Mountain Call is a peak achievement in Miroslav Vitous'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 Vitous'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. Mountain Call was recorded at multiple sessions over a period of seven years at Vitous's Prague studio. The album was produced by Miroslav Vitous and Manfred Eicher.

This recording of Miroslav Vitous is the eighth publication in the “European Jazz Legends” series. In hindsight, “Infinite Search,” the title of Miroslav Vitous’ first album as a leader from 1970, which featured players like Herbie Hancock, John McLaughlin, Jack DeJohnette, or Joe Henderson, seems prophetic. The bassplayer, composer, educator, former member of the Czech Olympic swimming team, co-founder of the trailblazing group “Weather Report,” and the man behind “the go-t string library for producers and film composers,” is still constantly on a quest, and never without a project. At 68, Vitous is far from retiring, working on a symphony, preparing gigs with a Big Band or the Prague Symphony, and occasionally presenting his music in concerts with his current group. This live recording from the Theater Gutersloh presents him with his band- featuring Aydin Esen on keyboards, Roberto Gatto on drums, and Gary Campbell and Robert Bonisolo on saxophones, interplaying with Vitous on his singing upright bass. The music is a fascinating fusion of modern Jazz traditions and new musical ideas and concepts. In the magazine Jazz thing in April 2016, Vitous says, “I can’t copy, because the original music in me is so strong, that it will always come out. I’m lucky.”