Victor Wooten makes it clear in the first few seconds of
Palmystery that he's the man in charge. His spellbinding, acrobatic basslines take the lead, literally, and even when he's fulfilling the traditional role of the bassist (not that there's much about his virtuosic playing that's traditional) and shining the spotlight on his collaborators, he remains the focal point. Yet
Wooten, the veteran bassist of
Béla Fleck & the Flecktones, is no showoff. Through mostly original compositions (the sole cover is
Horace Silver's "Song for My Father") that glide easily between jazz fusion, world music, R&B, gospel, rock, and funk, through instrumental and vocal sections, improvisations and structured pieces,
Wooten holds it all together -- it's nearly impossible not to listen to what he's doing with his instrument. Still, although the musicianship is never less than stellar throughout and always takes a front seat, this is not an indulgent record --
Wooten and his crew serve the songs, not vice versa, and they do so with panache. The leadoff track, "2 Timers," serves notice that this is going to be a fun listen, not a difficult one, despite the complexity often inherent: with one drummer playing in 3/4 time and the other in 4/4 (hence the title),
Wooten alternately hands the reins over to violinist
Eric Silver, a three-man horn section, harmonica ace
Howard Levy, and brother
Joseph Wooten on keyboards. Continual shifts of tempo, mood, and texture keep things lively and then, just in case it seems like this is how it might stay, the second track, the Arabian-flavored "Cambo," puts an entirely different spin on things. With lead and choired vocals by co-writer
Amir Ali and
Saundra Williams,
Wooten lays down a solid rhythm over which brothers
Joseph and guitarist
Regi Wooten work out, along with
Ali on violin, lute, and darbouka (an African hand drum). Each successive track expands the album's colorings: on "I Saw God," which features
Richard Bona among its vocalists,
Victor Wooten offers a non-religious person's impressions of his confrontation with a unisexual, philosophical, word-playing deity, while the flamenco-esque "The Lesson" pares down the cast to just
Victor on bass and another
Flecktone brother,
Roy Wooten, supplying percussion. And so on throughout: "The Gospel" doubles up
Wooten's fretted and fretless basses with ghostly vocals from
the Woodard Family and a team of horns, and the
Silver interpretation is spirited and swinging, with
Karl Denson's tenor saxophone among the more notable solos on the record. "Us 2," the closing track, is also the quietest,
Wooten laying low on basses and drum programming while
Keb' Mo' peels off sleek slide guitar licks and
Joseph Wooten lays down a bed of keyboards. "Sifu" utilizes
Mike Stern's guitar. "Miss U," which features
the Lee Boys on vocals,
Roosevelt "The Doctor" Collier on pedal steel, and Alvin Lee (presumably not the
Ten Years After guitarist) on guitar, is a gospelized, bluesy, soul-fried rave-up that gives
Wooten a chance to show off his boogie power.
Palmystery solidifies
Victor Wooten's rep not only as one of the most skillful, inventive bassists on the planet but a heck of a diversified songwriter and bandleader, too.