US EMBASSY HOSTS GRAMMY-WINNER VICTOR WOOTEN’S VIRTUAL MASTERCLASS
AS part of the US Department of State’s Arts Envoy program and in observance of Black History and Philippine Arts Month, the US Embassy in Manila organized a virtual jazz masterclass with American bassist and five-time Grammy Award winner Victor Wooten on February 20 via Zoom. Organizers of the Philippine International Jazz Festival and Crossover FM also lent their support to this musical endeavor.
Wooten hit the worldwide scene in 1990 as a founding member of the super-group Bela Fleck and the Flecktones. He became a member of the band SMV formed in 2008 with two other bassists Stanley Clarke and Marcus Miller, and has played bass for the metal band Nitro since 2017.
He has won every major award given to a bass guitarist including Bassist of the Year in Bass Player Magazine’s readers poll three times (the only person to win it more than once). And in 2011, Rolling Stone Magazine voted Wooten as one of the Top Ten Bassist of All Time.
As one of the most accomplished bassists of his generation, Wooten shared his expertise during the virtual masterclass and reminisced how he came to master the instrument he is well-known for.
“[I came to master bass] because of my brothers. I’m the youngest of five boys. When I was born, my brother Regi was playing guitar, Roy was playing drums, Rudy was playing saxophone and my brother Joseph was playing keyboard. They needed a bass player, so Regi started teaching me to play music at two years old,” Wooten, who started performing in nightclubs and theaters with the family band, enthused to the Filipino participants.
Just like any successful artists, Wooten was able to overcome different kinds of struggles to pursue his passion for music. Proving his capability with persistence, musicians around the world sought him out to learn his unique style and elusive techniques, year after year.
“When I play music, I make many mistakes. But, I don’t care because getting every piece right is not the goal. It is getting the message across that is the goal.
I have learned that my music is better when I make mistakes. We need the struggle, we need the mistakes so that when we get it right we will feel the reward.”
A skilled teacher and a published author, Wooten encouraged beginners to listen to people around and play more music than think money is needed to learn.
“Don’t wait until you’re good enough. If you wait until you’re good enough, you will never do it. We need to play with people and listen to people. That’s the way to do it. Practice a little, play a lot,” he noted.
Asked what jazz has in store in the future of music, Wooten finally said, “The future is up to the musicians. The future of jazz is not me. The future of jazz is in the younger people. It’s what they choose to do with it. But music is about change. Jazz is not supposed to stay exactly the same. Life is about evolution, life is about change. So allow the music to change the same way everyday we change.”