Posts

Miroslav Vitous

Image
Czechoslovakian-born bassist Miroslav Vitous was a child prodigy who's scholarship to the famed Berklee College of Music in Boston, MA spawned a very successful career in music that became firmly-based in the United States. Despite early appearances and collaborations with noted musicians in his home country in his teen years, it was the connections made through Berklee (with country-mate Jan Hammer) and New York-based mentor Herbie Mann that paved the way for Miroslav's explosion onto the jazz and jazz-rock fusion music scene. Before his 24th birthday he had secured prominent roles on albums (and gigs with) Herbie Mann, Roy Ayers, Steve Marcus, Sonny Sharrock, Jack DeJohnette, Chick Corea, Larry Coryell, and Wayne Shorter as well as played with the likes of Herbie Hancock, John McLaughlin, Billy Cobham, Joe Zawinul, and Sadao Watanabe.      After four albums with Herbie Mann, the influential bandleader rewarded the bass phenom with an album of his own on his brand new fl...
Post a Comment
Read more

Donald Byrd

Image
I've only come to know the music of Donald Byrd's 1970s "Jazz-Rock Fusion" tenure since 2023. Before that I'd owned one Blackbyrds album (the one with the infectious hit, "Walking in Rhythm") and another (I think it was 1979's Chant ). As I'd never really been a listener to jazz-oriented radio stations, I literally knew very little about the man (or this milieu). To now learn that he was approaching his 40s when he opened his soul and posse of collaborators to the new musical phenomenon that would become known as "Jazz-Rock Fusion" is, to my mind, quite extraordinary. Extra points to this man! Then to discover the quality of his J-R Fusion output (owed greatly to D.C.'s Mizell brothers, Larry and Fonce) and he races to the top of my list of "favorite" J-R F artists. But today, while doing the dishes to his 1973 album,  Street Lady --while being moved to dancing, moving, singing, and voice-emulating the bass lines of the gr...
Post a Comment
Read more