On his first jazz date as a leader since 1992, Czechoslovakian bassist and composer Miroslav Vitous comes out of the gate with a host of heavyweights on one of the more lyrically swinging dates in modern jazz. Vitous' engaged, pulsing, and deeply woody tone is featured in the company of John McLaughlin, Jan Garbarek, Chick Corea, and Jack DeJohnette. While the crystalline sound of Manfred Eicher's ECM is everywhere here, as is the open-ended speculative jazz that the label is renowned -- and ridiculed for -- Vitous offers some startlingly beautiful twists and turns with his ensemble. Vitous, who has been through every music, from jazz-rock fusion as a founding member of Weather Report to being a classical composer, decided to revisit the skeletal remains of his very first session for the label in 1969. Produced by Herbie Mann the disc was, from a musical standpoint, a contentious, utterly brilliant marriage of ideas both old and new. Bandmembers DeJohnette and McLaughlin were present on those sides as well. Universal Syncopations is by turns a return to not the old forms, but rather to the manner of illustrating harmonic concepts in a quintet setting that allows for a maximum space between ensemble players while turning notions of swing, counterpoint, and rhythmic invention on their heads. From the wooly, expressionistic "Tramp Blues," with Vitous vamping around the changes, to the wide-open legato guitar phrasing of McLauglin against the double time in Vitous' bass on "Univoyage," to the simmering undulations of Garbarek's saxophones on top of Corea's intricate melodies and right-hand runs on "Brazilan Waves," all of it propelled, not anchored, by the leader's rich tone and accented and punctuated by Garbarek's tight, loping saxophone lines. This is one of those recordings that feels familiar in tone, but is timeless in concept and execution. Universal Syncopations is one of the most gorgeous sounding and toughly played dates of the calendar year. - Thomas Jurek
On paper this album is a pretty exciting prospect; a cast of stellar names embarking on what's been touted as a follow up to Vitous' classic Infinite Search. Jack DeJohnette and John Mclaughlin appear from that original session, while Herbie Hancock's and Joe Henderson's roles are taken by Chick Corea and Jan Garbarek respectively.
Garbarek's inclusion is the surprise; though he's played with all the musicians here (with I think, the exception of Corea) his work over the last fifteen years or more has seen him in far more rarified settings, certainly worlds away from the allstar high energy jam sesh we might be expecting here. Except that we don't really get that; and after several listens to this album, I'm not quite sure what we have got.
Vitous is understandably the dominant presence, though Garbarek comes a close second. Only one track seems to feature the full line-up; the rest are quartets, trios or duos, sometimes augmented by extra horns (presumably overdubbed after the fact). Mclaughlin doesn't feature much, which is a relief. While his pure tone may recall the pre-Mahavishnu days of Extrapolation, his brief solo spots are little more than hyperspeed noodling. Rarely have so many notes meant so little.
It's good to hear Garbarek in such company, even though at times (on the earthy "Tramp Blues") he sounds a little diffident, and doesn't connect with Mclaughlin at all. Maybe they weren't even in the studio together.Corea makes a much more sympathetic foil; in the quartet tracks Garbarek's playing hints at the kind of intensities he achieved with Keith Jarrett and Ralph Towner's groups. But it's only a hint; he likes to float these days rather than dig in, though it's hard not to be swayed by the ripe poignancy of his soprano on the closing "Brazil Waves".
Vitous is on good form. His tone is sumptuous, his intonation faultless and his compositions still have that folky lyricism that he's always excelled at. DeJohnette is sometimes a little too busy, but even then he is always doing something worth listening to. Even despite the sometimes excellent individual performances, there's a lack of cohesion here which ultimately makes this a bit of a disappointment. Approach with caution... - Peter Marsh / BBC Review
Tracks
1. Bamboo Forest (Miroslav Vitous)
2. Univoyage (Miroslav Vitous)
3. Tramp Blues (Miroslav Vitous)
4. Faith Run (Miroslav Vitous)
5. Sun Flower (Miroslav Vitous)
6. Miro Bop (Miroslav Vitous)
7. Beethoven (Jan Garbarek, Miroslav Vitous)
8. Medium (Jack DeJohnette, Miroslav Vitous)
9. Brazil Waves (Jan Garbarek, Miroslav Vitous)
MIROSLAV VITOUS double-bass
JAN GARBAREK soprano saxophone, tenor saxophone
JOHN McLAUGHLIN guitar
CHICK COREA piano
JACK DeJOHNETTE drums
WAYNE BERGERON trumpet
VALERIE PONOMAREV trumpet, flugelhorn
ISAAC SMITH trombone
Recorded at Universal Syncopations and Rainbow Studios, Oslo
ECM Records - ECM 1863 (Germany)