It’s not every day that an electric bassist takes the lead with a major city’s symphony orchestra—but Victor Wooten is no ordinary bassist. Between two weekend performances with the Thomas Wilkins-conducted Los Angeles Philharmonic (LA Phil) at the Walt Disney Concert Hall in downtown LA., the five-time Grammy winner—perhaps best known for his work with Béla Fleck and the Flecktones—took his own symphonic composition, La Leccion Tres, out for a stroll with nearly 50 different instruments behind him. The three-part concerto proved to be a rich tapestry combining orchestral grandeur with jazzy funk jams, with a sprinkling of lighthearted humor to tie it all together.
Before Wooten took the stage in his signature cap, the LA Phil, with Wilkins at the podium, regaled the crowd with its first-ever rendition of Samuel Coleridge-Taylor’s Ballade in A Minor, Op. 33, followed by Leonard Bernstein’s symphonic dances from West Side Story—snaps from the orchestra included.
Those pieces proved to be prescient warmups for Wooten’s genre-bending display of musicianship. With his two Fodera basses in tow—his “yinyang” bass and his custom piece that allows for cello-like bowing—the Idaho native-turned-Nashvillian guided the audience through his 12-bar-based odyssey.
The opening movement was much like any concerto, albeit with an electric bass carrying the melody across multiple octaves. Wooten blended his abilities beautifully with the array of woodwinds, brass, strings, and percussion at his back. In switching between his Foderas (and the disparate means by which he played them), the youngest of the five Wooten brothers spiced up the proceedings while highlighting his aim to draw classical music and jazz fusion into a single fold.
That all set the stage for the second movement, wherein Wooten’s talents truly shined. At one point, the rest of the LA Phil all but faded out, leaving the man of the hour to tap and slap his way through a bass solo that bordered on mind-altering in its own right. It was here that he laid down his bona fides as one of the greatest bassist of all time, as previously proclaimed by Bass Player magazine and Rolling Stone.
With the third movement, Wooten and the LA Phil lent a smidgen of jazz-like levity to proceedings. Before the music began, Thomas acted as though he’d lost control of the bass section and couldn’t make sense of the music—even going so far as to flip the sheet music upside down in a bit of slapstick. At that point, Wooten stepped up to play the part of orchestral savior. His custom bass and bow at the ready, he guided the stand-up bassists in the philharmonic through the early portions of the movement, bit by bit. Once “back on track,” the concerto continued apace, to and through a riveting finale that saw every player in the orchestra come together in collective triumph.
Related: The Wooten Brothers Preview First Album In Decades With “Sweat” [Video]
By the end, Wooten had succeeded in what he had initially set out to do when he wrote La Leccion Tres just prior to the COVID lockdowns that delayed its debut. That is, he connected diverse musical styles nearly seamlessly, with his basses serving both to connect genres and draw in a variety of curious spectators. In doing so, he only further burnished his credentials as a virtuoso, apart from and beyond Béla Fleck and his own brothers. The musical world can only hope that he will have many more “lessons” to share in the coming years.
Victor Wooten will return to the road with The Wooten Brothers in May for a run of European tour dates before returning to the states for their summer tour. For a full list of shows and to purchase tickets, head here.
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