From: Bob Davis (earthjuice_at_prodigy.net)
Date: 2005-04-17 17:49:19
Victor Wooten In Philly & More...
I'll be at tomorrow nights show and hopefully I'll see you there as well.
Victor Wooten is a Grammy award winner and probably the most outstanding
artist on today's Funk music scene. And Soul-Patrol has been one of his
current tour sponsors in NY, DC, Chicago, Columbus, Cleveland, LA and
Philly.
His live show is an unbelievable combination of virtuoso musicianship and
showmanship that will have you in awe. Prior to the show Soul-Patrol will
be having a "meet & greet" with Victor and his band, just as we have done
prior to all of his shows accross the country during this current tour.
Contact Eddie Bowman @ (215)292-4594 if you want to participate
--Bob Davis
----------------------------------------------
Here is a message from
Philly Soul-Patrol Coordinador Eddie Bowman
about Tomorrow night's Victor Wooten Show in Philly
----------------------------------------------
Philly Soul Patrolers
Tommorow, Monday April 18th at the TLA, located on South Street between 3rd
and 4th, Victor Wooten will perform. Show time is 8PM. I will be at the
venue by 5PM. If you don't have a ticket, order on line or call the box
office to make sure the show isn't sold out. As of this posting, I don't
believe it is.
Once we all have our tickets, then we will meet our contact person, via
Victor's label
and we will be able to meet Victor and the band, take pictures, interview
him. Also, TLA is general seating, so we will have the early seats upstairs.
Down below are no seats. Anyone who has questions, concerns, comments, I'm
available. Hope to see you there.
Eddie Bowman
Philly Soul-Patrol Coordinator
(215)292-4594
----------------------------------------------
Here is a review from friday night's
Victor Wooten Show in Washington DC
----------------------------------------------
Thanks to our friend the legendary funk historian "Dr. G" for this review of
Victor Wooten's
show at the 9:30 club in Washington DC
-----------------------------------------------------------------
I've been hearing about the legendary bassist Victor Wooten for several
years. First from my boy JB at work and then from Soul Patrol founder Bob
Davis. JB plays bass also and told me years ago that Vic was not far behind
Stanley Clarke and Bootsy when it comes down to fast "finger funking".
Friday night at the 9:30 Club in DC I saw for myself that Victor Wooten does
indeed funk the hell out of a bass guitar. The crazy surprise, however, was
not that he has 8 arms, we all knew that. The surprise was that he has 2
hands on each arm and 10 fingers on each hand!
The boy is fast and precise. His stage was decorated with lights and lasers.
When the lights came on Vic was elevated on a raised stage and his bass
seemed to rise even higher.
He came out with "Another Point of View" from the new CD "Soul Circus". The
80% white crowd was ready to roll. He sounded at times like Stanley Clarke
and other times like Larry Graham. As a matter of fact, Vic played a tribute
(also from Soul Circus) to all of his favorite bass players. The song plays
tribute to Clarke, Bootsy, Graham, Jaco and even Robert Wilson from the Gap
Band. He had the crowd really going when he would play a famous bass riff
and ask the
audience who was the original player of the riff. He played James Jamerson,
Bootsy and even fooled a few folks when he played "Flashlight". Of course
"Flashlight" featured Bernie Worrell on his keyboard that sounded like a
bass.
So on this very special night I saw the great Victor Wooten for the first
time and also met Soul Patrol's 1st Lady "ZieLove" for the first time. I
thought I was a rock-n-roll guy, but Zie is totally rock-n-roll! She had on
her glitter shoes and glitter jeans and was rockin' all night to the sounds
of Vic and his band (several of his actual brothers). Zie and I met Vic
before the show and he signed a poster for my boy JB.
I have been around the music industry for many years. I remember when I was
a broke Morehouse kid and Larry Graham took me by the shoulder and walked me
into a downtown Atlanta club because I was there 2 hours before the show and
had no money. It was Graham Central Station's first trip to Hotlanta and
Larry was impressed that I knew all about his new band and his days with
Sly. Larry put on a hell of a show that night. I have also written about how
I would sneak into the "Psychodelic Grave" nightclub as a teenager in
Cincinnati to watch Bootsy play with "The Complete Strangers". Stanley
Clarke once jumped om my table and served me "bass in the face" at the Bayou
in Georgetown. I have seen the greatest bass players in the world.
Victor Wooten is a great bass player. No doubt. But even after meeting him
and hearing his thunder, I can't quite say that Vic is quite in the same
class as Bootsy, Larry and Stanley. But he is certainly on his way and is
leading the "new school" of bassologist.
--Dr G
----------------------
This review is from the NYC Victor Wooten Show last wendsday night...
----------------------
Victa! Victa! Victa!
I don't know what to say!!! Selah said I was the master of understatement
when I described Victor Wooten as a phenomenal bass guitar player. My
problem is that I don't know how ANYONE can describe Victor!
I love the new cd "Soul Circus", but as great as it is, it doesn't begin to
capture the essence of a live Victor Wooten show! Let me try to explain .
. . .
The show opened with a movie about Victor and whether the legend is true
that he has eight arms. The screen goes up and there's a drum introduction
and the band breaks into "Natives". Then they played "Stay". Flex came
out front and started playing a medley of bass lines starting with "I'll
take you there" and some others. Then Will Lee came out and the entire band
played lines from Cream, Stevie Wonder and a host of others. Then they led
right into "Bass Tribute" (my favorite song on the cd - anything that
mentions my man Jaco Pastorius/James Jamerson is alright by me!). They
played "Soul Circus". Victor spoke of his Dad dying on Christmas Day and
because of his Dad's stories he wrote the song "Prayer", which they played.
The duet of J.D. Blair on marching band snare and Victor on bass was
wonderful. They played "Higher Law", Future Man did his thing next. And
then Joe Wooten took over with his solo of a cute, funny but true, song
called "Testosterone". Saundra came out and sang "On & On. Divinity, my
bad, that's M.C. Divinity (get it right y'all!) - this Sister is bad!! She
came out and sang "Rebel' and was slamming on the bass. The girl's been
watching Victor and learning the ropes, um, strings!
Okay, at that point I just stopped writing! There were more
songs,(practically all of the cd), but, you just have to see the show for
yourself. It truly is a blend of rock, soul, funk, jazz, blues, gospel, hip
hop - there is no musical genre untouched. Wear your comfortable clothes
and those comfortable shoes because your body WILL be grooving and
moving!!!!! And your voice will be gone in the morning!
Thank you Victor!
Peace,
Cheryl Y. Russell
New York Soul-Patrol Coordinator
--------------------------------------
Review From Columbus Ohio Victor Wooten Show
--------------------------------------
The show was tremendous. One of the running topics throughout the show was
the fact that since Soul Circus didn't come out until today, they couldn't
sell it...unless they played until it was officially Tuesday. So, the show
started around 8:45, and went until just after midnight, with only a short
break for an encore and an interlude at 11:40 when the label called to
confirm that they could sell the album at midnight, and Victor decided to
lead the band into a couple more songs. There were all sorts of highlights,
but I think my favorite songs were the last two: covers of "Can't Hide Love"
by EWF (I've been on a mission for years to figure out what that song was,
I'm glad I finally know and that it's on the new album) and "If You Want Me
to Stay" by Sly and the Family Stone (I heard his cover on the live album
from a couple years ago, and I was hoping he'd play it!)
that really closed the show well. Columbus' Shawn "Thunder" Wallace was
featured on the alto/tenor sax on these songs and many others (and I guess
he's on the album as well), and he can really wail. As far as the other 3
hours go, I loved the rock-funk medley, alot of the solo/duet moments
(Victor on bass and J.D. Blair on marching band snare was awesome), and most
of the originals. MC Divinity was great on the bass and the mic, and
Saundra has a great voice.
The "Teacher" was awesome on the guitar, especially during the medley. And
of course, Victor killed it throughout the night. It was just an overall
exhaustingly awesome funk set! It didn't work out to meet with the band
ahead of time, but I waited in line afterwards to get autographs for me and
E. Norman (don't worry, I didn't forget!) and talk with Victor for a minute.
He
says hi to everyone here at Soul Patrol, but I'm sure he's
delivered/delivering that message to many of you in person. It was a great
time. Thanks to E. Norman, Bob and SP, and Victor and everyone on his team
(most of whom he thanked on stage, which is rare) for putting together such
a show. We'll get things cooking here in Columbus sooner or later. Thanks
again,
Andrew Patton
--------------------------------------
Review From Pittsburgh Victor Wooten Show
--------------------------------------
That Victor Wooten is a badd mother___ shut yo mouth! Ya'll didn't tell me
it was like that. NOW I KNOW. I may take a road trip to Cleveland to see
them again next week.
Man oh man. I just got home about an hour and a half ago from this wonderful
performance. If anyone asks you to go to a Victor Wooten show, don't ask
questions. Get your tickets early, pay your money, and just go... ok?
I witnessed along with 10 folks who joined us for the meet and greet and
about 600 other folks a tremendous show at Mr. Small's. Like one of the
people who was there said, "You just have to see Victor and the band
live...it's a total entertainment package."
I was very excited to be there as I went to the show with one of our
Pittsburgh Soul Patrollers, Janine. She was very glad she came also because
she was not familiar with his music.She is hooked!
This show has everything. Truly a Soul Circus. They played a lot of songs
from the new CD and they had a few other surprises that I am not going to
tell you about. Why? Because I want you to see the live show for yourself.
I will tell you their are elements of Rock, Soul, Funk, HipHOP, Jazz,
Gospel, Blues, and even some magic. Say what! That's right....you have to be
there.
I will tell you that Rico, JD, Regi,Joe, Saundra, Divinity and
Victor....KICKED IT OUT. I really enjoyed meeting them all. All of our meet
and greet folks got autographed posters and I gave the rest of the posters
to folks who came to the show.
Each city will have different elements in it. The Pittsburgh show was
different than the Columbus show. The New York show is gonna be something
else too as will the rest of the tour. You will not be disapointed.
Don't forget...the CD is now offically out. RUN...don't walk to the next
Victor Wooten show. Go see these fantastic musicians.
-----------------
Hopefully you enjoyed these reviews.....
If that isn't enough to convince you to check out this show.
Click here and take a listen to what Victor Wooten sounds like live
Victor Wooten: Live In America
http://www.soul-patrol.net/wooten.ram
I'll be at tomorrow nights show and hopefully I'll see you there as well.
Victor Wooten is a Grammy award winner and probably the most outstanding
artist on today's Funk music scene. And Soul-Patrol has been one of his
current tour sponsors in NY, DC, Chicago, Columbus, Cleveland, LA and
Philly.
His live show is an unbelievable combination of virtuoso musicianship and
showmanship that will have you in awe. Prior to the show Soul-Patrol will
be having a "meet & greet" with Victor and his band, just as we have done
prior to all of his shows accross the country during this current tour.
Contact Eddie Bowman @ (215)292-4594 if you want to participate
--------------------
Bob Davis
earthjuice_at_prodigy.net
--------------------
<a href="http://www.soul-patrol.com"> SURF THE: SOUL-PATROL.COM WEBSITE</a>
<a href="http://www.soul-patrol.com/newsletter"> JOIN THE FREE BI-WEEKLY:
SOUL-PATROL
NEWSLETTER</a>
<a href="http://www.soul-patrol.net"> LISTEN TO: SOUL-PATROL.NET RADIO </a>
<a href="http://www.soul-patrol.com/chat"> INTERACT & LISTEN: SOUL-PATROL
CHAT ROOM </a>
______________________________________________
OJAYS/RRHOF ON SOUL-PATROL!!!!
CELEBRATE IT, SHOUT ABOUT IT
DON'T BE ASHAMED OF IT
MAKE SURE THE LEGACY CONTINUES
http://www.soul-patrol.com/soul/ojays.htm
<a href="http://www.soul-patrol.com/soul/ojays.htm"> OJAYS/RRHOF ON
SOUL-PATROL!!!! </a>
<a href="http://www.soul-patrol.com/chat"> INTERACT & LISTEN: SOUL-PATROL
CHAT ROOM </a>