Bassist, producer, and composer Victor Wooten is without question a master musician. He’s played with everyone from Larry Coryell and Bela Fleck to Gov’t Mule and Mike Stern; from India Arie to Branford Marsalis; from Daniel Amos to Natalie MacMaster. He’s released seven albums under his own name. His eighth, Palmystery, drops April 1 from Heads Up.

Wooten has also written a number of popular — some would argue necessary — instructional manuals for bassists. The Music Lesson is self-published by his Vixboox imprint and it marks his first foray into the role of novelist. According to some (see below), his story is about enlightenment, told through the eyes of a bass player (big surprise there) who encounters a rather amorphous and ambiguous character that becomes his musical and spiritual teacher. It is cosmic, but it hardly qualifies as a “new age” tome. It’s far too funny and even random for that. And while it is about music, it’s also about the process of living. Narrated in the first person, Wooten’s novel feels like a story told intimately over dinner, and the protagonist’s voice comes across as both stunned, kinetically charged, and in a state of near constant surprise as he unfolds his tale. The novel has flaws: Its character development is sketchy, and it feels more like an autobiography than a fleshed-out novel, and the “plot” is almost nonexistent. But it’s no big deal. It’s a first book offered with an immediacy that puts his voice in the ear of the reader and it’s a good yarn.

Bassist Tony Levin claims in his back-cover blurb that: “Victor Wooten is the Carlos Castenada of music.” And Shannon Pable, a non-musician who is a master garden designer, claims in hers: “Don’t let the title fool you… it’s not just about music. Victor’s book blended beautifully with my vocation… In fact, it applies to everything we do in life.”

Um… yeah. Don’t let those stop you. The Music Lesson is fun, a quick read that asks more questions than it answers — those are for you to tangle with when you’re done.