Grammy award winning bassist Victor Wooten to perform in Bangalore

“A song is just an idea until someone brings it into the world,” says Victor Wooten, five-time Grammy award winning bassist.

“That’s the great mystery of music or any creative endeavour. The power is in the palm of your hand. You just have to release it to the world.” For music aficionados who have been keenly following his work, this is as exciting as it gets for the legendary musician will be performing in the city and holding workshops.

The best part is that the workshop is open to all those who can nod to a tune.

Wooten will be answering queries related to music and interacting with those in the audience, and who knows, even play their instruments with him. He frequently conducts workshops at Berklee for close to 1500 people.

Wooten is held in high esteem for his solo recordings and considered one of the most influential bassists since Jaco Pastorius. He plays for Chick Corea, Bela Fleck and the Flecktones, SMV with Stanley Clarke and Marcus Miller and is a guest artist with Dave Matthews Band.

To Wooten, music is a language. He believes that just like how while one does not focus on the mouth as it is forming words while we are listening to someone speaking, when a musician is playing or performing, the focus shouldn’t be on the instrument.

“It wouldn’t be wrong to say that Wooten is one of the greatest bass players in the world. He plays all kinds of music. In the right sense he can be called an educationist, musician and performer,” says Jason Zachariah, director of Nathaniel School of Music.

Konark Reddy, Bruce Lee Mani, Raghu Dixit and the like will be there to pick up nuances of the bass guitar. “Imagine being just 10-15 feet away from a stalwart and getting to learn from him. He’ll demonstrate some skills for an hour and then invite people to jam with him on the stage,” says Zachariah.

“As for Bangalore, it is a city known for its musical heritage. For someone like Wooten the reception will be huge in Bangalore. The fact that the artistes one once saw on their television are now coming to their town to perform is huge. One can learn as well as listen to a world famous musician perform live,” he adds.

The concert will see Wooten teaming up with Prasanna, known for his magic with the guitar. Expect the maestros to play elements of Funk, Hip-hop, Carnatic music, Jazz, Blues, Classical music, avant garde and the best of contemporary music.

Also performing with Wooten and Prasanna are virtuoso percussionists S Karthik, on ghatam, and Bangalore Amrit on Kanjira. The quartet will have something extraordinary to offer for those who love all genres of music.