Miroslav Vitouš

Miroslav Ladislav Vitouš (born 6 December 1947) is a Czech jazz bassist. He is known as a founding member of the ensemble Weather Report, and for working as a bandleader and alongside Chick Corea, Jack DeJohnette and others.

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 in 1966 that gave him a scholarship to the Berklee School of Music in Boston, which he attended one year before going to Chicago to play with a group co-led by the classically inclined trombonist Bob Brookmeyer and flugelhorn pioneer Clark Terry.

Miles Davis saw Vitouš playing in Chicago with Brookmeyer and Terry in 1967 and invited him to join his own group playing at the Village Gate in New York City. It was with Davis that Vitouš first encountered saxophonist Wayne Shorter, keyboardist Herbie Hancock and the Davis-centric scene that was transforming mainstream jazz from late hard bop into what would be known as jazz fusion.

1968 saw the first of Vitouš's partnerships with several musicians who would be a major part of his soundscape over the course of his career. With vibraphonist Roy Ayers, Vitouš played on flautist Herbie Mann's album Windows Opened. He also split bass duties with Ron Carter on Ayers' Stoned Soul Picnic, produced by Mann. Vitouš played on a prolific run of Mann's albums released through 1971, including The Inspiration I Feel, electric bass on "Hold On, I'm Coming" from Memphis Underground, Live at the Whisky A Go Go, Stone Flute (again splitting the bass chair with Carter), and a cover of the Beatles' "Come Together" on Muscle Shoals Nitty Gritty.

Also in 1968, Vitouš and drummer Roy Haynes joined a Chick Corea-led trio, for what would be the first of several outings featuring Vitouš and one or both of them. At the end of the year they released the highly acclaimed Now He Sings, Now He Sobs. Some of the tracks recorded at this time were later included in Corea's 1975 album Circling In.

Finally, 1968 saw Vitouš join drummer Jack DeJohnette, with whom he would often collaborate over the length of his career, on The DeJohnette Complex, DeJohnette's debut album as bandleader. Vitouš and Eddie Gómez split duties on bass. Haynes, multireedist Bennie Maupin, and pianist Stanley Cowell rounded out the ensemble.

The following year, Vitouš recorded his debut album as a bandleader, Infinite Search for Mann's Embryo label (reissued in 1972 on Atlantic as Mountain In The Clouds and on a German label as The Bass). The album featured Hancock on the electric piano, Joe Henderson on tenor sax, John McLaughlin on electric guitar, and DeJohnette and Joe Chambers splitting duties on drums. In 2016, journalist Paul Rigby looked back at the album, calling it "superb" and "an eye-opening glimpse into [Vitouš]'s glittering past." That year, he recorded his contributions to guitarist Larry Coryell's Spaces with McLaughlin, Corea, and drummer Billy Cobham. Additional tracks from these sessions were later released on Coryell's 1975 album Planet End.

1969 was also the year that Vitouš first stepped into the recording studio with Wayne Shorter, with whom he'd played under Miles Davis' leadership two years prior. He played on Shorter's twelfth album, Super Nova, alongside McLaughlin, DeJohnette, Corea, and Brazilian percussionist Airto Moreira, among others.