Future Man
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Royel Wilfred Wooten (stage name Futureman and known as Futch to his fans; born October 13, 1957 in Hampton, Virginia) is a drummer and member of the jazz quartet Béla Fleck and the Flecktones. The other members are banjoist Béla Fleck, saxophonist Jeff Coffin, and his brother, bass guitar virtuoso Victor Wooten.
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[edit] Biography
Royel is an inventor, scientist, musician, composer and two time Grammy Award winning performer with Béla Fleck and the Flecktones known as "Futureman". Audiences became curious when Royel appeared with Béla Fleck and the Flecktones ten years ago.
At the heart of that music is Royel's ground breaking percussion technique performed on his first invention he calls the Drumitar. The guitar shaped Drumitar allows him to replicate sounds of an entire contemporary drum kit with just a few fingers.
His desire to play with the greatest possible emotional sensitivity has led to his new creation, "The RoyEl": an instrument shaped like a piano upon which he is composing music for the new century. This music employs the power and science of Mother Nature to attain the natural ratios of the Golden Means (Phi) and the keyboard is styled after the table of the periodic elements. It's no accident, he said, that the RoyEl resembles a keyboard since "More and more I see the piano like a drum set and the drum set like a piano."
[edit] Solo work
Like the other members of the Flecktones, Futureman has worked on various solo projects during his time off from the band. On his own he often uses the pseudonym "RoyEl", the name he gave to the instrument he invented which has been explained above. 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
[edit] Future projects
In 2005, the Flecktones took a year off from touring to pursue solo projects. For his part, Futureman has announced that "we live in the age of the DJ", and is seeking to redefine himself as a "digital jockey" — a fusion of his own ideas about music with the tools of a modern disc jockey. Future Man announced on his website that this project was under production during Winter 2004-2005, and that it involved his brother Victor Wooten and electronic artist Megawatt.
[edit] Tax evasion controversy
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 IRS is actually a Puerto Rican debt collector. He also used esoteric and arcane tax protester literature and at one point made the bold claim that because he was from the future, the U.S. Government has no authority to tax him. These actions led the court to order a competency evaluation and postpone the trial.
On May 4, 2005, Future Man pleaded guilty to one count of tax evasion. He was sentenced on August 8 to two years probation and was ordered to pay $131,000 in back taxes.
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
- Future Man Music
- Evolution D'Amour
- Béla Fleck and the Flecktones
- USA Today: What IS that thing? Futureman explains the Drumitar
- Roth & Company on Future Man's tax evasion defense
| Béla Fleck and the Flecktones |
| Béla Fleck - Victor Wooten - Future Man - Jeff Coffin - Howard Levy |
| Discography |
|---|
| Studio releases: Béla Fleck and the Flecktones - Flight of the Cosmic Hippo - UFO Tofu - Three Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest - Left of Cool - Greatest Hits of the 20th Century - Outbound - Little Worlds - The Hidden Land |
| Live releases: Live Art - Live at the Quick |
