Five-time Grammy Award winner Victor Wooten will bring his trio to the University of Alabama at Birmingham’s Alys Stephens Performing Arts Center on Thursday, March 29.
Wooten is a founding member of Béla Fleck and the Flecktones, one of Rolling Stone magazine’s Top 10 Bassists of All Time, and the only multiple winner of Bass Player Magazine’s readers’ poll. Wooten’s trio includes legendary drummer Dennis Chambers, known for his fast hands and triplets on the bass drum, and veteran saxophonist, songwriter and arranger Bob Franceschini.
The show is at 7 p.m. in the center’s Jemison Concert Hall. Tickets are $40, with $10 student tickets. UAB faculty may purchase a limited number of $25 tickets. Faculty and staff may receive a 20 percent discount on single tickets. Call 205-975-2787 or visit www.AlysStephens.org.
At 3 p.m. on the day of the show, Wooten will lead a free, public master class in the center’s Reynolds-Kirschbaum Recital Hall.
In 1988, Wooten was living in Nashville. He and Béla Fleck, along with Wooten’s inventive brother Roy “Future Man” Wooten and harmonica and piano wizard Howard Levy, formed the eclectic ensemble Béla Fleck and the Flecktones. With a dozen recordings under their belt, the band has created a completely new sound and has become known for its genre-defying music. Now, more than 20 years later, the band is still going strong.
A few years after he began touring with the Flecktones, Wooten released his first solo project, “A Show of Hands.” Recorded with only a four-string bass, no multi-tracking, and a lot of groove and soul, this revolutionary CD was voted one of the most important bass records of all time.
Last September, Wooten released his first album in five years, “TRYPNOTYX.” Produced by Wooten, “TRYPNOTYX” features Chambers (Bootsy Collins, Santana), Franceschini (Mike Stern, Paul Simon), singer Varijashree Venugopal, and comedian/voicetrumentalist Michael Winslow (“Police Academy”).
“Music is a great way — and a safe way — to teach just about any life principle,” Wooten said in a statement. “To be in a band, you have to listen to each other. Bands are at their best when every instrument is different, not the same. Everyone takes turns talking. Everyone speaks their voice. A lot of times musicians might ask, ‘What would you like me to play?’ I say, ‘Listen to the music. The music will tell you exactly what it needs.’”