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:
2003 Universal Syncopations
2001 Infinite Search [Collectables]
1992 Atmos
1985 Emergence
1982 Journey's End
1980 Miroslav Vitous Group
1979 First Meeting
1978 Guardian Angels
1977 Terje Rypdal - Miroslav Vitous - Jack DeJohnette
1977 Majesty Music
1976 Miroslav
1976 Magical Shepherd
1970 Purple
1969 Infinite Search [Embryo]
1969 Mountain in the Clouds

Also Appears On:
1999 Tones for Joan's Bones/Mountain in the Clouds
1998 Bireli Lagrene and Special Guests
1997 Woodstock Jazz Festival, Vol. 1
1997 Woodstock Jazz Festival, Vol. 2
1996 Impressions of Paris
1995 The Rainbow Colored Lotus: A Big Hand for Hanshin
1995 Tom McKinley/Miroslav Vitous
1993 Polygram Classics & Jazz: May 93
1991 Star
1991 The Tomato Sampler
1990 Atlantic Jazz: 12 Volume Box Set
1989 Oceans in the Sky
1984 Trio Music: Live in Europe
1981 Trio Music
1978 Rypdal, Vitous, DeJohnette
1977 Big City
1971 Works
1969 Atlantic Jazz: Fusion

With Weather Report:
1975 Tale Spinnin'
1974 Mysterious Traveller
1973 Sweetnighter
1972 Live in Tokyo
1971 I Sing the Body Electric
1971 Weather Report [1971]

...and about 50 other records with many different musicians.

Awards
• Down Beat (U.S.A.), Swing Journal (Japan), and Jazz Forum (Europe)
• #1 bass player in the world, at different times
• “Musician of the Year” Jazz Forum for Infinite Search album
• Nominated for two Grammy awards (with Chick Corea)
• Every year since 1968, he has consistently been ranked in the top 3 for “Best Bass Players in the World”

Exclusive interview with Miroslav Vitous

Q: Miroslav, can you tell us how you got started playing music professionally?
A: I was 6 years old started with violin, then piano at 9 and Bass at 14. I was already playing gigs at the age of 14 in Prague and outside of the city and country as well. We had a trio with Jan Hammer and my brother which was extremely creative and high quality, even we where 14 years old.

Q: Your original Miroslav Vitous Symphonic Orchestra sample library was the first high end collection of a complete orchestra and set the standard for years to come. Please tell us why you chose to create such a library.
A: I needed realistic sounds of high quality for my compositions and there was none available. I had to do it myself.

Q: Why did you choose the Dvorak Symphony Hall in Prague as the venue for these recording/sampling sessions.
A: This has been the cultural center of Czech music for decades and one of the best halls in the world.

Q: One of the techniques in the recording process was to capture the instruments and ensembles in their proper acoustic space of a real orchestra. Please tell us more about this and why you did it this way.
A: I wanted to have them in the same space as the orchestra sounds live, for the most realistic picture panorama. The beauty of the acoustics and the miking that we used gave it a realism that you would find in the best classical and film scoring recording sessions. This combined with how I work with musicians, to get emotion and feeling from their performance, is one of the secrets to its success.

Q: Have you used the Dvorak Symphony Hall or this group of orchestral players before on any musical projects? Are there any classical recordings or soundtracks that this orchestra is known for?
A: Yes I have played there and seen lots of projects there. This is the home of Czech Philharmonic, where they have recorded a whole catalog of classical recordings in the span of 25 years.

Q: Many people don't know that you had actually recorded a lot of the material with the highest digital resolutions even from the beginning. We understand that even the first orchestral samples were recorded in 20 bit. What machine sort of microphones, mic pres and digital recorders did you use?
A: I used Yamaha DMR 8, mostly Neumann mics, some Schepps for the woodwinds as well. Some of the other instruments’ sessions and the choirs were recorded in 24 bit. We used the same high end equipment one would use for a top quality orchestral recording session for classical music.

Q: Why did you choose Sonic Reality and IK Multimedia as the people to pass the torch to for taking your orchestral and choir archives to the next stage? How do you feel about this evolution?
A: I approached Dave Kerzner because I know that he is very active in the sampling world and these days I am not. I am too busy working on my music. So, I explained that I have recorded much more than has ever been released before and that the new samplers are capable of getting more quality out of this material. I just haven't the time to do it myself. I look forward to seeing this material worked on further and plan to use the Philharmonik plugin myself.

Q: Since you have left the sound development business, what do you spend most of your time on these days? We assume you are making lots of music? What are your current musical projects?
A: I am currently finishing album Universal Syncopations II and working on a classical/creative force project. I am putting together the classical forms with creative force improvisation as one music (not 4 bars of Jazz - 4 bars of Classical) I think for the first time (as many has been trying for years) this is now working, only thanks to my educational knowledge of both worlds and musicians ready to fulfill their places.

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