Henderson, Smith & Wooten
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Review of "VTT2"
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By: Bill Meredith
ith all the work they're doing in their own groups; as solo artists and in sessions for others, guitarist Scott Henderson, bassist Victor Wooten and drummer Steve Smith didn't need to make a second Vital Tech Tones CD. But the trio getting together for another round, if anything, shows they WANTED to. And "VTT2" shows how much. After 90 seconds of Wooten's patented slap-and-rap on the opening "VTT," Smith and Henderson carry "Sub Zero" with drum flurries and the guitarist's signature blend of liquid Allan Holdsworth and biting Stevie Ray Vaughan tones. Unlike the '98 debut VTT album (on which nearly all songwriting credits went to the trio as "Henderson/Smith/Wooten"), "VTT2" lists the primary composer first among the three. Smith's high-speed "The Litigants" opens with one of his immaculately-tonal tom-tom bursts before Henderson speaks through his instrument a la Frank Zappa and Wooten performs a solo that will either inspire or retire most bassists. "Puhtainin' Tuh" is the kind of slow dirge Henderson writes for his solo blues CDs or Tribal Tech - yet VTT takes it outside both realms. Things really expand in the CD's centerpiece. The Wooten/Smith duet, "Drums Stop, No Good," expertly blends melody and rhythm and segues into Wooten's cat-and-mouse "Catch Me If You Can." After the head, the bassist pulls out a stellar, effects-laden solo before a series of uncanny band accents and even an almost-traditional blues passage. Henderson adds space tones to Smith's upside-down rhythmic patterns on "Nairobe Express" before the trio shows how to make 4/4 time sound like anything but in the intro to Wooten's "Who Knew?" Henderson closes out "VTT2" with his "Time Tunnel" (on which he can't resist a mocking blues shuffle at the end) and the 12-minute "Chakmool-Ti," where he and Wooten engage each other in alien tonalities. More rhythmic than Smith's Vital Information, and with a different approach from Wooten's bass/banjo/synthaxe Flecktones, "VTT2" is a step forward from this group's first CD. Especially for Smith, who sounds more comfortable with, and less in awe of, his behemoth bandmates. Henderson even hints at some live VTT performing in the CD's liner notes by Bill Milkowski. The Monsters Beyond Rock Tour?
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Bill Meredith / Fuse Magazine
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