Live in America
One benefit of the declining costs of CD manufacture is the more common release of music with only a niche market; for example, fans of virtuoso electric bass--that is to say, Victor Wooten fans. The downside is that more and more often, artists, unconstrained by high production costs, feel free to put out even their most ephemeral musical musings. Victor Wooten's two-CD studio set,Yin-Yang, though full of masterful moments, suffered from all the chaff among the wheat.Live in America, too, requires listeners to sit through filler: stage patter that might have been fun if you were there; slight '70s pop-funk ("What Did He Say," "Hormones in the Headphones"); disco ("Yinin' and Yangin'"); Hendrix and Ozzy quotes in order to get to instrumentals like "Sacred Silence/The Jam Man" and "Miller Time" (featuring Marcus Miller), which offer the kind of soulful, mind-altering bass guitar work that the man does best. Wooten is a willful eclectic and, as his work with Bela Fleck proves, that can be fine. Still, though the musicians do a workmanlike job here, it takes a band of equal virtuosos like the Flecktones and some serious editing to make this kind of genre-hopping truly work. His bandmates refer to him as "The Teacher" in his introduction, andLive in Americashould inspire bass students to practice, as well as teach them the dangers of self-indulgence.--Michael Ross