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Miroslav Vitouš

From HitStory, the pop encyclopedia of School of Rock · Artist

Miroslav Vitouš is a Czech jazz bassist, born on 6 December 1947 in Prague. He began on the violin at the age of six, switched to piano and at fourteen chose the double bass. He studied at the Prague Conservatoire and in 1966 won a competition in Vienna, which earned him a scholarship to Berklee in Boston. A year later he played in Chicago with Bob Brookmeyer and Clark Terry. There Miles Davis heard him and invited him to join his group in New York.

Music and breakthrough

In the years that followed, Vitouš worked with Herbie Mann, Roy Haynes, Chick Corea, Jack DeJohnette, Wayne Shorter and Joe Zawinul. With Corea and Haynes he played on Now He Sings, Now He Sobs from 1968. In 1969 he recorded Infinite Search as a bandleader, with Herbie Hancock, Joe Henderson, John McLaughlin and DeJohnette. Purple followed in 1970.

Influence

In 1970 he formed the core of Weather Report with Shorter and Zawinul. The group gave every musician room to improvise continuously, instead of the usual division between soloist and accompaniment. Weather Report drew on influences from jazz, classical music, world music, rhythm and blues, funk and rock. Vitouš and Zawinul experimented with effects pedals, which until then had been used mainly by guitarists. Vitouš left the group in 1973 and afterwards remained a bandleader and collaborator of, among others, DeJohnette and Corea, with records such as Magical Shepherd, Emergence and Universal Syncopations.

Listening

Listening tip. Listen to Infinite Search and notice how the bass here does not merely keep time, but plays along almost like a second soloist.

Discography

Studio albums

In School of Rock

The chapters, maps and magazine stories of School of Rock are currently available in Dutch only.

See also

Categories: Artists