The Peach Review®
EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW WITH VICTOR WOOTEN Prior to bassist Victor Wooten’s arriving in Atlanta for his April 27th concert at The Variety Playhouse, TPR’s Music Editor Keith Jones had an opportunity to spend some time with Victor. The following is an excerpt from that exclusive interview:
your thoughts about that a little more? Music is nothing more than tones; but it’s a way to communicate; think about the slaves that were brought to this country aboard ships, one of the reasons why slaves weren’t allowed to play their music, or even sing, is because their captors knew that they The double CD could communicate through “Swords & Stones” / their music. Think about it, I “Words & Tones” is can make you laugh, or awesome; what was the want to cry --- make you thought behind the title? want to get up and dance, Swords & Stones – If or be sad – all thru the you take the letter ‘S’ from music that I play. I can each word it becomes describe how I feel thru my Words & Tones; my brother music. You don’t even have Reggie brought this to my to understand what’s being attention; we pull words said, all you have to do is from tones (like pulling the feel it! Think about it, sword from the stone), we there’s a reason why babies utter tones and eventually understand their parents pull words from them; words even before they can speak are powerful & have actual words --- they meaning that we may not understand the tones. notice, for example: mother (While we were speaking, a means “more than” or dog was barking in the simplicity meaning “a simple background) For example, city” can you hear my dog barking in the background? I’ve heard you mention I can tell by the “tone” of my before that you consider dogs bark whether he’s music an extension of happy, sad, or mad; even language; can you unpack though he’s not speaking
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words, his tone tells me all I need to know! I’ve always liked the way you give you brothers props --- especially Reggie; even though your personal career has taken off into the stratosphere, you always recognize your brothers --- I think that’s real cool I really appreciate you recognizing that; I’m just being honest! Some people may brag about going to this University or that --- I went to the University of “My Brothers and Parents”! Speaking of your family members; your brothers’ musical skills and prowess are pretty well documented; however, on this CD I
noticed a lot of other Wooten’s that I haven’t heard before; it appears the next generation of Wooten’s are making their marks as well, huh? Yeah; as my kids are getting older their musical skills have reached a point to where they are valid; in other words I appreciate what they do musically, not so much because they’re my kids, but because they’re good! I’m at a point to where I can bring my 15 year old daughter Kaila into the studio with me, ask her to do something, and she makes a real contribution musically to whatever project I’m working on. My 9 yr old daughter Arianna is a great singer as well --does a wonderful job of singing harmonies. Both my boys are very rhythmic; my son Adam is 12 and is an excellent drummer. He’s at a point to where he gigs around town (in Nashville) with an adult band and can really hold his own. He plays on the song entitled “It’s Alright”. My wife sings on “Heaven”
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