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Victor Lemonte Wooten: Palmystery

 A l b u m   D e t a i l s


Label: VixLix Music
Released: 2008.04.15
Time:
 65:53
Category: Jazz
Producer(s): See Artists ...
Rating: *********. (9/10)
Media type: CD
Web address: www.victorwooten.com
Appears with: Béla Fleck and the Flecktones
Purchase date: 2008.05.20
Price in €: 15,99



 S o n g s ,   T r a c k s


[1] 2 Timers (Wooten) - 4:51
[2] Cambo (Ali/Wooten) - 5:25
[3] I Saw God (Wooten) - 4:20
[4] The Lesson (Wooten) - 5:55
[5] Left, Right & Center (Wooten) - 7:11
[6] Sifu (Wooten) - 7:36
[7] Miss U (Wooten) - 4:33
[8] Flex (Wooten) - 6:37
[9] The Gospel (Future Man/Wooten) - 6:42
[10] Song for My Father (Silver) - 5:18
[11] Happy Song (Wooten) - 4:23
[12] Us 2 (Wooten) - 2:56

 A r t i s t s ,   P e r s o n n e l


Victor Wooten - Bass, Vocals, Handclapping, Engineer, Fretless Bass, Drum Programming, Mixing, Soloist, Slide Bass, Tenor Bass

Amir Ali - Violin, Lute, Vocals, Voices, Darbouka
Jeff Coffin - Baritone & Tenor Saxophone
Future Man - Organ, Piano, Keyboards, Vocals

Dane Bryant - Keyboards
John Billings - Bass
J.D. Blair - Drums
Richard Bona - Percussion, Vocals
Karl Denson - Tenor Saxophone
Neal Evans - Organ
Barry Green - Trombone
James "Duke" Jackson - Conga
Will Kennedy - Drums
Alvin Lee - Guitar
Howard Levy - Harmonica
Raymond Massey - Drums
Rod McGaha - Trumpet
Mike Stern - Guitar
Shawn "Thunder" Wallace - Alto Saxophone
Derico Watson - Drums
Regi Wooten - Bass, Guitar
Roy Wooten - Handclapping, Cajon, Shaker
Rudy Wooten - Alto Saxophone
Steve Bailey - Engineer, Fretless Bass

Lee Boys - Vocals
Alvin Chea - Vocals
Derrick Lee - Vocals
Keith Lee - Vocals
Daniel Hunt - Voices
Chuck Rainey - Voices
Saundra Williams - Vocals, Voices
Adam Wooten - Voices
Dorothy G. Wooten - Vocals
Holly Wooten - Voices

Robert Battaglia - Engineer, Mixing
Brad Bowden - Engineer
Kurt Storey - Engineer, Mixing
Steven Parke - Art Direction, Design, Photography
 

 C o m m e n t s ,   N o t e s

2008 CD Heads Up 3135

Recorded at Vix Mix Studios 2001-2004.

Electric bass virtuoso Victor Wooten is a Grammy nominee and the only three-time winner of Bass Player magazine's Bass Player of the Year award. Wooten's sense of creative exploration has fuelled a highly successful career that spans more than two decades, five solo recordings, a diverse resumé of guest-artist work and a longstanding collaborative relationship with the innovative Béla Fleck and the Flecktones. His Heads Up debut is a mesmerizing 12-song set - a recording that boasts a long list of special guests including Richard Bona, Mike Stern, Alvin Lee and Keb' Mo'.



"It doesn't matter how you go about writing songs," says bassist Victor Wooten. "The music is coming from somewhere. If we think it's our brain, or some strictly intellectual source, I would say we're mistaken. Sometimes the songs show up quickly, almost completely. That's when you realize, `Wow, I didn't even write this song. It happened on its own.' But whether it comes together in 30 minutes or several months, it's coming from the same place. Call it what you want to - spirituality, mysticism, whatever - that energy is there. The musician is the conduit that enables that energy to enter the world.

Victor Wooten



We live in an age when science and technology have answers for almost every question, and there's little if any room left for the unsolved or the unexplained. In the highly accelerated, digitally-driven culture of the 21st century, the mystery and mysticism of the world around us has slipped almost completely out of our collective grasp. And yet, there are those fortunate few who are still tapped into the less concrete - but perhaps more real - dimensions of the human experience. Among them is bassist Victor Wooten, whose sense of creative exploration has fueled a highly successful career that spans more than two decades, five solo recordings, a diverse resume of guest-artist work and a longstanding collaborative relationship with the innovative Bela Fleck and the Flecktones.

Bassist Victor Wooten makes his debut on Heads Up International with the worldwide release of "Palmystery" on April 1, 2008. In keeping with the ongoing philosophy of genre-bending eclecticism that has driven all of his solo work, "Palmystery" embraces a range of styles - jazz, funk, pop, soul, gospel, world music and more - and boasts a diverse guest list that includes Mike Stern, Richard Bona, Keb' Mo' and several others. The result is an amalgam of voices, styles and grooves, but one that never fails to hold together at its rock-solid core - in much the same way that Wooten's legions of devoted fans hail from all walks of life and all corners of the globe, yet share a common affinity for artistic diversity. "Palmystery"'s April 1 release date is simultaneous with the release of "The Music Lesson," Wooten's new novel published by Berkley Trade Paperback (The Penguin Group USA). "The Music Lesson" is the story of a struggling young musician who is unexpectedly visited by a mysterious, seemingly mystic music teacher who guides him through a spiritual journey of higher education in both music and life. The themes of spirituality and mysticism at the core of "The Music Lesson" dovetail perfectly with those of "Palmystery." A few of the twelve tracks on the album were written over the past couple years, and have since been road tested in Wooten's live shows. Others were written only recently. Whatever the time frame, Wooten maintains a great respect for the mystery of the creative process - something that is very real, yet can never be completely explained.

Amazon.com



Victor Wooten makes it clear in the first few seconds of Palmystery that he's the man in charge. His spellbinding, acrobatic basslines take the lead, literally, and even when he's fulfilling the traditional role of the bassist (not that there's much about his virtuosic playing that's traditional) and shining the spotlight on his collaborators, he remains the focal point. Yet Wooten, the veteran bassist of Béla Fleck & the Flecktones, is no showoff. Through mostly original compositions (the sole cover is Horace Silver's "Song for My Father") that glide easily between jazz fusion, world music, R&B, gospel, rock, and funk, through instrumental and vocal sections, improvisations and structured pieces, Wooten holds it all together -- it's nearly impossible not to listen to what he's doing with his instrument. Still, although the musicianship is never less than stellar throughout and always takes a front seat, this is not an indulgent record -- Wooten and his crew serve the songs, not vice versa, and they do so with panache. The leadoff track, "2 Timers," serves notice that this is going to be a fun listen, not a difficult one, despite the complexity often inherent: with one drummer playing in 3/4 time and the other in 4/4 (hence the title), Wooten alternately hands the reins over to violinist Eric Silver, a three-man horn section, harmonica ace Howard Levy, and brother Joseph Wooten on keyboards. Continual shifts of tempo, mood, and texture keep things lively and then, just in case it seems like this is how it might stay, the second track, the Arabian-flavored "Cambo," puts an entirely different spin on things. With lead and choired vocals by co-writer Amir Ali and Saundra Williams, Wooten lays down a solid rhythm over which brothers Joseph and guitarist Regi Wooten work out, along with Ali on violin, lute, and darbouka (an African hand drum). Each successive track expands the album's colorings: on "I Saw God," which features Richard Bona among its vocalists, Victor Wooten offers a non-religious person's impressions of his confrontation with a unisexual, philosophical, word-playing deity, while the flamenco-esque "The Lesson" pares down the cast to just Victor on bass and another Flecktone brother, Roy Wooten, supplying percussion. And so on throughout: "The Gospel" doubles up Wooten's fretted and fretless basses with ghostly vocals from the Woodard Family and a team of horns, and the Silver interpretation is spirited and swinging, with Karl Denson's tenor saxophone among the more notable solos on the record. "Us 2," the closing track, is also the quietest, Wooten laying low on basses and drum programming while Keb' Mo' peels off sleek slide guitar licks and Joseph Wooten lays down a bed of keyboards. "Sifu" utilizes Mike Stern's guitar. "Miss U," which features the Lee Boys on vocals, Roosevelt "The Doctor" Collier on pedal steel, and Alvin Lee (presumably not the Ten Years After guitarist) on guitar, is a gospelized, bluesy, soul-fried rave-up that gives Wooten a chance to show off his boogie power. Palmystery solidifies Victor Wooten's rep not only as one of the most skillful, inventive bassists on the planet but a heck of a diversified songwriter and bandleader, too.

Jeff Tamarkin - All Music Guide



"Wooten's jaw-dropping, expressive technique on electric bass ties together all of this music, but there's an equal emphasis on inventive arrangements and contributions from an extended cast of family and friends."

Down Beat (p.80) - 3.5 stars out of 5



"On the genre-bending PALMYSTERY, Wooten showcases his extraordinary range and unparalleled facility on a collection of originals..."

JazzTimes (p.102)
 

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