Miroslav Vitous: Universal Syncopations (ECM)

On September 24, 2003, eJazzNews published John Kelman’s review of Universal Syncopations, bassist Miroslav Vitouš’s first album as a leader in ten years, released by ECM on September 29, 2003, with saxophonist Jan Garbarek, pianist Chick Corea, guitarist John McLaughlin and drummer Jack DeJohnette. Two of those players have since died: Corea in 2021 and DeJohnette in 2025. Vitouš, born in Prague in 1947, released another ECM album, Mountain Call, in March 2026.

What the review said

Kelman ranked the album among the best of Vitouš’s career and among the best releases of 2003. He compared it with the bassist’s first album as a leader, Infinite Search from 1969: where that record had the brashness of youth, he wrote, this one had the maturity of players with nothing left to prove. Instead of the extended solos such a line-up might suggest, he heard a series of tone poems in which “everyone solos and nobody solos.”

He singled out Vitouš leading “Faith Run,” one of the tracks with a small brass section; McLaughlin’s lines, which reminded him of the guitarist’s early album Extrapolation; Corea’s free-time opening on “Sun Flower”; and DeJohnette’s range from light cymbal work on “Bamboo Forest” to the drive of “Miro Bop.” Kelman thought listeners tired of Garbarek’s recent work would hear a return to form, and linked the saxophonist’s playing on “Bamboo Forest” and “Beethoven” to the Slavic roots he shares with Vitouš. He predicted the album would come to be counted among ECM’s lasting recordings.

One point needs context. Kelman described the album as the first project to bring all five musicians together, but the sessions were spread out: ECM gives the recording period as March 2000 to March 2003, and the BBC’s reviewer Peter Marsh noted that only one track seemed to feature the full line-up, with the rest played by smaller groups. Kelman’s own review names that track, “Univoyage.”

The album and its reception

Universal Syncopations (ECM 1863) has nine pieces, all by Vitouš except “Beethoven” and “Brazil Waves,” written with Garbarek, and “Medium,” a bass and drums duet written with DeJohnette. Trumpeters Wayne Bergeron and Valery Ponomarev and trombonist Isaac Smith play on three tracks. In The Guardian, John Fordham called it “a wonderful contemporary jazz set” in which the players rethink their own histories. Marsh was cooler, finding strong individual playing but a lack of cohesion that made the album, in his words, “a bit of a disappointment.”

Miroslav Vitouš

Vitouš came to the United States in the 1960s and in 1970 formed Weather Report with Wayne Shorter and Joe Zawinul, leaving the band after its early albums. Infinite Search, the 1969 session ECM used as a model for Universal Syncopations, was made for Herbie Mann’s Embryo label with Herbie Hancock, Joe Henderson, McLaughlin and DeJohnette among the players. Vitouš had also played in Corea’s trio with Roy Haynes, on Now He Sings, Now He Sobs (1968).

What happened next

Vitouš followed the album with Universal Syncopations II (ECM, 2007), then two projects on the music of Weather Report, Remembering Weather Report (2009) with clarinetist Michel Portal and Music of Weather Report (2016). Chick Corea died on February 9, 2021, at 79. Jack DeJohnette died on October 26, 2025, at 83, in Kingston, New York. In March 2026 ECM released Mountain Call, music Vitouš recorded between 2003 and 2010, with duets with Portal, pieces with DeJohnette and a suite sung by Esperanza Spalding. Portal had died the month before, on February 12, 2026. For the wider style, see our guides to jazz fusion and the best jazz fusion albums.

Where to start listening

• Infinite Search (Embryo, recorded 1969): the debut Kelman and ECM both measured this album against.
• Universal Syncopations (ECM, 2003): the album reviewed here.
• Mountain Call (ECM, 2026): Vitouš’s first album as a leader in a decade, with Portal, DeJohnette and Spalding.

Sources

• ECM Records, “Universal Syncopations,” catalogue page (ECM 1863), accessed October 2026.
• ECM Records, “Mountain Call,” release page, accessed October 2026.
• John Fordham, “Vitous/Garbarek/McLaughlin/Corea/DeJohnette, Universal Syncopations,” The Guardian, October 3, 2003.
• Peter Marsh, “Review of Miroslav Vitous, Universal Syncopation,” BBC Music.
• “Michel Portal,” Wikipedia, accessed October 2026.
• “Miroslav Vitouš” and “Universal Syncopations,” Wikipedia, accessed October 2026.
• Hank Shteamer, “Chick Corea, Groundbreaking Jazz Pianist, Dead at 79,” Rolling Stone, February 11, 2021.
• “In Memoriam: Jack DeJohnette, 1942-2025,” DownBeat, October 28, 2025.
• “Jack DeJohnette, versatile jazz drummer known for Miles Davis fusion recordings, dies aged 83,” The Guardian, October 27, 2025.

This page is based on an article from the original eJazzNews archive (2001 to 2018), with background and sources added in 2026. The original text is not republished here. You can read the original as it appeared on eJazzNews via the Internet Archive.
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