Victor Wooten

Some musicians truly transcend their instruments and Victor Wooten is a case in point. He views the bass as means for communicating his musical creativity, takes chances with the instrument, and draws inspiration from a number of sources. For example, he suggests giving a bass guitar to musicians of other instruments who have never played the bass and seeing what they do with it. His transcendence is no plainer than at his live shows. A popular clip is his performance of Amazing Grace from Live at the Quick. Although this clip and Norwegian Wood display his command of the bass around a popular melody, they do not reveal the full extent of his magic. The following video does not have the best recording, but it shows what I mean:



The highlight though is when he de-tunes and re-tunes his bass while he jams. I had a hard time finding a good video of it and this is the best I could get (turn down your volume before you play):



He also makes a loop and solos around it. All of his albums are worth getting, though not all of Live in America appealed to me. Lastly here is a cool re-edit of Bonham alongside Wooten (there are only a few images on the video, but the track is done well):