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John Abercrombie (L) – Miroslav Vitous (R) – Photo: Getty Images

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John Abercrombie and Miroslav Vitous in concert this week – recorded at Sala dei Congressi Mulato by RTS-Zurich – April 27, 2006

Between 1984 and 1990, John Abercrombie experimented with a guitar synthesizer. He first used the instrument, though not exclusively, in 1984 in a trio with Marc Johnson on bass and Peter Erskine on drums, as well as with pianist Paul Bley in a free jazz group. The synthesizer allowed him to play what he called “louder, more open music.” Abercrombie’s trio with Johnson and Erskine released three albums during this time showcasing the guitar-synth: Current Events (1986), Getting There (1988, with Michael Brecker), and a live album, John Abercrombie / Marc Johnson / Peter Erskine (1989).

The 1990s and 2000s marked a time of many new associations. In 1992, Abercrombie, drummer Adam Nussbaum, and Hammond organist Jeff Palmer made a free-jazz album. He then started a trio with Nussbaum and organist Dan Wall and released While We’re Young (1992), Speak of the Devil (1994), and Tactics (1997). He added trumpeter Kenny Wheeler, violinist Mark Feldman and saxophonist Joe Lovano to the trio to record Open Land (1999). The Gateway band reunited for the albums Homecoming (1995) and In the Moment (1996).

Abercrombie continued to tour and record to the end of his life. He also continued to release albums on the ECM label, an association which lasted for more than 40 years. As he said in an interview, “I’d like people to perceive me as having a direct connection to the history of jazz guitar, while expanding some musical boundaries.”

In 2017, Abercrombie died of heart failure in Cortlandt Manor, New York, at the age of 72.

Miroslav Vitouš is primarily known as a founding member of the ensemble Weather Report, and for working as a bandleader and alongside Chick Corea, Jack DeJohnette and others.

After leaving Weather Report, Miroslav Vitouš’s default mode was collaboration and work as a sideman with a wide range of partners, from his old bandleader Larry Coryell and the drummer and fellow Weather Report and Coryell alum Alphonse Mouzon to Stan Getz and Flora Purim. He has also worked with Freddie Hubbard and Michel Petrucciani.

Miroslav Vitouš joined the ECM stable of performers in 1978 to play in a trio with guitarist Terje Rypdal and DeJohnette; he had most recently been with Arista Records. ECM, founded in 1969, was developing a reputation for supporting genre-fluid releases that often freely mixed jazz, classical, and world music influences. ECM’s stable of artists would trade contributions back and forth on one anothers’ often dense and intellectual albums in a fluent manner that attracted both criticism and praise. Vitouš’s classical, collaborative, and versatile bass and fluid give-and-take approach to band-leadership fit the sound of his new label and labelmates over the coming decades. The trio of Rypdal, Vitouš, and DeJohnette followed up their eponymous first album three years later with To Be Continued.

In 1979, Vitouš stepped back into the role of bandleader, recording and releasing First Meeting on ECM. 1980’s Miroslav Vitous Group was later praised in a five-star review by John Kelman in All About Jazz as “exceptionally good.”  There followed an occasional run of Vitouš-led albums including Journey’s End (1982), Atmos (1992—featuring saxophonist Jan Garbarek), Universal Syncopations (2003, with Garbarek, Corea, McLaughlin, and DeJohnette among others), and Universal Syncopations II (2004-2005). These received largely positive specialist reviews that often discussed them in the context of the ECM house sound: “highly recommended,”  “gorgeous sounding and toughly played,”  and “A quintessentially ECM aesthetic is very much at work on this solid effort, which will be enthusiastically welcomed by those who complain that Vitouš hasn’t recorded often enough as a leader.”

Dive in and relax – it’s the weekend and tomorrow’s Monday – and tomorrow is a million miles away. Enjoy.

The post John Abercrombie – Miroslav Vitous – Switzerland – 2006 – Past Daily Downbeat appeared first on Past Daily: A Sound Archive of News, History And Music.