Biography

b. Newport News, Virginia, USA. Wooten was raised in Nashville the youngest of five brothers, and when he was only two years old was prompted into music by his brother, guitarist Elijah "Regi" Wooten. He eventually became proficient on the same instrument. Together with his other brothers, alto saxophonist Rudy, pianist Joseph and drummer Roy "Futureman", Victor and Regi listened to music on radio and records, being influenced by artists as diverse as James Brown, Sly Stone and, later, Return To Forever and Weather Report. In these last two groups, Wooten was especially attentive to the bass playing of Stanley Clarke and Jaco Pastorius. The brothers formed their own group, named, obviously enough, the Wooten Brothers Band, and recorded an album for Arista Records in 1985. Resident in Nashville, Tennessee, from 1988, they were open to yet more diverse influences, notably contemporary bluegrass. By now, Wooten was playing bass guitar and his brother Roy, was playing the "drumitar", a guitar-shaped electronic drum. They joined the banjo phenomenon, Bela Fleck and as the Flecktones (with keyboard player Howard Levy) attracted wide approval for their enthusiastic performances of a new hybrid: jazz rock-bluegrass.
After leaving Fleck, Wooten continued in similar vein, stretching his musical envelope to accommodate world music, funk, smooth jazz, bebop, and pop. Just so long as the resulting sound was joyous, and it usually was, anything was welcome. By the latter half of the 90s, Wooten was one of the principal bass guitarists against whom all others in contemporary music were measured. His status was reinforced following the release in 1996 of A Show Of Hands, which was a solo tour de force. Wooten is a very melodic player, and however intensely serious he is about his music, there is always room for humour. Just to show where the Wooten brothers got their talent, the boys' father, Elijah "Pete" Wooten, appears as guest vocalist on What Did He Say? while on Yin-Yang, Wooten himself also sings. Wooten has also recorded two fusion albums with guitarist Scott Henderson and drummer Steve Smith as Vital Tech Tones.
DISCOGRAPHY: A Show Of Hands (Compass 1996)***, What Did He Say? (Compass 1997)***, with Scott Henderson, Steve Smith Vital Tech Tones (Tone Center 1998)****, Yin-Yang (Compass 1999)***, with Henderson, Smith VTT2 (Tone Center 2000)***, Live In America (Compass 2001)***.
VIDEOGRAPHY: Live At Bass Day (Hudson Music 1998), with Carter Beauford Making Music (Hudson Music 1999).

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