

Arguably the most successful and influential bass player working today, Victor Wooten has won five GRAMMYs (as of 2011) over the course of a career that goes back to the late '80s. To date, he's released seven albums as a solo artist, 14 as a member of Bela Fleck & The Flecktones, and several more with various collaborative projects (Bass Extremes, The Wootens, SMV, and Vital Tech Tones, to name a few). The Music Lesson Soundtrack is just that: the audio companion piece to a novel he wrote titled The Music Lesson. Though 31 tracks deep, some are more like brief interludes, clocking in at less than a minute. Others are fully developed and fleshed-out songs. Genre-wise, he bounces around and explores multiple styles, never getting stuck on the same groove for too long. Check out the throwback vibe of "Swang," the harmonic-laced "Bailey's Lesson," the melodramatic piano joint "The Man Under the Bridge," and the extra-funky 12-minute opus "Still Smokin'."