Eastern Europe Jazz Musicians thread

[EKE BBB]

Three good compilations of Czech jazz label ARTA:

-The Best of AghARTA

Catalog No.: F10050-2

Label: Arta Records, 1993

George Mraz Trio, Vlasta Pruchova, Rudy Linka and John Abercrombie, Emil Viklicky Quartet, Jiri Stivin and Co., Karel Ruzicka and Friends, Naima, Jonas, Balzar, Jakabcic, Lubos Andrst, The Fensters, Jazz Face, George Mraz and Karel Ruzicka, Tutu, Rudy Linka Quartet, Hot Line, Veleband

[EKE BBB]

- The Best of AghARTA II

Catalog No.: F10065-2

Label: Arta Records, 1995

Karel Ruzicka and George Mraz, Lubos Andrst and Acoustic Set, Emil Viklicky Quartet, The Four, Tutu, Vlasta Pruchova and Swinging, Roman Pokorny Quartet, Jiri Stivin, Jazz Face, Hot Line, Naima, Montanaro

[EKE BBB]

&

The Best of AghARTA

Catalog No.: F10090-2

Label: Arta Records, 2000

Karel Ruzicka Jr., Lubos Andrst Acoustic Set, Jiri Stivin and Co, Emil Viklicky and Boris Urbanek, Roman Pokorny, Hot Line, Veleband, Laco Deczi, Tutu

[jazzmessenger]

Can you recommend one or two albums of Goykovich's?

ubu

I haven't heard what EKE has recommended, but I can also recommend one of his earliest recordings called "Swinging Macedonia" (Enja).

[EKE BBB]

Another Czech name is guitarist ROMAN POKORNY

HIS WEBSITE

A very incomplete DISCOGRAPHY

A brief biography from ARTA´s website:

"Roman Pokorny began his active career as a musician in Brno, Moravia, in 1991. He acquired professional experience in the bands of Mojmir Bartek, Jaromir Hnilicka and Gunter Koci - the soloists of the Gustav Brom Big Band. In 1992 he started his own first group, the Roman Pokorny Quartet, and the next year became a member of TUTU, a group from Ostrava. The same year he was nominated for the first time in the Jazzovy Kaja poll - Discovery of the Year. In 1995 he recorded the first album of his own compositions: Magic Holidays and the CD Sundance with the group TUTU. The following year he was on the recording UV Drive by pianist Emil Viklicky and Boris Urbanek. The year after that, his quartet broke up and he founded the Roman Pokorny Trio with bassist Petr Dvorsky and drummer Jiri Slavicek. This was when his long-term collaboration began with the singer Yvonne Sanchez. He recorded his next solo album, Jazz Perception, in 1998. For this recording, the trio was joined by Gabriel Jonas on the Hammond organ and a brass section comprised of leading jazz soloists, including saxophonist Stepan Markovic, trombonist Svatopluk Kosvanec and trumpeter Juraj Bartos. The recording was called Jazz Album of the Year, 1998. That same year Pokorny recorded an album with bassist Vincenc Kumr and singer Lada Kerndl, Tribute to Duke Ellington. As a guest performer with Veleband, Pokorny has performed several times in the USA and at a jazz festival in Beirut, Lebanon. The next album, this time as a trio, is called Blue Point (1999). In 2000 Pokorny started the group Analogic, whose music is a fusion of rock, soul and funk from the 1960s and '70s. The next year, at Pokorny's instigation, a new group emerged, called Blue Box Heroes, whose music has crystallized into a distinctive fusion of blues, hard rock and jazz. With singer Lada Kerndl, Pokorny recorded an album of original compositions, called I Suddenly Realised. In 2002 Pokorny's long-term dream came true, to record an album with a classic organ trio, together with Alberto Marsico and Pavel "Bady" Zboril.

Here´s one I do own:

ROMAN POKORNY QUARTET - Magic Holidays

Roman Pokorny - g, Stanislav Macha - p, Petr Dvorsky - b, Marek Patrman - dr

Magic Holidays, Something For M.P., Blue Stone, Between Two People, My Old Car, The Raincoat, My Secret Love, Song About You, Bell-Bottomed Shorts

Edited May 24, 2004 by EKE BBB

[EKE BBB]

THE FATHER AND THE SON. BRIEF BIOGRAPHIES FROM ARTA WEBSITE:

Karel Ruzicka

Born in 1940 (Prague), rank not only among the leading pianist of the Czech jazz scene but he is by far its most versatile composer personality as well. Though he was studying percussion instruments at the State Conservatory, he concentrated after graduating exclusively on keybards - at first as a pianist of the Semafor Theatre Orchestra, then in Prague Radio Big Band, with Laco Deczi's Jazz Cellula septet, at thehead of several own combos, in the Czech analogue of Keyboard Conclave, as a soloist, composer, arranger and even conductor on many other renowned big bands (including the Czech-Polish one and the Veleband All-Stars) outfits and in duet the guitarist Rudolf Dasek. His creative activity comprises a really wide scale. We can find there not only big band compositions and scores of chamber pieces of non-typical instrumentation with pure jazz elements but also movie soundtracks, his "Celebration Jazz Mass" for soprano voice, chorus and orchestra, contemporary music and piano solo works. However the most essential part of his scoring are Ruzicka's solo projects which were inspired by his winning the International Competitions of Jazz Themes organized by the Academy of Music in Monaco (Interlude - 1977, Echoes - 1978, Triste - 1979). Since that time he has been taking part at the competition just as a member of the international jury, teaching there also on many orchestration clinics. Ruzicka, who has been playing with a lot of international stars (Finnish trumpet player Jarmo Sermila, French pianist Martial Solal, Uruguay saxophonist Wilson de Oliveira or his Polish colleague Tomasz Szukalski), toured almost all European countries, recorded at least 10 albums under his own name, and nowadays devotes himself to a systematic pedagogical activity.

Karel Ruzicka Jr.

Saxophone player / composer was born in Prague (1973), Czechoslovakia. From early age he was exposed to music of all kinds and since his father is a jazz pianist / composer, among his first influences was the music of Charlie Parker, John Coltrane, Miles Davis, Bill Evans and many others. When he was about ten he studied trumpet. Eventually he switched to trombone, which he studied on Prague Conservatory. At the same time he picked up alto saxophone his uncle gave him. He instantly fell in love with that instrument. Eventually he decided to quit trombone studies and just practice on tenor and write his music. He studied saxophone on Jaroslav Jezek Conservatory and won a scholarship to Berklee College of Music in Boston. Since he was sixteen years old he co-led "The Four" with pianist Stanislav Macha, which won several prizes on jazz festivals in country. In 1992 he received the "New artist of the year" award by Czech Jazz Society. He worked with fusion group Hot Line. He appears on several Arta releases including his debut record as a leader "You know what I mean" (ARTA 1997), which was jazz album of 1997 and was nominated for Czech Grammy. Beside this he workes with various groups other than jazz. Until he moved to New York in 1997 he worked with critically acclaimed Czech funk & rap group J.A.R. He's frequently touring Italy with pianist Antonio Ciacca. In 1996 he joined Roy Hargrove for a Teachers Jazz Festival concert in Prague organized by AghaRTA Jazz Centrum. This contributed to Karel's decision to move to New York. Now he has found hisown group, which is performing in New York's jazz venues, such as Savoy Lounge, Cornelia Street Cafe, Cleopatra's Needle. He regurarly works with pianist Charles Blenzig at the Blue Note. Also, he is playing in various bigbands in town,which as he says is "one of the most uplifting experiences is to be a part of the unity, where section by section everybody is closely listening to each other and together recreating composer's intentions and still is able to enhance the whole thing with one's spirit."

Edited May 24, 2004 by EKE BBB

[king ubu]

Can you recommend one or two albums of Goykovich's?

DUSKO GOYKOVICH & TETE MONTOLIU · TEN TO TWO BLUES

- Ten to two blues (Goykovich)

- I remember o.p. (Goykovich)

- Old fisherman´s daughter (Goykovich)

- I love you (Archer / Thompson)

- The child is born (Jones)

- Blues to line (Montoliu)

Dusko Goykovich, trumpet

Tete Montoliu, piano

Joe Nay, drums

Robert Langereis, bass

Recorded on November 9, 1971

&

IT´S ABOUT BLUES TIME

1. It's About Blues Time (Goykovich) - 13:55

2. Old Folks (Hill/Robison) - 5:57

3. The End of Love (Hampton) - 5:27

4. Bosna Calling (Goykovich) - 6:03

5. You Know I Care (Pearson) - 5:23

6. Nameless Tune (Povel) - 5:16

Tete Montoliu - Piano

Dusko Goykovich - Trumpet

Rob Langereis - Bass

Joe Nay - Drums

Ferdinand Povel - Sax (Tenor)

Recorded on November 8, 1971

Don't I happen to know one of these?

[king ubu]

Emil Viklicky - a fine czech piano player. Heard him on the air, in trio with Laco Tropp and Frantisek Uhlir, and added guest Steve Houben on some tracks.

Maybe this stuff, ubu?

Emil Viklický Trio + STEVE HOUBEN

WHAT'S NEW

1. You'd be so nice to come home to /Cole Porter music sample

2. Enfance /Steve Houben

3. I remember April /Raye-DePaul

4. Porthcawl /Emil Viklický

5. Cherokee /Ray Noble

6. What's New /Bob Haggart

7. CTA /Jimmy Heath

8. Goin' to Chicago /Jimmy Rushing music sample

Steve Houben - saxes flute vocal

Emil Viklický - piano

František Uhlíř - bass

Laco Tropp - drums

Released September 2003

LIVE RECORDING SWISS RADIO DRS2 PETER BUERLI

That's it! What's the label? And how did they get the tapes? There's more (and maybe also some different) music on the disc than I have. Will have to compare.

ubu

[king ubu]

Can you recommend one or two albums of Goykovich's?

ubu

I haven't heard what EKE has recommended, but I can also recommend one of his earliest recordings called "Swinging Macedonia" (Enja).

thanks, this title somehow is stored in some place of my brain dedicated to future jazz acquisitions...

ubu

[EKE BBB]

DUSKO GOYKOVICH & TETE MONTOLIU · TEN TO TWO BLUES

IT´S ABOUT BLUES TIME

Don't I happen to know one of these?

And you could get the other one, in case you´re interested in it... B)

[EKE BBB]

Emil Viklický Trio + STEVE HOUBEN

WHAT'S NEW

That's it! What's the label? And how did they get the tapes? There's more (and maybe also some different) music on the disc than I have. Will have to compare.

It´s on PRAGUE JAZZ (CUBE METIER)

[king ubu]

Two hungarian guitar players, both a bit better known than the others discussed here, but still they do deserve being mentioned:

Attila Zoller (1927-1998)

He can be heard on the recently reissued Zo-Ko-So, with Hans Koller & Martial Solal (MPS):

The other man, Gabor Szabo ((1936-1982). He played with Chico Hamilton (in the band that also included Charles Lloyd), on "Passin' Through", reissued on "Man From Two Worlds".

His own "High Contrast" and "The Sorcerer" are available from Verve/Universal:

ubu

[EKE BBB]

Attila Zoller (1927-1998)

I like this one, purchased in a HatHut binge I gave me a few months ago....

Lee Konitz - Don Friedman - Attila Zoller: "Thingin"

[king ubu]

Emil Viklický Trio + STEVE HOUBEN

WHAT'S NEW

That's it! What's the label? And how did they get the tapes? There's more (and maybe also some different) music on the disc than I have. Will have to compare.

It´s on PRAGUE JAZZ (CUBE METIER)

Do you have it or did you just google?

I will compare the tracklist and look if it's the same stuff I have. It was recorded at "Oltener Jazztage", just in case someone's interested. There are a couple of trio tracks on my MD, I remember.

ubu

[king ubu]

Attila Zoller (1927-1998)

I like this one, purchased in a HatHut binge I gave me a few months ago....

Lee Konitz - Don Friedman - Attila Zoller: "Thingin"

Check Zollar out on this very fine disc, with OP, Jimmy Pratt, and Hans Koller:

ubu

[EKE BBB]

Emil Viklický Trio + STEVE HOUBEN

WHAT'S NEW

That's it! What's the label? And how did they get the tapes? There's more (and maybe also some different) music on the disc than I have. Will have to compare.

It´s on PRAGUE JAZZ (CUBE METIER)

Do you have it or did you just google?

I will compare the tracklist and look if it's the same stuff I have. It was recorded at "Oltener Jazztage", just in case someone's interested. There are a couple of trio tracks on my MD, I remember.

ubu

No, I don´t own it. My only Vickliky disc is "Bohemia after dark".

[brownie]

A very impressive guitar player from Poland Jarek Smietana (also spelled Smetana)!

http://muzyka.onet.pl/specjalne/jsmietana/

He has recorded with Art Farmer and John Abercrombie, among others.

[EKE BBB]

And we all have forgotten another obvious one:

GEORGE MRAZ

BIOGRAPHY (from Fantasy website)

CATALOG ON FANTASY

AMG ENTRY

I have no leader dates for him. But he´s profusedly featured as a sidemen in my collection: Mingus, Hampton, Flanagan, Merrill, McRae, Montoliú, Elvin & Hank Jones, McCoy Tyner...

[rockefeller center]

And we all have forgotten another obvious one

Mraz was mentioned earlier in this thread.

[jazzmessenger]

Attila Zoller (1927-1998)

I like this one, purchased in a HatHut binge I gave me a few months ago....

Lee Konitz - Don Friedman - Attila Zoller: "Thingin"

Check Zollar out on this very fine disc, with OP, Jimmy Pratt, and Hans Koller:

ubu

That's a very good album. One of my favorite discs

[king ubu]

Attila Zoller (1927-1998)

I like this one, purchased in a HatHut binge I gave me a few months ago....

Lee Konitz - Don Friedman - Attila Zoller: "Thingin"

Check Zollar out on this very fine disc, with OP, Jimmy Pratt, and Hans Koller:

ubu

That's a very good album. One of my favorite discs

Yes indeed! I think they really got their own sound. Some cool, some hard bop, and each one of them had a disctinctive sound and style on his instrument. What a petty OP had to die so early!

It seems Zoller left Germany shortly after (I stay corrected on this point, if someone knows more)...

ubu

[EKE BBB]

More Czech jazz*:

The Veleband Big Band - Ellington in Prague. A tribute to the Duke (ARTA, 1999)

Czech modern big band paying homage to the Ellington / Strayhorn songbook.

It includes some nice arrangements, though I´m not accustomed to hear the highly featured electric guitar on the spotlight when hearing to Ellingtonia. I don´t like the heavy electric bass and the keyboards on some passages, though.

Good horns sections, specially the reeds and the trombone.

Earthy (and a bit rough) vocals on "I ain´t got nothing but the blues" and "Don´t get around much anymore".

The opening of "St. Louis toodle-oo" is........... SACRILEGE! THIS IS REALLY SACRILEGE, UBU!!! If Bubber Miley would stand up from his grave... The guitar passages turn things right again!

Interesting disc. Got it about three years ago, but haven´t played it for too long.

*copied from the What are you listening to? thread

[king ubu]

Just wanted to give our resident cow a big, no, a huge for sharing the GREAT Körössy stuff! Those two tracks from the Jazz Jamboree are something else, really!

****

Austrian radio broadcasted a concert from 2002 by the (czech) pianist/keyboarder Gabriel Jonas - pretty good stuff! Anyone knows him? He's got some records out, the latest being a trio disc.

The quartet included an able tenor saxophone player, electric bass and drums. Most of the music was with piano, though the electric bass brought in some funky stuff (slapping/popping etc), which was sometimes a bit of a drag, but sometimes pretty interesting, too.

Here's a link to the new album. I don't have it, however. Never heard Jonas before.

****

How about Art Farmer? He lived in Vienna for a long time, and in the nineties, he made a beutiful disc with polish musicians, called "Art in Wroclaw" (on Universal/Verve etc). Piotr Baron is on tenor (he gets a ballad feature with Farmer out), Kuba Stankiewicz is on piano, Darek Oleszkiewicz (of Brad Mehldau fame) on bass (it seem Harvie Swartz should have been there, originally). Can't find info on the drummer. Don't have the disc here.

Some beautiful ballad playing by Famer, Baron and Stankiewicz, and some swinging hard bop. All good tunes, of course. Very tasteful.

Here's the cover:

ubu

[king ubu]

Mixed a few things up regarding the "Art in Wroclaw" disc: first: Oles was to be on bass but Swartz actually plays. The drummer is Adam Czerwinski.

Get it if you can find it, it's OOP for some time now, it seems.

ubu

[mmilovan]

Then, he's from former Yugoslavia (don't ask me where from, exactly), and we have so far not mentioned anyone from the balcan region.

He is from Bosnia, actually he was born there (don't ask me for the town, I didn't remember it), and in his early youth his parents moved to Belgrade, so I think you can consider Dushko real product (of course in his early years) of Belgrade jazz circle (hey Flurin and Agustin, sound as such was recorded on THAT disc).

Speking of Hans Koeler I found very interesting disc of his music played alongside with Montgomery on some italian (bootleg?) label.

Edited June 2, 2004 by mmilovan