Miroslav Vitous: Universal Syncopations

By GRAHAM REID

(Herald rating: * * *)

Don't let the leaden, anxious-to-impress title put you off. And the name of bassist Vitous (the co-founder of Weather Report who played a memorable Town Hall concert here in '84 with Stanley Clarke and guitarist Larry Coryell) is just the one up front. From the start, the label put its solo signings alongside its others, so here is also saxophonist Jan Garbarek (the man commonly attributed with, or blamed for, ECM's austere sound), drummer Jack DeJohnette and non-label artists Chick Corea on piano and guitarist John McLaughlin. By the label's standards it's a conservative, straight-ahead post-bop outing (Garbarek offering if not sheets of sound then at least some scattered showers). Three tracks - the long and evolving Univoyage; the slinky minimal-noir Tramp Blues where Garbarek adopts a suitably languid and woody tone; and the busy, multiple dialogues of Faith Run - feature a three-piece brass section. Elsewhere the buoyantly impressionistic Beethoven follows the warm spaciousness of Sun Flower and the more urgent Miro Bop as exemplars of this band's breadth and intuitive scholarship.

Label: ECM