUR CAREER?
I wish it did (laughs). It would be nice if it meant more money and things like that.
I want to tread on this lightly. You can say “I’m now Grammy Award Winning Victor Wooten” which is a step higher than “Grammy-Nominated Victor Wooten.”
It is a prestigious award, and it lets you know how your peers think about you. To be loved and celebrated by your peers is amazing. I love it, and I don’t take it for granted, and I don’t look down on it.
But, it doesn’t equal money. It doesn’t even equal attention. But it is gratifying to know that you’ve done something that people whom you respect like. Especially your peers in your industry; they like what you do.
That’s rewarding, and that gives you when it’s tough some times the extra push and nudge to keep doing it. Even if you never win another one.
WHAT ARE YOUR NEXT GOALS?
The biggest one is to find some times to be home with the kids. I’ve got three more at home in high school and junior high. I’m trying to be around them as much as possible.
Musically, I have a lot more albums that I want to put out. I want to do an acoustic/upright bass album.
The four of five of us brothers who are still alive should do another records.
But more than touring live, my heart is in my music camps. I get to feed, and I get fed, too. The same way your kids make you feel special, at the camp no matter how old they are, they feel like my kids because I get to help them.
PEOPLE RIGHT NOW NEED HELP. THEY SEEM SO ANGRY
We’ve got to remember that it’s not the majority. The bad things in life stand out because they’re not the majority. It’s like if I went out to my mailbox and my mail had been stolen, I would flip out. But if it got stolen everyday, you’d get used to it and wouldn’t say anything.
When you’re driving down the road and people pull in front of you, you say “these people here can’t drive” when it was really only a couple of people. Those couple of people stand out because everyone else is doing it right.
VICTOR WOOTEN’S POSITIVE WORLDVIEW IS NOT ONLY INFECTIOUS, BUT IT’S ATTAINABLE. HE IS ONE OF THE FEW ARTISTS THAT MAKE YOU THINK ABOUT MORE THAN JUST THE NOTES BEING PLAYED. THERE IS A CREATIVE WORLD OUT THERE, WITH A CREATOR, AND SOMETIMES WE NEED PEOPLE LIKE WOOTEN TO REMIND US ALL OF WHY WE DO WHAT WE DO. CHECK OUT HIS LATEST CREATION AND LEARN A BIT MORE ABOUT THIS GRAND THING CALLED LIFE.