Quite by coincidence BGO and Pure Pleasure Vinyl have released the same album. The vinyl issue is a facsimile of the original album issue on Herbie Mann's Embryo label (that was distributed by Atlantic, who later assumed the rights to the label) on 180gm vinyl. The CD is released by BGO who have chosen to use the little known German album release under the grim title of The Bass with an equally grim facsimile cover of a wooden bass case against a black background. The original Infinite Search release has the unusual distinction of being released under two further titles when Atlantic (who had taken over the Embryo rights) put it out as Mountain in the Clouds in 1972 when the whole album was remixed and the track ‘Cérečka’ added and finally as a German release as The Bass, licensed from Atlantic by a German company named Hör Zu (meaning ‘listen’). The album's reappearance as The Bass is guaranteed to garner blank stares when in fact it's an important album that should be in everyone's collection. Like Zawinul (which was released on the Atlantic label in 1972 with, incidentally, Vitous on some tracks), and Wayne Shorter's Super Nova (recorded in 1967 but shelved for release until 1976), Infinite Search reveals Vitous, Shorter and Zawinul on different paths to the same mountain top. If anything, Vitous and Zawinul are revealing of their European sensibilities on some tracks where a convergence of mood and texture is discernible on the more rhapsodic pieces. Equally, the thoughtful introspection of Super Nova provides a nice fit with Zawinul and Vitous. These three albums provide the context to the formation of Weather Report, but that's another story. The album highlight on Infinite Search is ‘Freedom Jazz Dance’, that enduring Eddie Harris theme in fourths, and this version is a bona fide jazz classic (how can it not be when you bring together Joe Henderson, Herbie Hancock, John McLaughlin, Jack DeJohnette and Vitous in top form?). To my ears the bass sound is best rendered in vinyl, and since this record is a bass tour de force I'd grab the Pure Pleasure version while it's still around.