Miroslav Vitouš


Miroslav Ladislav Vitouš is a Czech jazz bassist.

Biography

Born in Prague, Vitouš began the violin at age six, switching to piano after about three years, and then to bass at age 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 Jan Hammer on keyboards. He studied music at the Prague Conservatory under František Pošta, and won a music contest in Vienna that gave him a scholarship to the Berklee College of Music.
In 1967, in Chicago, Miles Davis saw Vitouš playing with Clark Terry and invited him to join his group for a residency at The Village Gate in New York City.
Vitouš recorded his debut album Infinite Search for Embryo in 1969 with Joe Henderson, John McLaughlin, Herbie Hancock, Jack DeJohnette, and Joe Chambers. In 1970, he also recorded Purple for Columbia with McLaughlin, Billy Cobham and Joe Zawinul.
In 1970, he was a founding member of the group Weather Report. Vitouš was replaced by Alphonso Johnson in 1973, later stating "I enjoyed the beginning of it very much, but it turned into a little bit of a drag in the end because Joe Zawinul wanted to go in another direction. The band was seeking success and fame and they basically changed their music to go a commercial way into a black funk thing". He also felt aggrieved financially, commenting "I was an equal partner and basically, I didn't get anything. We had a corporation together that was completely ignored. If you have a company and three people own it, and then two people say 'Okay, we don't want to work like this anymore. It's just two of us now', normally, they break down the stock and pay off the third person".
In 1981, Vitouš performed at the Woodstock Jazz Festival held in celebration of the tenth anniversary of the Creative Music Studio, and in 1984 he collaborated with Stanley Clarke. In 1988, Vitouš moved back to Europe to concentrate on composing but nonetheless continued to perform in festivals.
In 2001, Vitouš reunited with Chick Corea and Roy Haynes, with whom he had recorded Corea's album Now He Sings, Now He Sobs in 1969, 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 for the composition "Matrix".
He has also worked with Larry Coryell, Jan Garbarek, Freddie Hubbard, Michel Petrucciani, Terje Rypdal, and Wayne Shorter.

Discography

As leader

With Weather Report
With Roy Ayers
With Chick Corea
With Larry Coryell
With Herbie Mann
With Adam Pierończyk
With Terje Rypdal
With others