VICTOR WOOTEN
Soul Circus

Vanguard Records

Victor Wooten counts Marcus Miller among his influences, and on his ne CD Soul Circus he displays an interest in combining various musical styles without regard for boundaries. Wooten has a lot of work under his belt, including his longstanding gig with Bela Fleck’s Flecktones, but he is still young and developing when compared with Miller. So it comes as no surprise that while Soul Circus is an ambitious album with a lot of good music, it just doesn’t manage to hang together. That’s one risk of combining things, but it seems likely that Wooten will hit on the right formula if he keeps working on it.

Perhaps one weakness is that Wooten’s CD, unlike Miller’s most recent release, Silver Rain, is made up almost exclusively of original material. Whereas Miller uses his cover versions both to expand his musical reach and to bridge gaps in the mood and style of original material, Wooten chooses to present his own songs as well as his musical vision. But Wooten isn’t always a strong writer, particularly in the lyric department. “Victa” is a boast song that just comes across as a little lame, at least until Bootsy Collins begins to apply his peculiar brand of vocal madness on the track. “Bass Tribute” is a tribute to the great bassists, with Wooten providing snippets of phrases in their trademark style. It’s a gimmick that grates, as do the lyrics (essentially a catalog of bassist’s names). Of course Wooten’s heart is in the right place, but that doesn’t make it a good listen. “Prayer” is significantly better, though it threatens to collapse under the weight of the Lord’s Prayer and a Native American prayer recited simultaneously. The track is sonically very pleasing, though, and Wooten’s solo is beautiful.

“Natives” is one of the best tracks thus far, a hard funk track on the bottom with Native vocals and flute on top, and Wooten’s bass bridging the gap between the two. But as things go along, one realizes that Wooten throws many interesting elements into tracks (such as T.H. Subash Chandran’s konnakol, or vocal percussion, on “Stay”) that don’t seem to in any way add to the track other than as an unexpected novelty. Ultimately, this just seems like a pop album by a neo-soul performer rather than a top-notch instrumentalist, and even though Wooten’s bass work is at the center of these performances, it is rarely the defining element. Maybe in trying to appeal to as wide an audience as possible, Wooten felt it best to release an album that features heavy vocal work on practically every track. Maybe it could have worked, but Wooten’s commitment to the individual elements he adds to the mix would have to be greater. Or maybe he just needs to find a more interesting way of presenting them.

Soul Circus isn’t bad work, but if one scratches below the surface of elements added to the tracks (singers, rappers, instrumental soloists, exotic percussion and vocal work, Native American and Indian elements) one is left with a series of grooves that are not all that distinctive or different. Add to that the fact that the spices added on top aren’t always all that spicy, and one can only conclude that while Soul Circus will probably satisfy Wooten’s fans it will probably not, in the final analysis, win him over many new ones.