The Stanko thread, the Körössy thread... reminded me there´s a lot of good music being done in those countries that once were under Soviet Union´s umbrella.

Now´s the time to discover all that wonderful music.

One I´ve heard of, but never listened to, is VYACHESLAV GANELIN. Any comments?

I have this one (on Leo Golden Years), and think it's incredible, yet it seems there are better ones around:

Thanks, ubu.

Looks like this one´s a must-have:

Con Anima/Concerto Grosso



AMG review:

This CD puts together the Ganelin Trio's first two LPs.

Con Anima was recorded in 1976 and released the following year by Melodia, the official (and only) U.S.S.R. record label; Concerto Grosso was recorded in 1978, but released two years later. The first album presents the essential elements of the trio's sound: wild energy, passion, a propensity to draw from all of jazz's history and pre-history, along with folk music, a wide array of instruments, complex writing, etc. The album is a collage of various bits of music, vignettes so to speak, linked together by piano, saxophone, and drums solos that are faded in and out — transitions from one scene of a dream to the next. For the reissue, everything has been lumped into one 41-minute track. Sound quality gets precarious in the busier passages, but otherwise it is a very good recording, utterly risk-taking and freaky.

"Concerto Grosso," also lumped into one track (35 minutes), is both more tempered and ground-breaking. Its parts are better integrated, giving the impression of a single work instead of a kaleidoscope of fragments. It takes the trio farther away from jazz into a realm that was hardly explored at the time in the West. It features pianist Ganelin on guitar for half of the record, and also sees the trio experimenting with studio techniques (multi-tracking, echo effects). Distortion problems have been settled, but at the beginning of the piece, when things are very soft, the listener can distinctly hear something else happening far in the background, as if the session had been recorded over a used reel of tape and the saxophone screams from the previous take were still audible. In any case, having both of these early recordings on one CD makes for great value. Edition limited to 750 copies.

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.

He also appears on George Mraz' "Morava" (http://www.fantasyjazz.com/catalog/mraz_g_cat.html scroll down), which seems to be very fine (I don't know it).

Another site: http://www.viklicky.com/

ubu

Nothing by Ganelin in my collection, but I do have the occasional nice vinyl find pressed in on of the former Warsaw Pact States. Some names that deserve attention have been mentioned before on this board. The singer Eva Olmerova needs to be heard and the Blechband album by pianist Hannes Zerbe and his band of wackos is another stunner. The Polish Muza (Polskie Nagrania) label not only featured some of Polish best jazz players, but also gave the world an obscure catalogue of performances by famous artists with local pick up bands. Some of these have been released on CD now I believe. I found a nice stack of 10" LPs with the more obscure artists like Kalwinski and Elisabeth Charles. These disks were fairly widely distributed as there were hardly any LPs pressed in Eastern Europe during the 50s/early 60s.

Milan Svoboda

Also heard a broadcast (same year, same festival as Viklicky), of his "Contraband". Might be another musician worth checking!

There are some sound samples on the site, too - the solo track is the most interesting one.

"Fuddle" - Svoboda Quartet & Tony Lakatos
"Monkey Diet" - Contraband
"Intermezzo" - solo piano

Also, if you go to the discographie, short excerpts from all tracks can be downloaded.

ubu

I have

Emil Viklicky & Steve Houben: BOHEMIA AFTER DARK



Spun it once when I bought it two or three years ago. I remember I dug it, but can´t bring more details. Will listen to it tonight.

Regarding MILAN SVOBODA:

In the same trip to Prague and Budapest I bought a Milan Svoboda disc "Milan Svoboda Contraband - Family", but if my memory serves me right, THAT WAS NOT the CD inside the jewel case!

More to check tonight!

Anyway, here´s the cover:

Spinning that Folk Inspired disk now and this one has some very nice violins and geeetars and all that. Viklicky has a very light touch and some of Bill Evans to his playing (said the guy who doesn't know much about piano players anyhow).

Why has no one mentioned Dusko Goykovich, yet? He is a very popular Eastern European trumpet player in Japan. I think he is way underrated in the States. I can highly recommend his Enja albums.

Maybe Goykovich is considered almost too obvious? (Not that I know his music very well, but I sure know his reputation!)
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.
(Except Helen Merrill, of course, but she's got her own thread)

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

ubu

I saw Viklicky in London some time ago, a very pleasing set with Juraj Bartos on trumpet.

Hungarian Mihaly Dresch (sax, cimbalom etc) leads a tasty folk influenced group.

I'm afraid I don't know much about him, other than that I heard him in concert once with George Haslam, but I really enjoyed hearing the Hungarian (I think) pianist Laszlo Gardony (sp?).

Is he a 'name' player? Definitely a good'un, at any rate!

Another interesting Czech name is JIRI STIVIN who plays clarinet, all kind of flutes and recorders, saxes, roura, folk pipes and various instruments of his own construction. He has recorded a great deal of classical music, fussion, folk-jazz... A very eclectic guy, for sure.



HIS WEBSITE

HIS DISCOGRAPHY

I can recommend Inspiration by folklore, recorded for ARTA records in 1991, with Jaroslav Sindler on guitar, Frantisek Uhlir on bass and Josef Vejvoda on drums.



and

Excursion II. Twenty years after with drummer Pierre Favre (P&J Music, 1998)

This is my favorite Czech jazz recording, by far:

KAREL RUZICKA JR. - Spring Rolls Quartet



Karel Růžička jr. SAXOPHONES
Gabriel Jonáš PIANO
Robert Balzar BASS
Pavel Zbořil DRUMS

1. Groovy Blues (Karel Ruzicka)
2. Till There Was You (Meredith Wilson)
3. Crazeology (Bud Powell)
4. Spring Rolls (Karel Ruzicka)
5. Wild Eggs (Gabriel Jonas)
6. Stella by Starlight (Victor Young)
7. Love is here to Stay (George Gershwin)
8. Jsem tvůj (Alfons Jindra)
9. Chocolate Sun (Robert Balzar)

RECORDED IN PRAGUE 23 & 24 APRIL 1998

I´m eagerly waiting for John´s opinion on this one. IMHO this young saxophonist (son of Karel Ruzicka, classical and jazz pianist) has got the chops and has many things to say.

Aladár Pege

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

- 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

&

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

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

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."

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

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.

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...

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

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

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