Growing up, the Wooten Brothers were military brats. Their family moved frequently, and the five boys grew up in Hawaii, California, and Virginia. Despite the constancy of motion, the family was anchored in music. Regi, the eldest, began teaching his younger brothers how to play bass and keyboards before any of them turned ten years old. The Wooten Brothers Band was playing gigs when the youngest, Victor, was only six.
Over fifty years later, the Wooten Brothers are still gigging!
It’s been several years since the brothers have toured together, following the untimely death of sax player Rudy in 2010. But like many other brotherly acts, the siblings just can’t quit each other. Perhaps the brothers Gallagher made bigger headlines this year announcing an Oasis reunion tour, but longtime fans of the Wootens were no doubt more excited to see the reunification of Victor, Roy, and Regi.
The bill advertised “Victor Wooten and The Wooten Brothers” for the four-night run this week at Yoshi’s in Oakland. Bassist Victor earned his top billing both by playing the role of erstwhile bandleader and by selling the most records and earning the most accolades over the decades. Much of his fame, along with his percussionist/drummer brother Roy “Futureman,” comes from their long stint as founding members of Béla Fleck and the Flecktones. Victor’s storied career also includes three selections as Bass Player magazine’s “Bass Player of the Year” – he was the first person ever to win it twice, let alone thrice!
Yoshi’s, a swanky jazz supper club noted both for its Blue Note atmosphere and its tasty Japanese cuisine, was the perfect setting for the first Bay Area performance by the bros in over a decade. Wooten waxed nostalgic for days gone by in Oakland, opening for bands like War and Curtis Mayfield in the '70s. “It’s where we really started getting it together as a five-piece band.”
Now it’s a four-piece band. The three touring brothers were accompanied at Yoshi’s by keyboardist Karlton Taylor (Stanley Clarke, Marcus Miller, Tommy Emmanuel). There was no mention of brother Joseph, who tours regularly with the Steve Miller Band and had other obligations.
Rudy, however, was fondly remembered. Victor told a story about being contacted recently via social media by a guy who had knocked on his parents’ door in Virginia in the 1970s and said to Mrs. Wooten, “I’ve been sent to your house by a man named Don Kirshner.” (Google “Don Kirshner’s Rock Concert,” young'uns.) Fast forward to the more recent connection, and this guy tells Victor he still has a cassette tape of a demo by the five teenage boys. That inspired the brothers to root through old reel-to-reel tracks, and they found some recordings of Rudy’s sax that they now plan to incorporate into brand-new recordings. So the quintet will live on!
Okay, back to Yoshi’s. Victor did most of the talking between songs. “It’s a nice room; we can get away with things that we can’t do in other rooms.” With that mindset, the 75-minute show was packed with funk, jazz, fusion, rock – and lots of solos. “I hope it’s all right to get a little funky here. I know it’s a jazz club.”
Most of the jams were instrumental, but there was some singing too. Notable selections included a Flecktones song, “Let Me Be the One,” with “Futureman” stepping out from behind his drum kit to slap beats on his trademark “Drumitar.” “Sweat,” a 2023 single released by the Wooten Brothers, delivered on the promise to get funky.
At one point, Victor took a turn on stage by himself for a lengthy bass solo with loops, distortion, finger popping, finger tapping, and all sorts of other techniques that underscored why other bass players revere him. Later, Regi, also a master at finger tapping, got to fly solo for a turn.
Each of the musicians had a number of turns to stretch out, with the others backing them on the opening night of the residency. Toward the end of the set, though, realizing Taylor had only been given two spotlights, Victor promised the audience would hear more from his “brother from another” on the following nights.
When people who have literally known each other their entire lives and have played music with each other their entire lives get together to play some more music, the spirit is often saturated with experience, synchronicity, and love. The Wooten Brothers embody that spirit.
