Victor Wooten

I had the pleasure of seeing Victor Wooten play live nearby last night for the second time in the past four months. The show did not match the one that I saw back in December when he played as part of the popular Bela Fleck & The Flecktones, but I'm not sure any live music show that I've seen could, considering we were sitting comfortably about 5 feet from Victor. That said, it's still amazing to see what Vic can do on a bass guitar; it's one of those things that I don't think could ever get boring to watch.

Last night, Vic even brought out his young son and daughter, who played drums and vocals respectively for one song. For those unfamiliar with Vic, here are a few videos that will show you how some people are just born to be musicians...

This first video is an old one, as evidenced by Victor's sweet 'stache, and shows him playing a face-melting solo. You can see that even the drummer behind him is watching him like, "How the hell does he do that?" Trust me, it's well worth the 4 minutes:



This next video is featured on the 2002 DVD release of "Live at the Quick: Bela Fleck & The Flecktones," an amazing performance that was recorded at the Quick Center for the Arts at Fairfield University, a few years before I attended (which, coincidentally, was where I saw them this past December). It's more classical in nature than the previous video, and he works in a funked-out rendition of Amazing Grace into it:



This last video is another older one, but it seems most appropriate considering he's playing with his oldest brother, Regi. Vic is the youngest of 5 boys, all of whom took up playing different instruments at a young age. In fact, the second oldest of the brothers, Roy, aka Future man, is a percussionist that is also one of the Flecktones. It was Vic's oldest brother Regi, however, that realized that if Victor started playing bass, they'd have a full band, which they did. Vic started playing at 2 years old and 42 years later, he's considered to be one of the best bassists in the world.



Vic is also a very spiritual man, which was put onto paper this past year in the book he released, called "The Music Lesson: A Spiritual Search for Growth Through Music."