Victor Wooten Master Class
On Oct. 27, dozens of students and teachers, from schools all across Ann Arbor, crowded the entrance of the Craft Theater at Community High School. These students and teachers missed class to experience a rare opportunity: to see five time Grammy winner, three time bass player of the year, and second place for best electric bass player in the world in DownBeat magazine in 2017, Victor Wooten.
There was first an introduction with Mr. Wooten playing, with tenor saxophone player Bob Franeschini, from their upcoming album RYPNOTYX featuring Bob Franeschini and Dennis Chambers. When the song ended, Mr. Wooten talked about listening and responding and its importance. “That’s because you’re listening really well,” said Mr. Wooten. “In my opinion, we think the best musicians are the ones that play the best, and I’ll say that the best musicians the ones that listen the best.” Musicians focus so much on playing: improving tone, learning songs and solos, getting lessons, etc. Listening is an aspect of music that many musicians don’t take as seriously or practice as often as they should.
Next a jazz student, Oliver Mayman, from CHS was invited up by Mr. Wooten to perform along side him. The student played at for a bit and was invited back up again except this time Mr. Wooten told him to stop. “Let me teach you something no one will ever tell you again,” said Mr. Wooten. “But learn it now because it carries you as far or further than your playing. When you walk up here [the stage] greet your leaders; just say ‘h’i. You may thing that doesn’t mean anything, but it means everything.” Introducing yourself to fellow bandmates sets tone and shows the kind of person they are. Mr. Wooten compared this with introducing yourself in a conversation; you don’t just start talking for no reason, you first say ‘hello’ and introduce yourself, give the other people a glimpse of who you are. The same thing applies to playing music with other people; don’t just start playing, give them a glimpse.
The CHS jazz combo So Fly came up to perform and show Mr. Wooten the talent of these young musicians. After they played through their first song, Mr. Wooten had the two trumpet players and the guitarist play four measures of the song each individually; the audience applauded after each they finished a solo. After that he had them do the same thing, but they had to play as bad as possible. The three players tried to play as ridiculous as possible with Mr. Wooten yelling, “Play Worse!” in the background with the audience laughing hysterically during every solo. “Which solo got the most applause?” said Mr. Wooten. “(It was the bad one). Now why? It’s because they felt it. The other ones were just good. Everybody’s good, we’re all good enough. Good doesn’t move us, all of us sensed more feeling in you. We feel that and they applaud. You feel it and you smiled.” Mr. Wooten didn’t say that musicians should play bad, but to put that same energy and emotion into playing.
Another CHS band called Flashpoint performed a song called Red Clay, by Freddie Hubbard. After the song Mr. Wooten made the tenor saxophone player solo, but avoid using the root note, which was E flat. He then made him go back to using E flat. It felt like returning back to the start when E flat was brought back into the playing. It added that familiarity and strangeness to the solo.
Mr. Wooten focused on teaching in an emotional way rather than a theory way. It was all about feeling: how the player felt, how the audience felt, how the other musicians felt. Feeling is what brings people in the most, what makes them listen and want more. You can listen to many musicians play good with the chord changes, but not all of them will have that emotion. Music is a lifelong journey where you learn something new everyday. Victor Wooten is one of the best musicians in the world, with a lifetime of experience and knowledge in not just music, but with life in general; the CHS jazz program will have the privilege to go to Mr. Wooten’s camp in Tennessee in April. The Master Class was an amazing experience that CHS, or even Ann Arbor, might not have again for a long time. Mr. Wooten’s presence is a rare and maybe even a once in a lifetime opportunity filled with an arsenal of musical knowledge and life lessons.
