Future Man
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Future Man | |
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 Future Man with the Flecktones at the Woodland Park Zoo in 2007.
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| Background information | |
| Birth name | RoyEl Wilfred Wooten |
| Born | October 13, 1957 Hampton, Virginia, U.S. |
| Genre(s) | Jazz |
| Occupation(s) | Musician, composer, inventor |
| Instrument(s) | Percussion |
| Label(s) | Warner Bros. (1990–1999) Columbia/Sony BMG (2000–present) |
| Associated acts | Béla Fleck and the Flecktones |
| Website | futuremanmusic.com |
Roy Wilfred Wooten (born October 13, 1957 in Hampton, Virginia) better known by his stage name Future Man (also spelled as Futureman), is an inventor, musician, and composer. He is known as Futch to his fans.[1] He is a percussionist and member of the jazz quartet Béla Fleck and the Flecktones. The other members are banjoist Béla Fleck, saxophonist Jeff Coffin, and RoyEl's brother, electric bass virtuoso Victor Wooten.
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[edit] Biography
Roy Wooten was raised in a military family and therefore traveled frequently. He is the second of five sons born to Dorothy and Elijah "Pete" Wooten. He graduated from Denbigh High School in Newport News, Virginia in 1975. He briefly attended music classes at Norfolk State University upon graduating from high school, and then embarked on his professional music career. He and his brothers moved to Nashville, Tennessee in the mid-1980s.
All of his brothers are musicians. The oldest, Regi, is a guitarist and much sought-after teacher in Nashville. Roy Wooten, Regi, and his three younger brothers, Rudy (saxophone), Joseph (keyboards), and Victor (bass guitar), performed as The Wooten Brothers in numerous musical venues in the Hampton Roads area of southeast Virginia during the 1970s.
Wooten is a four-time Grammy Award-winning performer with Béla Fleck and the Flecktones. For the Flecktones, he plays the Drumitar, a novel electronic instrument of his own invention.
More recently, Wooten has developed a new electronic instrument called the RoyEl,[2] which resembles a piano but plays notes not found in the traditional western music scales. This instrument is based on the periodic table of elements[2] and the golden ratio.
[edit] Solo work
Like the other members of the Flecktones, Future Man has worked on various solo projects during his time off from the band. On his own Wooten often dresses up as a pirate and uses the pseudonym "RoyEl", the name he gave to the keyboard instrument he invented. Future Man's solo albums are experimental and incorporate diverse musical genres and concepts. On Evolution de la Musique, for example, he infuses classical music with jazz elements, especially improvisation, and spoken word. Future Man's solo works are:
- The Seamless Script
- Pi Lullaby
- Evolution de la Musique
- The Black Mozart Ensemble
[edit] Tax evasion
In November 2001, Wooten was indicted on four counts of tax evasion, for the years 1995 to 1998. His defense in 2004 involved many implausible assertions. He claimed, for example, that the Internal Revenue Service is a debt collector based in Puerto Rico. He also used esoteric and arcane tax protester literature.
The court ordered a competency evaluation and postponed the trial. On May 4, 2005, Future Man pled guilty to one count of tax evasion. He was sentenced on August 8, 2005 to two years probation and was ordered to pay $131,000 in back taxes.[3]
[edit] References
- ^ Graham, Jefferson. "What IS that thing? Futureman explains the Drumitar", USA Today, Deer Valley, Utah: Gannett Company, 2004-08-06. Retrieved on 2008-02-15.
- ^ a b Templeton, David. "Weird Science", Metroactive, Metro Newspapers, 2001-04-02. Retrieved on 2008-02-15.
- ^ Kristan, Joe (2005-08-16). Futureman Gets His Future Back. Tax Update Blog. Retrieved on 2008-02-15.
[edit] External links
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| Persondata | |
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| NAME | Wooten, Wilfred RoyEL |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Future Man |
| SHORT DESCRIPTION | Inventor, musician, composer |
| DATE OF BIRTH | October 13, 1957 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Hampton, Virginia |
| DATE OF DEATH | |
| PLACE OF DEATH | |
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