The day four Wooten brothers placed a bass guitar in their youngest sibling’s tiny 2-year-old hands, they invoked the calling that would guide him to critical acclaim as a musician and allow him to help countless others in musical aspirations.
Victor Wooten, the five-time Grammy-winning bassist, composer, author and producer who performed at the Howlin’ Wolf in New Orleans on Wednesday, initially learned to play music from his brothers and performed with them for nearly half his life.
“Right around age five, for me, was when we actually started doing gigs, shows and even some tours,” Wooten said.
These performances included shared stages with artists like Curtis Mayfield, Stephanie Mills, War and The Temptations. This preceded Wooten’s work with Béla Fleck and the Flecktones, which included world-renowned banjo player Béla Fleck and Wooten’s brother Roy “Future Man” Wooten on percussions.
While this group garnered Grammy awards between 1997 and 2012, Wooten also pursued a solo career that led him to collaborations with prominent artists such as jazz musician, Stanley Clarke , and an extensive solo discography.
But Wednesday night, Wooten performed as part of a tour featuring his latest two-album release of “Words and Tones” and “Sword and Stone,” records that feature some identical melodies with variations of vocals and instrumentations. Wooten described “Sword and Stone” as an instrumental record and “Words and Tones” as a vocal record.
“I started out with the idea of doing a record featuring female vocalists, and I wanted the female vocalists to be able to write some of the lyrics so they could sing things that were true to them,” he said of “Words and Tones.” “When I was recording the music I would put melodies on the songs so I could send them to the vocalists, and then putting the melodies on the songs, I realized I really liked the songs as instrumentals. So I ended up doing two separate CDs.”
Wooten said this allows listeners to choose whichever version they prefer — or enjoy both. Of the 14 songs on each record, 11 are similar, with varied arrangements and sometimes different musicians.
“Words and Tones” also features his 14-year-old daughter, Kaila, as a vocalist, who Wooten said has been featured on nearly all of his records since her infancy.
“As soon as we heard her heart beat, I put her on my second record,” he said.
As his four children grow and perform, Wooten said this helps him understand what his parents experienced in his childhood. As the youngest sibling, he had no younger counterpart to advise. Now he can draw from the guidance of his brothers and parents in raising his children, Wooten said.
“It’s an amazing feeling to see your kids not only grow up in your footsteps, but maybe even taking bigger steps than you did as kids,” he said. “A lot of the things I had interests in — nonmusical things — my kids are doing them better than I did at that age. So it’s just a wonderful thing to be able to see it and be able to guide it.”
And Wooten’s children provide a significant part of his reasoning for the forming Vix Records, which released his two most recent albums and other works.
“It’s a lot of extra work, but I think it pays off in the end, because I’m in control of my own music — totally,” he said. “Over the years I kind of got a little bit fed up with record labels and how they don’t operate in the best interests of the artist whose actually creating the product. I just wanted to be in control of my own product, so in the end my kids end up with my stuff rather than a record exec’s kids ending up with my creations.”
But Wooten has helped guide more people than his children during his career. With Vix Camps at Wooten Woods, he helps young musicians hone skills in any instrument. These camps began 13 years ago to help aspiring bassists, but in the past four years have grown to include lessons and opportunities for any musicians, including vocalists.
As a naturalist, Wooten includes aspects in these lessons he believes are often omitted in the academic music curriculum.
“We’re all trying to be natural at what we do — whether it’s playing music or playing sports, driving a car or conducting an interview — we want to do it naturally,” he said. “Musicians oftentimes exclude nature from that pursuit. We lock ourselves in a room, and we tell ourselves the longer and more hours we spend in that room, the more natural we become… It’s like trying to learn a language in a room by yourself.”
But with camps scheduled for 2013, Wooten is focused on his current tour, which he will co-headline with Widespread Panic guitarist Jimmy Herring beginning in November. Wooten said he has been a big fan of Herring, particularly in his work with Col. Bruce Hampton and The Aquarium Rescue Unit, but he’s largely excited about how his own band has been operating throughout the course of his tour so far.
“One of the really exciting things is how my band is working, the way a lot of us are playing multiple instruments throughout the show,” he said. “So you have different members switching between bass and trumpet, trombone and keyboards, upright bass and guitar, drums, even our vocalists will play drums and keyboards throughout the show.”
Ultimately, Wooten enjoys knowing people want him to share his experiences, whether through his performances or lessons.
“My mother always alluded to the fact that if what we’re doing is not helping the world, is it really worth doing it?” he said. “So the fact that I can do what I love to do, and help other people grow, I don’t know if there’s anything better than that.”
“We’re all trying to be natural at what we do — whether it’s playing music or playing sports, driving a car or conducting an interview — we want to do it naturally.”
