Miroslav Vitous Quartet - Live Hamburg 1980

Details:

MIROSLAV VITOUS QUARTET
Live at 'Onkel Pö' in Hamburg, Germany, 1980-01-31

LINEUP

Miroslav Vitous -b

John Surman -sax,bcl

Kenny Kirkland -p

Jon Christensen -d

TRACKS

01. SILVER LAKE 12.24

02. WHEN FACE GETS PALE 9.34

03. REVISED EDITION 15.48

04. MOUNTAIN IN THE CLOUDS 14.10
Total Time: 51.57 min

Vitous of course is perhaps most noted as being a founder member of Weather Report, so was in the vanguard of early fusion. He also played in the excellent trio with Chick Corea and Roy Haynes, and more lately with Jan Garbarek.

I don't know whether this quartet played together often, but on this recording they really get it together. The first track is reminiscent of WR, Surman even sounding remarkably like Wayne Shorter. The third track starts off with a ferocious soprano solo from Surman, and turns into one of the numbers from an early album of his, I don't recall which one.

I'd never heard of Kenny Kirkland, but apparently he played with Wynton and Branford Marsalis among others and featured on Vitous's ECM recordings. He had a drugs problem and died at an early age in 1998.

This is a very good quality FM broadcast. Thanks to ricola for seeding. Links in comments.