In I Sing the Body Electric (1972), the second album by the group Weather Report, side one was recorded in studio, but side two includes three themes from a performance in Tokyo (Japan). Drummer Alphonse Mouzon and percusionist Airto Moreira were replaced by Eric Gravatt and Dom Um Romao respectively, other guest musicians contributed and Zawinul used new electronic effects. In 1972 the double album Live in Tokyo went on sale, in which it can be listened the rest of the concert that appears in the previous album with a wide demonstration of styles, from a solo Zawinul piano rendition to free improvisations filled with electronic explosions, dissonances and countless rhythm changes. Shorter would never play with the same intensity again as he did on that occasion. In Sweetnighter (1973) Zawinul began to impose more control over the ensemble, moving away from collective improvisations and presenting structured compositions in which he emphasized groove and funk seeking success and fame. As a result, Vitouš only appeared on one Mysterious Traveler (1974) track, left the group and recorded with different interpreters for Warner Bros. and Arista labels. In 1979 he signed with ECM Records and elaborated with guitarist Terje Rypdal and drummer Jack DeJohnette Rypdal, Vitouš, DeJohnette (1979) with a sonorous landscape from another world of indescribable beauty.

Fuente

Fuente

Later Vitouš formed the Miroslav Vitouš Group with saxophonist John Surman, keyboardist Kenny Kirkland and drummer Jon Christensen, and they issued First Meeting (1980), in which all the themes are his except the one that gives title to the album, which is a free improvisation. In 1981 he met again with pianist Chick Corea and drummer Roy Haynes thirteen years after playing together on Now He Sings, Now He Sobs to publish the double album Trio Music, composed by collective improvisations in duet and trio, and versions of tunes by the extraordinary pianist and composer Thelonious Monk. In 1981 he participated in the Woodstock Jazz Festival organized to celebrate the tenth anniversary of the Creative Music Studio, a high-level center for the study of contemporary creative music located in that city of the New York state. In 1982 he released Journey’s End with his Miroslav Vitouš Group and in 1983 was appointed director of the jazz department at the New England Conservatory in Boston, but left the position in 1988 disappointed with the American educational system. In 1984 the trio with Chick Corea and Roy Haynes became a quartet with the arrival of saxophonist Toshiyuki Honda and launched Dream.

Fuente

Fuente

In 1985 Vitouš recorded Emergence playing double bass solo without overdubbing in a sober and daring way keeping the listener’s interest with his passion and his impressive technique, playing equally in pizzicato and with bow. Then he abandoned the ECM label, but continued to collaborate with other musicians, including guitarist Larry Coryell on Dedicated To Bill Evans and Scott La Faro (1987), pianist Steve Kuhn on Oceans in the Sky (1989) and saxophonist Jan Garbarek on Star (1991) and Atmos (1992). During the rest of the 1990s he played in festivals and taught music until 2003, when he returned to ECM Records and recorded Universal Syncopations as a leader with Jan Garbarek on tenor and soprano saxophones, John McLaughlin on electric guitar, Chick Corea on piano and Jack DeJohnette on drums. In 2005 he took part in Takes on Pasolini by pianist Antonio Faraó and in 2007 he published Universal Syncopations II with other performers. In 2009 he issued Remembering Weather Report with new interpretations of themes he had written for the group, in 2014 Miroslav Vitouš Group with his old Miroslav Vitouš Group and in 2016 Music of Weather Report with more experimental covers of his compositions along with atmospheric blues pieces. Also in 2016 he gathered the legendary musicians who accompanied him on Infinite Search to record The Bass, and Ziljabu Nights went on sale, which registers a concert given at the Theater Gütersloh in that Germany city. His latest works are Ad-Lib Orbits (1917) and Moravian Romance (2018).

Fuente

Fuente

Translated with the help of DeepL

Fuente

Fuente

℗ Embrio Records