He's not using the whammy bar. Sounds very much like a Digitech Whammy effect.
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Victor Wooten Solo
- Thread starter Dr. Cheese
- Start date
I'm not quite sure why an introduction to slap by Les would make all slap sound like him, but who knows, maybe it is true. Les covered The Awakening on High Ball with the Devil so yes clearly one that stuck with him in one way or another.
I saw him live with Dennis Chambers and a Sax player. Great fun. But I'd rather listen to Christian McBride.
Victor's talent makes him one of the thumping icons IMHO. I had the pleasure of seeing him with Steve Bailey, less than 20 feet from the stage. ThouroughBred music in Florida used to have a mini Namm show. Saw many big name players there. Victor is so down to earth and very easy to talk to.
True, there's some showboating, but I think it's all in fun for him. He looks loose and happy. I don't mind showboating by anybody if they can back it up chops wise. He does.
Oh yeah. Tone wise? I dunno. It works for me. I've heard other recordings where he's kind of thin, so this one's ok by me.
Oh yeah. Tone wise? I dunno. It works for me. I've heard other recordings where he's kind of thin, so this one's ok by me.
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Victor's playing and personality transcends his otherworldly chops.
I met him at a show when I was 17yo and he held up soundcheck for 45min to talk to me and another bassist.
85% of our conversation was about spirituality and wellness and the rest was "how to slap the $7*T out of a bass."
Fast-forward another year - he spotted ME after a show and called me over (by name) to join a similar conversation with a group of fans.
I'd be honored to share even an iota of his talent and humility.
I met him at a show when I was 17yo and he held up soundcheck for 45min to talk to me and another bassist.
85% of our conversation was about spirituality and wellness and the rest was "how to slap the $7*T out of a bass."
Fast-forward another year - he spotted ME after a show and called me over (by name) to join a similar conversation with a group of fans.
I'd be honored to share even an iota of his talent and humility.
Lol omfg Showboating? Wow I thought music was supposed to be fun. Vic has spent almost his entire life as a PERFORMER. How dare he perform at a huge show!
So, the 1st time I witnessed the greatness of VICTOR WOOTEN was at the Playboy Jazz Festival. I was running backstage security for the Hollywood Bowl back then. (what a great summer time part-time Gig!)
Bela Fleck & the Flecktones won a contest to perform that day. They were the 2nd act right after the Dorsey High School Jazz ensemble. Victor's bass solo had the whole 18,900 souls standing up and completely dancing, cheering, & screaming in awe.
But that's not even the best part of the story it was the reaction of all the jazz greats Bass players and others who went absolutely nuts watching him play. Nathan East telling Marcus Miller "Man we better go home and practice some more!" Herbie Hancock asking " WHO THE HELL IS THIS GUY AND WHY ISN'T HE IN MY BAND" right in front of his bass player. Maybe even better still Grover Washington Jr. repeating slapping his own bass player high 5's screaming "HELL YEAH!" over and over again! or maybe it was Victor coming over to stage right where all the other musician's were standing and watching in awe and blew them a kiss and ripped of a crazy ridiculous 30 second bass run. Then Victor walk to dead center of the stage and wait for his staging ovation that last minutes. Soon there after Randy Brecker said to me "NOW, THAT'S A COMING OUT PARTY"
IF SHOWBOATING IS BAD I DON'T WANNA BE RIGHT!!!
To this day one of my favorite musical moments and I've worked and seen thousands of concerts from damn near every musical style & genre.
Bela Fleck & the Flecktones won a contest to perform that day. They were the 2nd act right after the Dorsey High School Jazz ensemble. Victor's bass solo had the whole 18,900 souls standing up and completely dancing, cheering, & screaming in awe.
But that's not even the best part of the story it was the reaction of all the jazz greats Bass players and others who went absolutely nuts watching him play. Nathan East telling Marcus Miller "Man we better go home and practice some more!" Herbie Hancock asking " WHO THE HELL IS THIS GUY AND WHY ISN'T HE IN MY BAND" right in front of his bass player. Maybe even better still Grover Washington Jr. repeating slapping his own bass player high 5's screaming "HELL YEAH!" over and over again! or maybe it was Victor coming over to stage right where all the other musician's were standing and watching in awe and blew them a kiss and ripped of a crazy ridiculous 30 second bass run. Then Victor walk to dead center of the stage and wait for his staging ovation that last minutes. Soon there after Randy Brecker said to me "NOW, THAT'S A COMING OUT PARTY"
IF SHOWBOATING IS BAD I DON'T WANNA BE RIGHT!!!
To this day one of my favorite musical moments and I've worked and seen thousands of concerts from damn near every musical style & genre.
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They are Otis Redding's sons.
That'll learn me to watch a vid on my phone without expanding it
. You're correct…either a Whammy pedal or a digital octaver with an expression pedal.
And BTW, Vic is running the neck pickup soloed as opposed to his usual even blend of both. Some don't like the sound of a P bass slapped but I love it!
Slapped P-bass is a cool tone even though I favor brighter slap tones personally.
It's interesting following his career. In the last couple of years, Vic has been very transparent about his diagnosis of focal dystonia which affects the nerves in his hands. His dexterity is significantly impacted by the disease. But Vic, being the master that he is, has found ways around it and is just as impressive as ever, only in a different way. I recently saw him in concert and noticed how he has gone the route of looping and effects. It's all still really impressive. Just not the same vibe as when I saw him with Bela Fleck & the Flecktones, back in the day. That was world-changing! I'm just glad he's still out there getting it done.
Im sort of glad I dont really like his tone. It keeps me from gassing for a Fodera so much. Aside from that , he is a fabulous player and person, and I hope we can hear from him for a long time!
That's what I hear too. It sounds great, but not the tone I've heard out of Wooten in the past. I'm sure he figured it worked well for the sound Cory's band gets overall, and it does!
Many around here have already seen the infamous DMB sit-in video, but I'll post it again here as an example of a more typical Wooten tone in case anyone might be interested by the comparison.
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Great story! Something some people might not be aware of is that Victor very much has a showmanship background. That's the school he comes from, and there's a long tradition of that (which is not represented in college music programs
). It's not about "showboating", it's about entertaining - and a lot of musicians could learn something about the art from Vic (myself included).
Regarding the negative comments. Here's my theory.
People these days reject the concept of expertise. Everyone's a YouTube expert on whatever they want to know about, and they see no daylight between whatever understanding of a thing they picked up in between a burp and a fart and the mastery they might see evident in others.
You can't fake playing like Vic Wooten though, and none of these people can play like he can or even relate to it as an idea. So their defense mechanism is to make comments that are diminutive to his level of skill and commitment in an effort to reduce the difference between Wooten's mastery and whatever they have to "opinion."
People these days reject the concept of expertise. Everyone's a YouTube expert on whatever they want to know about, and they see no daylight between whatever understanding of a thing they picked up in between a burp and a fart and the mastery they might see evident in others.
You can't fake playing like Vic Wooten though, and none of these people can play like he can or even relate to it as an idea. So their defense mechanism is to make comments that are diminutive to his level of skill and commitment in an effort to reduce the difference between Wooten's mastery and whatever they have to "opinion."
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I saw Vic Wooten with Dennis Chambers and Bob Franceschini on the Trypnotix tour when they came through town a handful of years ago. It was outstanding.
