There are good bassists, great bassists, and then there is Victor Wooten, a man who is so prodigiously talented and influential that it is hard to really call what he does bass playing in the traditional sense. Wooten plays bass in a way capable of bending space and time, fingers blurred, fluttering in impossible rhythms and phrasings.
High and low notes intermingle blissfully as the master stands half-smiling in bemusement at what he can make this instrument do. Known more so as a workmanlike instrument whose main purpose is to keep rhythm, the bass guitar transforms in Wooten’s hands into something far more diverse and melodic.
Wooten is widely regarded for both his solo work and his work alongside banjo virtuoso Bela Fleck, having won five Grammy awards and named bassist of the year by Bass Player magazine three times (the only person to have ever won the award more than once). Wooten comes to Northwest Arkansas alongside his presumably very-talented band and something called the Wooten Woods Experience, which will feature musicians from his music camps at Wooten Woods in Tennessee. Whether you are a bass aficionado or not, don’t miss this opportunity to watch a person do something better than pretty much any other human being does it.