30 July 2008

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.

8 comments:

Boromir said...

MP3

http://rapidshare.com/files/133282573/MVQ_MP3.rar

FLAC

http://rapidshare.com/files/133310000/MVQ_FLAC.part1.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/133333214/MVQ_FLAC.part2.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/133358373/MVQ_FLAC.part3.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/133365216/MVQ_FLAC.part4.rar

Anonymous said...

Heavens! Not a single comment? Then let me speak up! This is a fine set, all four guys being in excellent form. OK, it's not fire-in-a-petshop music, but let's give the poor creatures a break!

ceb said...

I'm very happy to have some more Kenny Kirkland and John Surman playing in my collection. Thanks so much.

Anonymous said...

... and don't forget Jon Christensen who never marred an ECM session (unlike Keith Jarrett AKA "Der Mutterer")

thanks!

Anonymous said...

Kenny Kirkland was (in)famously part of Sting's post-Police groups. His solo on the title track to Bring on the Night totally scrambled my teenaged brain and provided a crucial "point of departure" in my explorations of jazz and improvised musics.

Anonymous said...

Kenny is my favourite pianist, thank you for this gift.

Anonymous said...

Thank you. Nice band, really listening forward to this.

Anonymous said...

Thanks for this. MV was one of the first ECM artists I heard around the end of the 70s.