Word: bassists
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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Bela Fleck and the Flecktones delivered a private performance last weekend at Tufts University. Besides Bela, the band includes Victor Wooten on bass guitar, "Future Man" (Wooten's brother) on synthesized percussion and Jeff Coffin on sax. Victor Wooten has been voted Bass Player Magazine's "Bassist of the Year" for three years in a row. And it is little wonder why. His mastery of the instrument leaves you room for no other reaction than a open jawdrop as you let out a few nervous laughs, expecting the Apocalypse. This might seem like a strange statement, but this reviewer does...
...amazement; not a one was prepared for the emotional intensity delivered soon thereafter. Goofiness we might have expected from the bespectacled Aaron Perrino, the three-person band's guitarist/lead singer/Max Headroom lookalike. And we might have anticipated a too-jaded-to-smile brand of contemporary bass-playing from bassist Jim Gilbert...
...Beardman" and "That Other Bearded Guy" were both duly acknowledged. If anything, Friday's performance proved that fancy drum kits do not good music make; the heart of rock and roll can be found in a simple trio of a delirious frontman, a competent drummer and a deeply concerned bassist...
...open-hearted voice on the surprisingly sincere "Rising Sun" stood out as a pleasant change from the rest of the folk-rock repertoire. "Magenta Radio" was good clean funky fun, and "Kill You Dead" brought to mind a good old-fashioned hoe-down with a Southwestern flavor. The multitalented bassist Patrick Norman and percussionists Jim Donovan, John Buynak and Jim DiSpirito collaborated on "Agbadza," a piece of intense drumbeats backed up by Berlin's perfectly pitched wails. To finish up the set before coming back for an encore, the group belted out a crowd-rocking rendition of the Rolling Stones...
While the crowd that filled the Orpheum Theatre looked like a combination of displaced Phish followers and graying Deadheads still mourning the death of Jerry, they brought a kind of enthusiasm that is only found in smoke-filled concert halls. As Victor Wooten, legendary bassist for the Flecktones, threaded his way through the masses outside the enterance unnoticed, I began to wonder if anybody knew exactly what they were there for, or if what they were smoking was really that good. Of course, it could have something to do with the fact that Wooten is about 5'4" and just...