Bassist Miroslav Vitous was one of the founding members of the iconic “fusion” band Weather Report, and until Jaco Pastorius came along, was considered the standard for all subsequent bassists to be measured by. He kind of returns to the scene of the crime as he revisits songs from those first few albums that he participated with, and he also approaches later material as well.
The team of Vitous with Gary Campbell/ts-ss, Roberto Bonisolo/ss-ts, Aydin Esen/key and Gerald Cleaver-Nasheet Waits/dr is as wild and frenetic as the original team, which stands in strong contrast to the later editions of Weather Report that relied more heavily on textures and grooves. The team is spacey and free form on “Scarlet Woman Variations” and wildly aggressive on “Seventh Arrow” as Campbell and Bonisolo sear and shriek through flailing drums and moody keyboards. Spacy rock sounds have some funky drums on “Acrobat Issues” and the interpretation of “Birdland” is filled with aggressive attacks on the sticks, keyboard and bass noodles and fierce tenor work. Vitous flexes his muscles throughout, but shows his roots on the three “Multi Dimension Blues.” If you ever had the multi-disc set of Vitous’ teamwork with the band in Tokyo, you’ll know what you’re getting here. Sounds and attitude from a different era.
ECM Records