For those unaware, Mountain Call is a peak achievement in Miroslav Vitouš’s music, presenting the masterful bassist in varying ensemble configurations that prominently include the renowned French clarinetist Michel Portal and late American drummer Jack DeJohnette, among others.

Persuasively bringing together several tendencies and streams in Vitouš’s work, the album bears testimony to his multiple skills as dynamic improviser, jazz composer, arranger and creative sampling pioneer. The prodigiously gifted Czech bassist and founding member of Weather Report first came to ECM in the late 1970s, in a collaborative trio with Terje Rypdal and Jack DeJohnette.

Back then, Miroslav and Jack made for an eruptive, powerful rhythm section, successfully revisited on Vitouš’s Universal Syncopations album (2003) with Jan Garbarek and Chick Corea, and on Mountain Call the combination also has a centering role to play.

1. New Energy
2. Second Touch
3. On The Way
4. Unexpected Solutions
5. Tribal Dance
6. Rehearsal In Theatre
7. Discussion
8. Epilog
9. Delusion
10. Evolution: Path Begins
11. Evolution: Nature Opening
12. Evolution: Fulfillment
13. Rhapsody: In You
14. Rhapsody: Fun & Games
15. Rhapsody: Africa
16. Rhapsody: In Me
17. Rhapsody: Lullaby
18. Mountain Call

Recorded at multiple sessions over a period of seven years at Vitouš’s Prague studio, and produced by both Vitouš and Manfred Eicher, the trio’s remarkable collaborative spark opens this recording on the effortlessly beautiful New Energy, the emotive Second Touch and the playfully sculpted On The Way, and they are backed by the affecting Unexpected Solutions, the colorful hipsway Tribal Dance, the impassioned Rehearsal In Theatre, with trio of the stirring Discussion, the moving Epilog and a growing stillness that weaves throughout Delusion along next.

Up next is the formidable Path Begins, the cinematically-hued brilliance of Nature Opening, the upbeat and melodiously forthright Fulfillment and the low slung ambiance of In You, and they are all in turn followed seamlessly by the visceral Fun & Games, the emotional Africa, the affluently aligned In Me, the recording rounding out on the flourishing Lullaby, coming to a close on the instinctual title track Mountain Call.

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