Include la leggendaria collezione di orchestra e cori di Miroslav Vitous
The life of Miroslav
Vitous has been invested successfully in musical pursuits from early
childhood until present day. Bassist / guitarist / composer, Miroslav Vitous
was born in Prague on Dec. 6, 1947. From an early age, his musical talent
was instantly recognized and cultivated until he became the living jazz
prodigy and legend that we know now. Vitous began his musical studies on
violin when he was 6, followed by piano (ages 9-14) and finally bass. Revered
highly in the Jazz scene of the 60's and 70's, he is best known for his
work with musicians like Chick Corea, Miles Davis, Stan Getz, Wayne Shorter,
Tony Williams, Herbie Mann and Herbie Hancock. He went on to become one
of the founding members of the band Weather Report and has worked with some
of the greatest musicians of our time.
Not only did Miroslav Vitous have the groovy heart of the bass-playing jazz musician, but in his early years he was also touted as an Olympic freestyle swimming contender and a classically trained exceptional scholar. Originally attending school at the Prague Conservatory, Vitous won a scholarship to the Berklee School of Music and then moved to the United States. Vitous won the scholarship as first prize in a jazz competition in Vienna, 1966. Almost immediately becoming unhappy in what he felt to be remedial studies at Berklee (compared to that of the high conservatory), Vitous dropped out and practiced jazz techniques eight hours daily on his own for a year. He studiously enhanced his skills playing bass, diligently perfecting his craft to a record player and a tape recorder, energetically finessing his playing ability and improvising to the music.
Shortly after musical stints with the likes of the Bob Brookmeyer-Clark Terry quintet, Art Farmer and Freddie Hubbard, he was hired by Miles Davis to play bass. Landing a gig with Miles Davis paved the way to break his career wide open as a respected and serious jazz musician. Miroslav Vitous combined elements of his native Czechoslovakia's folk music with the ever-evolving jazz canon. Vitous started playing in a recurring trio with Chick Corea and Roy Haynes on Corea's 1968 album Now He Sings, Now He Sobs. 25 years later, after many successful hit records, Miroslav Vitous went back to his classical roots and became chairman of the New England Conservatory (a highly respected classical school with a jazz department), contributing to the development of future musicians.
During a time when he was tired of playing, Miroslav Vitous expanded his classical creative vision for the benefit of all musicians. Ultimately he sought the larger musical vision of an orchestra, an environment where all of the greatest musical pieces have emotional elements embedded into them. Miroslav Vitous was able to capture this emotion when he recorded his highly acclaimed orchestral library at the Dvorak Symphony hall in Prague. Here in this interview, he explains his motivation for the orchestral recording project.
"I was very much fascinated with the technology we had that we could edit in the computer our compositions, but all the sounds that were available on the market were crap."
"After waiting and waiting for a couple of years, I thought somebody would come out with something and when nobody did, I was in Germany, at the time, and I decided to go to Prague, where most of my classmates were in the Czech Philharmonic and so I went there and I was able to get the Czech Philharmonic to record whatever I wanted to record for quite a lot of money. But I had the money and I did it. I did extensive, extensive recordings and made a classical CD-ROM set, which is still on the market. For ten years, it was by itself as the cream of the crop of samples."
"I did that for myself and then when I realized that I was spending too much money, I had to release it. It was good because I made it not for business, but purely for music. That is a huge difference when you do something for that reason then when you do something for the other reason. I had a vision how it should sound and I put all my knowledge into this product and it is a fantastic product. People still tell me that I have the best musical thing there. I recorded music. The rest of the companies recorded sounds. 'Give me G.' I said, 'Give me G like Beethoven or Wagner.' I recorded music. They recorded notes."
Miroslav Vitous
Interview by Fred Jung
Discography:
Also Appears On:
With Weather Report:
Awards