Victor Wooten profile picture

Profile: Victor Wooten

Posted

This will be the first in my series of musicians of color (as opposed to the comic creators of color that I’ve been doing), and what a person to start off with! Now I need to acknowledge up front that there are thousands and thousands of amazing black musicians, over human history, that I could pick from. I’m going to narrow the scope of these to the type of music I usually cover, i.e., jam bands, or at least musicians who play at those types of festivals. As always, there will be organizations at the bottom that you can donate to, and feel free to comment if you feel there are any missing!

Victor Wooten

Bass

If you’re into jam music, bluegrass, fusion, funk, or anything in between, you’ve probably heard of Victor Wooten. He’s played with a wide variety of musicians, including Curtis Mayfield, Bootsy Collins, Carl Denson, Dennis Chambers, his four brothers as the Wooten Brothers, and of course his longest-standing group, Bela Fleck & The Flecktones.

Victor got his start playing with the family band the Wooten Brothers. He’s the youngest of his brothers, and they needed a bass player, so that’s what he learned! He was able to learn a lot about the industry from this experience, and was also able to play with a host of good musicians around the country, before helping to found the Flecktones in 1990.

This helped launch his career into international fame, and he still plays with Bela to this day, five Grammies later. He’s also received accolades from Bass Player magazine, and in 2011, Rolling Stone voted him one of the top 10 bass players of all time. He continues to perform with Bela Fleck, as well as his own solo work and collaborations with other artists. He’s obviously not touring right now, and his online store seems to be closed, but you can find out more about him here: https://www.victorwooten.com/.

Organizations

Here are a few organizations and communities that could use your help: