[atlantaprog] Re: Victor Wooten, Variety, July 16

I have to chastise all of you for not beeing at the Victor Wooten Band show at the Variety Playhouse last night.

You might say, "It's funk. What's prog about that?" but you would be missing the point. The musicianship was staggering. The show included a guest sit-in by Steve Bailey, and a very rare reunion of all five Wooten Brothers (whose history is too deep to relate here) on a Return to Forever cover that I can't quite remember the name of. In addition to Victor's usual band, which is stunningly tight.

M. C. Divinity opened with her own Atlanta band who played a 30- minute set of rap funk metal. Or metal funk rap. Take your pick. This lady is one of the most talented vocalist/instrumentalists you will ever hear.

Reggie Wooten, the oldest of the Wooten Brothers, is a frightening, frightening guitarist, and led Victor's band in a very credible and completely internally consistent funk version of Led Zepplin's "Kashmir". Then he took off on a ten minute guitar solo that I could only describe this way:
Stanley Jordan got very angry and decided to mud wrestle with Vernon Reid, and the two emerged from the mud as one creature who decided on the spot to improvise a neoclassical sweep-picking and shredding arena anthem designed to make Yngwie Malmsteen lose control of his bowels. All on a $100 Squier Strat.

Victor Wooten finally revealed to the world that he has eight arms, and eight hands, which is what enables him to play so many notes in such a short space of time on a four-string bass. If you've never heard the man's recordings, you can't possibly imagine his technique, and I won't try to describe it to you.

And overall the show was the funkiest, hardest-funking funk show you've ever seen since Bootsy Collins with George Clinton in their prime. Lots of really great original songs with amazing grooves.

After the show I turned to my wife and said, "If you work out the number of notes played per dollar, this is the best entertainment value you've ever gotten for your ticket price." It was also the funkiest thing you've experienced in the last ten years, if you don't count previous Victor Wooten Band appearances.

Wheat Williams

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