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| The Wooten Brothers |
One of the mightiest musical units ever produced by the Peninsula will reunite and hit the road later this year.
The legendary Wooten Brothers -- featuring uber-bassist Victor, drummer Roy, guitarist Regi and keyboardist Joseph -- will play the Jewish Mother in Virginia Beach Monday, Dec. 9.
Although details of the tour haven't been announced yet, the club's website says that the show will feature those four famed siblings.
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| The Wooten Brothers, pictured here in the 1970s, (Courtesy of The Wooten Brothers) |
While the Wootens grew up in a military family that moved frequently, a key part of the family band's development took place in Hampton Roads. The family moved to Newport News in 1972. They made their home in the Warwick Lawns neighborhood off Denbigh Boulevard. In the garage there, young Victor started playing bass with his older brothers. Read my year 2000 profile of Victor Wooten here.
Flip ahead a few decades and we find the Wootens living in Nashville and playing with a long list of nationally known musicians. Victor and Roy have supported banjo great Bela Fleck as his band The Flecktones for many years. Joseph is the long-time keyboardist for the Steve Miller Band. Regi has added guitar to recordings by Shemekia Copeland and Oteil Burbridge.
Hearing the brothers jam together in Hampton Roads again will surely be a treat.
Tickets are $21.58 from the InTicketing website.
Here's how the show is promoted on that site:
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"I guess they call it The Wooten Brothers, but in the beginning, it was more like Regi Wooten and Friends," says Regi Wooten of his days as a high-energy, super-funky guitarist just starting to make his way in Nashville. An audacious stylist, the guitarist is known for his innovative and improvisatory approach to funk music -- not to mention keeping company with his four equally talented brothers. Twenty years ago, The Wooten Brothers Band began playing a weekly engagement at Nashville club 3rd & Lindsley, which had opened in April 1991. They’re still at it, and celebrating two decades of futuristic funk, pop and R&B at the venue with an anniversary show this week.
The oldest of the brothers Wooten, Regi helped teach the rudiments of music to his bass-playing brother Victor. Roy -- known by his musical sobriquet "Future Man" -- took up percussion, while Joe became a keyboardist who currently plays with Steve Miller’s band. The saxophone-playing member of the family, Rudy, died two years ago. Bouncing around the country in a military family, the brothers lived in Virginia and Hawaii before settling in Nashville.
