A few times each year, five-time GRAMMY award-winning bass player, producer, composer, author, and educator Victor Wooten hosts a series of music and nature camps at his namesake Center for Music and Nature, an all ages camp retreat located near Nashville, TN. Teaching not only music, these camps teach theory, nature, and most importantly, the relationship between music, nature and life.
For the first time ever, and in celebration of the camp’s 20th year, Wooten will bring the camp experience to the public with an 11-city Wooten Woods Experience tour. Filled with spirited music, jaw-dropping musicianship, and sprinkled with education and audience participation, these shows are for the whole family. A full list of dates is below.
Kicking off April 15, at City Winery in Nashville, TN, the tour will feature his high-powered band joined by a small group of fellow musicians and educators who teach at Victor Wooten’s Center for Music and Nature, including the Chair of the Berklee College of Music Bass Department Steve Bailey and award-winning scientist, musician, and author Dr. Daniel J. Levitin. The tour will also provide a select group of students the opportunity to join him on the road to gain more experience and also demonstrate the skills and philosophies acquired at camp.
Last summer, Wooten welcomed TBN’s Huck’s Heroes to his namesake Center for Music and Nature camp for an inside look for a profile that will air this weekend—Saturday, February 9 and Sunday, February 10. Wooten also joins the Governor Mike Huckabee in-studio for an interview and performance during the segment.
Known for their funky/jazzy music and powerful performances, the Victor Wooten Band is comprised of Victor’s brothers, Regi and Joseph on guitars and keyboards and Derico Watson on drums, offering a dynamic mixture of old and new music mixed with improvisational jams and classic cover songs.
As the youngest of five brothers, Victor began playing music at the tender age of two years old. Under the tutelage of his older brother Regi, Victor was playing gigs and touring with the family band by the age of five. The Wooten Brothers performed with the likes of Curtis Mayfield, War, and the Temptations, among others. Rolling Stone Magazine lauded Victor, a founding member of the supergroup Bela Fleck and the Flecktones, by noting, “every player in the Flecktones is a master, but when Wooten busts out a solo at a concert, every jaw in the audience drops to the ground.”
Named “one of the Top 10 Bassists of All Time” by Rolling Stone, he has been voted “Bassist of the Year” three times by Bass Player magazine readers’ poll. In February 2017 Huffington Post named him one of “50 Iconic Black Trailblazers,” pictured just after President Barack Obama. As an author, he penned The Music Lesson: A Spiritual Search For Growth through Music, which is now part of the curriculum at The Berklee College of Music, where he is a performance scholar in residence, Stanford University, and other prestigious institutions. Not only an accomplished musician, Wooten is also an acrobat, magician, and skilled naturalist.
“Music is a great way – and a safe way – to teach just about any life principle,” Wooten declares. “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 and everyone speaks with their own 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.’”
Victor Wooten’s Wooten Woods Experience Tour Dates
April 15 – City Winery – Nashville, TN
April 16 – Old Rock House – St. Louis, MO
April 17 – The Ark – Ann Arbor, MI
April 18 – Wisconsin Union Theater – Madison, WI
April 19 – Dakota – Minneapolis, MN
April 20 – Elgin Community College Arts Center – Elgin, IL
April 23 – George’s Majestic – Fayetteville, AR
April 24 – ACM@UCO Performance Lab – Oklahoma City, OK
April 25 – Warehouse Live – Houston, TX
April 26 – Empire Garage – Austin, TX
April 27 – Granada – Dallas, TX
