The Wooten Brothers

The Wooten brothers’ first public performance was in Hawaii in 1966 and established them as prodigies. Regi, the eldest son of Elijah "Pete" and Dorothy, was born in 1956. The first three sons arrived a year apart—Roy in 1957, Rudy in 1958. Joseph was born in 1961, and Victor in 1964. Victor learned to talk and play music at the same time.

Six years later, Regi (then 13) and Victor (5) began opening shows for R&B legends like War, and two years after that for Curtis Mayfield and many other national acts.

Fast forward to the present, 2024: the Wootens have 10 Grammy wins and 26 Grammy nominations. The youngest brother, Victor, has been named by Rolling Stone as one of the ten greatest bass players of all time.

Acclaim has come to each Wooten brother:

• Regi is a virtuoso guitarist and a renowned teacher. At ten he began teaching bass to his two-year-old brother Victor and keyboard to his five-year-old brother Joseph. Regi teaches students from around the world and is affectionately called "The Teacha."

• Roy, also known as "Future Man," invented the Drumitar and the RoyEl, a piano-shaped instrument that draws rhythms and pitches from the golden ratio. Roy is the creator and composer of the Evolution d’Amour ballet and the Black Mozart Symphony, which introduces Joseph Boulogne de Saint Georges to modern audiences.

• The late Rudy Wooten (d. 2010) was inspired by trumpet master Clifford Brown and saxophone legends including Charlie Parker, Cannonball Adderly, John Coltrane, and Rahsaan Roland Kirk. His double-saxophone horn parts and solos became legendary.

• Joseph, who came to Nashville as a singer, became known as "The Hands of Soul" for his keyboard playing and songwriting. He rearranged the Steve Miller classic "Fly Like an Eagle" to include new spoken-word lyrics. Since 1993 Joseph has travelled the world with Rock and Roll Hall of Famer Steve Miller in the Steve Miller Band, which has sold over 60 million records—with a bulk of the sales coming after Joseph became a member.

Victor and Roy, working with Bela Fleck, Howard Levy, and Jeff Coffin, earned many of the Wootens’ Grammys and nominations.

The Brothers' music bends and defines genres. They began in R+B, evolved as teens into jazz, jazz fusion, classical, and country, and in 1985 released an Arista album called "The Wootens" that combined electronic, funk, soul, disco, and boogie. Their full musical range also includes classical, jazz, country, and rock-and-roll.

They perform everywhere from giant arenas to intimate clubs and often reunite to play together. Victor runs a camp called "Wooten Woods," where people from around the world come to learn to play with attention to sound and silence. Rudy’s Jazz Room is a live jazz club in Nashville that contributes to the local jazz scene.

They have even been known to play heavy metal in their unique Wootinish way.

What is "The Wootinish-way"? It’s honing your craft: taking the diamond and cutting it just right, and polishing it bright. It’s not just in-born genius; it’s wisdom from inspired and gentle living close to nature, art, and each other. It’s a disciplined commitment to making sound in community and sharing sound with community—born of knowing sound and the precious space of silence.

They create new instruments, revive compositions of past composers, leave their families to bring music to the world, and keep creating, performing, and recording new music. They are recording new material and have discovered deep vault tracks that include their late brother Rudy.

As a family band they are compared to groups like the Beach Boys, the Allman Brothers, the Neville Brothers, and the Jackson Five: sonically inventive, soulful, musically driven, and family-rooted. The Wooten Brothers connect a musically deep past to the musical future, exploding genres and building bridges bar by bar in live performances and recordings.

The final Wooten paradox? They make universal music, but they are not yet universally known.