Victor Bailey, born March 27, 1960 and died November 11, 2016, was an American bass guitarist. He was Weather Report’s bass player in their final years (1982-1986) and then launched his solo career in 1988. Bailey’s signature scat-bass solos are what made him a popular player. Victor Randall Bailey was born in Philadelphia on March 27, 1960. His family is highly musical. His father Morris Bailey Jr. was a composer and musician, while his uncle Donald “Duck”, Bailey was a jazz drummer who was featured on many Blue Note records (e.g. Jimmy Smith Trios, Hampton Hawess, Carmen McRaes, Dizzy Gillespie, Dizzy Gilespie). Bailey started out playing the drums as a child. However, he switched to the bass guitar when the bassist of his local band left a practice. His father encouraged Victor to learn to play the bass guitar because he immediately liked it. After being discharged from the Navy due to asthma, Bailey enrolled at the Berklee College of Music in Boston in 1978. Bailey, like his father, suffered from Charcot Marie-Tooth disease throughout his adult life. Bailey started using a cane as a means to compensate for his weak legs. His weakness eventually spread to his upper body. He retired from performing in 2015 and his position as a Berklee College of Music teacher. On November 11, 2016, he died in Stafford, VA from complications of Charcot-MarieTooth disease and Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (Lou Gehrig’s disease). Fender also released the Victor Bailey Signature acoustic guitar [8] and the Victor Bailey Jazz Bass (Artist Series) in four, five-string, fretted, and fretless configurations. Bailey used Markbass amplifiers. From Wikipedia
