CD ECM Records Miroslav Vitous: Remembering Weather Report

2009

Miroslav Vitous - bas
Franco Ambrosetti - trompeta
Gary Campbell - saxofon tenor
Gerald Cleaver - tobe
Michel Portal - bas clarinet

Vitous was one of the founders of Weather Report and helped to shape its early (and revolutionary) mix of enigmatic, free-flowing compositions and high-level improvisational dialogues, in which all the instruments enjoyed parity. It is this formative period that Miroslav salutes with his all-acoustic band and some phenomenal playing. The obvious musical empathy between Vitous and drummer Gerald Cleaver is a joy, Ambrosetti and Campbell contribute inspired solos – as does guest Michel Portal, another iconic figure in the history of the music. Material, almost exclusively from Vitous’s pen, alludes to Wayne Shorter’s “Nefertiti” and to Ornette Coleman’s “Lonely Woman” – as well as to Miles Davis and Antonín Dvořák.




Vitous opts for the precept of „everyone solos, no one solos” … What emerges is a highly sophisticated series of musical dialogues mediated by Vitous’ extraordinarily agile bass that explore a series of his original compositions, some no more than a melodic fragment spun into new shapes by this talented ensemble.
Stuart Nicholson, Jazzwise