Miroslav Vitouš
AMG AllMusic Guide: Pop Artists:
Top
Miroslav Vitous
- Genres: Jazz
Biography
Best known as one of the foremost young bassists in the jazz-rock movement of the late '60s and early '70s, Miroslav Vitous is one of Europe's most versatile imports, equally at home in mainstream idioms and even pop music. A sometime leader, his bass dances and skitters around an ensemble as a co-equal member of the front line, and he makes very creative use of the bow. He is influenced not only by bassists like Scott LaFaro, Ron Carter, and Gary Peacock, but also by Czech folk music.Vitous began his musical studies on the violin at age six, switching to piano from ages nine to fourteen before finally settling upon the bass. While studying at the Prague Conservatory, he played with a trio that included his brother Alan on drums and Jan Hammer -- another future jazz-rock mover and shaker -- on piano. After winning a scholarship to Berklee in 1966, he moved to New York the following year and wound up working with Art Farmer, Freddie Hubbard, Bob Brookmeyer, Clark Terry, and very briefly, Miles Davis.
Now one of the most highly touted prodigies in jazz, Vitous started playing in a recurring trio with Chick Corea and Roy Haynes on Corea's 1968 album Now He Sings, Now He Sobs. He then joined one of Herbie Mann's most popular groups from 1968 until 1970, with time-out for a tour with Stan Getz; Mann produced his first album, a pioneering series of extended jazz-rock workouts called Infinite Search on the flutist's Embryo label. As a founding member of Weather Report, Vitous helped define the band's freewheeling initial stage, leaving the group in late 1973 as its music began to evolve into more structured forms. A move to Los Angeles in 1974 led to a year-long session of woodshedding in private with a new custom-made instrument, a double-necked guitar and bass. However, that experiment did not pan out, and he returned to the bass, leading sessions for Warner Bros., Arista, and from 1979, a sporadic series of dates for ECM as a leader and in reunions of Corea's bop-to-free Trio Music group.
In the meantime, Vitous became immersed in academia, joining the faculty of the New England Conservatory in 1979 and becoming head of the jazz department in 1983. Although his profile isn't nearly as high as it was at the height of the jazz-rock era, he continued to play at jazz festivals and record into the '90s. ~ Richard S. Ginell, Rovi
Wikipedia on Answers.com:
Top
Miroslav Vitouš
| Miroslav Vitouš | |
|---|---|
| Birth name | Miroslav Ladislav Vitouš |
| Born | December 6, 1947 Prague, Czechoslovakia |
| Occupations | Musician, songwriter |
| Instruments | Double bass, electric bass |
| Labels | Freedom Records |
| Associated acts | Weather Report, Miroslav Philharmonik Review |
| Website | miroslavvitous.com |
Miroslav Ladislav Vitouš (6 December 1947), is a Czech jazz bassist who is known for his extensive career in the USA.
|
Contents
|
Biography
Born in Prague, he began the violin at age six,[1] and started playing the piano at age ten, and bass at fourteen. As a young man in Europe, Vitouš was a competitive swimmer. One of his early music groups was the Junior Trio with his brother Alan on drums and fellow Czech luminary-to-be Jan Hammer on keyboards. He studied music at the Prague Conservatory (under František Pošta),[2] subsequently winning an international music contest in Vienna, earning him a scholarship to the Berklee College of Music in Boston, USA.[1]
Vitouš's virtuoso jazz bass playing has led critics to place him in the same league as Scott LaFaro, Dave Holland, Niels-Henning Ørsted Pedersen and Christian McBride. A representative example of Vitouš's double bass playing is Now He Sings, Now He Sobs (1968), with Chick Corea on piano and Roy Haynes on drums. This album shows his strong rhythmic sense, innovative walking lines, and intensity and abandon as an improviser.
His first album as a leader, Infinite Search,[1] re-released with minor changes as Mountain in the Clouds featured several key figures from the then-budding jazz fusion movement: John McLaughlin, Herbie Hancock, Jack DeJohnette, and (slightly) elder statesman Joe Henderson.
A founding member of the group Weather Report,[1] he has worked with Larry Coryell, Jan Hammer, Freddie Hubbard, Miles Davis, Chick Corea, Wayne Shorter, Joe Zawinul, and Jan Garbarek. Vitouš has since discussed his contentious departure from Weather Report with journalists, specifically regarding his relationship with Zawinul[citation needed]. Alphonso Johnson, who replaced Vitouš, was himself replaced by the highly innovative and influential bassist Jaco Pastorius.
In 1984 he collaborated with Stanley Clarke.[3]
In 1988 Vitouš moved back to Europe to focus on composing, but nonetheless continued to perform in festivals.
In 2001, Vitouš reunited with Corea and Haynes (as the Now He Sings, Now He Sobs trio) for a concert in a series entitled "Rendezvous in New York" in celebration of Corea's 60th birthday. The album of the same name came out in 2003, and earned Corea a Grammy Award for Best Improvised Jazz Solo on the composition "Matrix", on which Vitouš played.[4]
Discography
As leader
- 1969: Infinite Search (aka Mountain in the Clouds) (Embryo Records)
- 1970: Purple
- 1976: Magical Shepherd
- 1976: Majesty Music
- 1977: Miroslav (Freedom)
- 1978: Guardian Angels
- 1979: First Meeting (ECM)
- 1980: Miroslav Vitous Group (ECM)
- 1982: Journey's End (ECM)
- 1985: Emergence (ECM)
- 1992: Atmos (ECM)
- 2003: Universal Syncopations (ECM)
- 2007: Universal Syncopations II (ECM)
- 2009: Remembering Weather Report (ECM)
As sideman
![[icon]](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Wiki_letter_w_cropped.svg){kind=small} |
This section requires expansion. |
With Weather Report
- Weather Report (1971)
- I Sing the Body Electric (1972)
- Live in Tokyo (1972)
- Sweetnighter (1973)
- Mysterious Traveller (1974)
With Chick Corea
- Now He Sings, Now He Sobs (1968)
- Trio Music (ECM, 1981)
- Trio Music Live in Europe (ECM, 1984)
- Rendezvous in New York (Stretch Records, 2003)
With Jack DeJohnette
- The DeJohnette Complex (Milestone, 1969)
With Jan Garbarek
- StAR (ECM, 1991)
With Stan Getz
- The Song Is You (1969)
With Terje Rypdal
- Terje Rypdal / Miroslav Vitous / Jack DeJohnette (ECM, 1978)
- To Be Continued (ECM, 1981)
With Sadao Watanabe
- Round Trip (1974)
With Laszlo Gardony
- The Secret (Antilles, 1988)
References
- ^ a b c d Jung, Fred (2003-10-10). "A Fireside Chat With Miroslav Vitous". All About Jazz. http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/article.php?id=619. Retrieved 2010-06-20.
- ^ Olsen, Paul (2008-01-07). "Miroslav Vitous: It Comes Down to Taste". All About Jazz. http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/article.php?id=27881. Retrieved 2010-06-20.
- ^ 1984 Sydney Town Hall, producer Ian Davis (ABC radio)
- ^ "Past Winners Search". Grammy.com. http://www.grammy.com/nominees/search?artist=chick+corea&title=&year=2003&genre=16. Retrieved March 24, 2012.
External links
- Official homepage
- Miroslav Vitouš MySpace site
- Miroslav Vitouš interview at Allaboutjazz.com
- Conversation With Miroslav Vitous, 8/01/2009
- "Agitation", with Stanley Clarke
|
||||||||
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||
This entry is from Wikipedia, the leading user-contributed encyclopedia. It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer)
Post a question - any question - to the WikiAnswers community:
Copyrights:
AMG AllMusic Guide: Pop Artists
Copyright © 2012 All Media Guide, LLC. Content provided by All Music Guide ®, a trademark of All Media Guide, LLC. All rights reserved.
Read more
