From his early collaborations with the likes of Bob Brookmeyer and Clark Terry to his own constantly evolving recorded work, Miroslav Vitous has continually redefined the role of the bass in jazz.
After winning a scholarship to the Berklee School of Music in 1965, he moved to New York and quickly established himself as one of the young lions of jazz bass, landing high-profile gigs with Herbie Mann, Stan Getz, Chick Corea, and Miles Davis, among others.
Yet for all he has accomplished, he is still, for many, best known for his three years with the groundbreaking group Weather Report, which he co-founded in 1971 with fellow Miles Davis alumni Joe Zawinul and Wayne Shorter.
Inspired by Miles’ Bitches Brew-era recordings, Weather Report’s first four albums explored uncharted musical terrain with ingenious improvisations.
When Zawinul and Shorter later steered the group into a more commercial musical direction, Miroslav parted ways and pursued his own path without looking back – until questions arose over his share of the royalties.
“We each wrote two songs on the first album and formed the publishing company Shoviza – short for Shorter, Vitous, and Zawinul,” said Vitous in the October 2016 issue of Bass Player. “Weather Report belonged to the three of us on paper, technically. And when it ended, unfortunately, they didn’t pay me for my third; they just took it. Somebody stole my documents, and that was it.
“It was very unfortunate – the royalties were coming directly from Columbia Records to the office. One-third of those royalties were mine, and they didn’t pay me for seven years, if you can believe that. Nothing came.
“Finally I had to go talk to Joe Zawinul and say, ‘Hey, this is not even a case if I take you to court. You are just sitting on my money. You have the contract with Columbia, everything is right there.’ So then they started to pay me back some of the $45,000 they withheld.”
Prior to Weather Report, you were all playing on each other’s solo projects. What made you decide to get together and form the group?
For a very short while I was with Miles Davis, but that ended quickly, and I didn’t want to go back to Herbie Mann or Stan Getz or the people I had worked with before. I was ready to move on. So I thought I’d start some kind of a band, and decided to give Wayne a call, who had me on his last three albums before that.