Scarlet Woman Variations
Seventh Arrow
Multi Dimension Blues 2
Birdland Variations
Multi Dimension Blues 1
Pinocchio
Acrobat Issues
Scarlet Reflections
Multi Dimension Blues 3
Morning Lake
Remembering Weather Report
was released back in 2009 on ECM. The disc under review also remembers the group in which Miroslav Vitous was so illustrious a member but does so via the
medium of reflections on original tunes and a sequence of brisk, brief Vitous compositions.
Given that Vitous employs two drummers (Gerald Cleaver and Nasheet Waits) and two soprano/tenor players, in the shape of Campbell and Bonisolo you’d expect
plenty of sonic colour and rhythmic charge. That’s certainly a strong element. Scarlet Woman Variations features the front line’s coiling phrases
in this airy opus whilst Seventh Arrow is a funkier, harder edged Bop piece, with the drummers desperately busy, and Aydin Esen’s keyboards
tinkling à la Zawinul.
Yet those intercessionary Vitous pieces sound strangely superficial; Multi Dimension Blues 2 is a raunchy blues thrash but seems contextually
devoid of significance in the programme. Vitous has an extended solo on Wayne Shorter’s Pinocchio where his agile, occasionally nasal-toned bass
playing can be admired. It’s a pity that Vitous’ Scarlet Reflections is so brief, as its slower and balladic profile brings out – via a ‘sustain’
keyboard and a constant sonic interplay - an intriguing sonority. The subtle patterns and coloration of Morning Lake reflect well on Vitous and
his authoritative band – the saxes’s allusive figures twisting and coiling.
I don’t feel this latest disc quite on the imaginative level of that earlier disc. The unevenness of the brief vignette pieces and the occasionally
unremitting elements enshrined in the two-man sax and two-drum team can constrict as much as release. A bit of a hit-and-miss album, all in all.
Jonathan Woolf
CD Reviews
