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| Background information | |
| Birth name | Victor Lemonte Wooten |
| Born | September 11, 1964 Mountain Home, Idaho, United States |
| Genres | jazz fusion, funk, funk rock, hip hop, progressive metal |
| Occupation(s) | Musician, songwriter, producer, author, educator |
| Instruments | bass, fiddle, cello, drums, keyboards, guitar |
| Years active | 1980–present |
| Associated acts | Béla Fleck and the Flecktones, Steve Bailey, Vital Tech Tones, SMV, Greg Howe, Chick Corea Elektric Band, |
| Website | http://www.victorwooten.com |
| Notable instruments | |
| Fodera Monarch Fodera Monarch Yin-Yang (4 string) |
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Victor Lemonte Wooten (born September 11, 1964) is an American bass player, composer, author, producer, educator, and recipient of five Grammy Awards.
Wooten has won the “Bass Player of the Year” award from Bass Player magazine three times and is the first person to win the award more than once. In 2011, he was named #10 in the “Top 10 Bassists of All Time” by Rolling Stone In addition to a solo career and collaborations with various artists, Wooten has been the bassist for Béla Fleck and the Flecktones since the group’s formation in 1988.
In 2008, Wooten joined Stanley Clarke and Marcus Miller to record an album. The trio of bassists, under the name SMV, released Thunder in August 2008 and began a supporting tour the same month.
Wooten is most often seen playing Fodera basses, of which he has a signature model. His most famous Fodera, a 1983 Monarch Deluxe he refers to as “number 1,” sports a Kahler Tremolo System model 2400 bridge. Fodera’s “Yin Yang” basses (co-designed by and created for Wooten) incorporates the Yin Yang symbol—which Wooten uses in various media—as a focal point of the top’s design and construction. The symbol is created from two pieces of naturally finished wood (Ebony and Holly, for example), fitted together to create the Yin-Yang pattern. As well as playing electric bass (both fretted and fretless) and the double bass, Victor also played the cello in high school. He still plays cello occasionally with the Flecktones as well as in the 2012 Sword and Stone/Words and Tones tour.
Bass Stuff 