Miroslav Vitous's Mountain Call: A Poignant Double Bass Masterpiece
Czech double bass virtuoso and composer Miroslav Vitous has long transcended his early fame as a founding member of the legendary jazz-rock fusion band Weather Report in 1970. Now aged 78, Vitous presents Mountain Call, an album seven years in the making that reflects a lifetime's immersion in both classical music and jazz. This work masterfully balances spontaneity, nuance, and cinematic atmospherics, showcasing his unique artistic vision.
Collaborations with Late Legends
The album prominently features two phenomenal musicians who passed away recently: drummer Jack DeJohnette, who died in October, and French clarinettist Michel Portal, who died in February. Their contributions are integral to the album's emotional depth and musical richness. Across multiple improv dialogues and two suites, all kept concise as Vitous prefers brevity, these collaborations highlight a blend of muscularity and mellowness.
Eight duo tracks with Portal, mostly all-improvised, stand out for their ever-shifting mix of mellow lyricism and challenging curiosity. Portal, on standard clarinet, segues graceful swoops, plaintive queries, and staccato punctuation against Vitous's turbulent undercurrent of muscular plucked runs and percussive accents. On bass clarinet, Portal sweeps from resonant deep sounds to breathtaking glissando ascents hurtling to the upper register, creating a dynamic interplay.
Highlights and Musical Nuances
Vitous's duets with DeJohnette's hustling drumming are also significant highlights, notably on Fulfillment, where they pursue each other through the Czech National Symphony Orchestra's misty harmonies. Additionally, Esperanza Spalding's vocals on the Rhapsody suite glide between a standards-singer's care for lyrics, sax-mimicking wordless sounds, and soulful soliloquies on the percussion-rich Africa. She also delivers fluid contrapuntal lines with terrific, though little-known, hard boppish saxophonist Gary Campbell.
Mountain Call serves as a personal contemporary music chronicle from an unflinching one-off artist, capturing Vitous's classical-influenced jazz style. His career, marked by collaborations with icons like Miles Davis, Chick Corea, and Jan Garbarek, underscores his enduring legacy beyond Weather Report's drift toward electric music and global funk.
Other Notable Releases This Month
In other jazz news, the Immanuel Wilkins Quartet releases Live at the Village Vanguard on Blue Note, the first of a three-volume set from the iconic New York club. This album confirms how powerfully and perceptively gospel/post-bop saxophonist Wilkins balances jazz past, present, and future, featuring an impassioned account of Alice Coltrane's haunting Charanam.
Franco-Syrian flute improviser and composer Naïssam Jalal unveils Landscapes of Eternity on Les Couleurs du Son, a rich result of her deep study of Hindustani traditions and solo travels in north India. Tears in Delhi's Fog epitomises her discoveries through an effortlessly flexible voice, warm and audacious improvisations, and a punchy lineup blending traditional Indian and jazzily westernised elements.
Lastly, the legacy of cult 1960s psychedelic/rock group Soft Machine evolves on Thirteen on Dyad, mixing psych-rock, blues-to-free guitar from John Etheridge, ferocious sax-playing by Theo Travis, and the frontier-busting drumming of newcomer Asaf Sirkis.
