eMusic Review 0
Can a solo bass record really sustain interest and not only reward repeated listening but make you eager to hear it again? A Show of Hands does, emphatically. But not by slapping strings and popping notes until your woofers beg for mercy. Instead, Wooten deploys the three main elements in a solo bassist's repertoire — tone, timbre and pulse — in an innovative manner, similar to the stimulating stylistic variations that are a hallmark of his longtime association with Béla Fleck and the Flecktones. There are reflective, folk-jazz oriented pieces such as "The Vision" that sound like a bass version of Ralph Towner's acoustic guitar ruminationsl; it's a style that gets reggae-fied on "More Love" and gently funked-up on Wooten's gorgeous cover of Stevie Wonder's "Overjoyed." "Medley" is a hit-and-run solo bass showcase of jazz-pop standards, including "Misty," Someday My Prince Will Come" and "A Night In Tunisia." And then there are the sassy funk workouts designed to make electric bassists swoon and hit "pause" and "replay" while they try to recreate the technical wizardry ("U Can't Hold No Groove" and, especially, the dynamic "Classical Thump.")
But along with tone, timbre and pulse, Wooten injected politics, transforming a great… read more »
