Record Reviews

NEJTEK / HRUBY / HONZAK / SOLTIS ~ PHOENIX AMPLION 152001 (Barcode: 8594179220021) ~ CZECH REPUBLIC ~ Free Jazz / Improvised Music Recorded: 2015 Released: 2016 This is the debut album by a quartet comprising of four experienced Czech Jazz musicians: keyboardist Michal NejtekFind albums by this artist, saxophonist Pavel HrubyFind albums by this artist, bassist Jaromir HonzakFind albums by this artist and drummer Daniel SoltisFind albums by this artist. The concept, conceived by the label’s owner and producer Alexej CharvatFind albums by this artist, was to gather the musicians without any preparation and let them improvise together, creating spontaneous compositions. The album presents nine tracks with eight compositions (one repeated twice), and offers a spectacular sound quality, as usual with recordings made at the SONO Records studio under the supervision of Charvat and help from Milan CimfeFind albums by this artist. Despite the fact that the music is completely improvised and spontaneous, the result offers a remarkable melodic content, which makes listening to the music not only “easier”, but above all instantly acceptable and embraceable. Of course some of the improvisations are pretty “wild”, but the music stays at all times completely coherent and “organized” and even well behaved, which is pretty astonishing, and could be labelled as oxymoronic “Organized Freedom”. In the liner notes of the album all four musicians state their opinions concerning free improvisation, which are very enlightening and to some extent also explain the success of the music making found on this album. Obviously such music requires a lot of mutual respect and complete abandonment of the respective egos, as well as a lot of experience and open-mindedness, all of which can be found here aplenty. Personally I think that everything works so well thanks to Honzak’s incredible performances not only as a virtuoso bassist, but mostly as creator of the adhesiveness that keeps everything together, an invisible “dark matter” without each the universe would collapse. Of course all the musicians contribute absolutely wonderfully, but Honzak is for me the pivotal ingredient. Overall this is a stunning piece of music, which opens a window into the incredible Czech Jazz scene, which has truly a lot to offer and is worth following, same as the Jazz made in its southern neighbor Poland, which gains more worldwide popularity lately. The delicate and deeply European aesthetics that prevails over most of the Czech Jazz is a unique phenomenon deserving a much wider worldwide recognition that it enjoys at the moment, hopefully to be improved in the future. Fans of Improvised Music at its best incarnation should be delighted with this album, which is naturally wholeheartedly recommended.

Updated: 12/02/2021Posted: 12/02/2021

CD 1 Slipcase Recommend To A Friend

VERTIGO ~ DALEKO ANIMAL MUSIC 081 (Barcode: 8594155999545) ~ CZECH REPUBLIC ~ Jazz Recorded: 2019 Released: 2019 This is the seventh album by Czech / Slovak Jazz ensemble VertigoFind albums by this artist, which comprises of saxophonist / clarinetist / vocalist Marcel BartaFind albums by this artist, trumpeter / vocalist Oskar TorokFind albums by this artist, cellist / vocalist Dorota BarovaFind albums by this artist, keyboardist Vojtech ProchazkaFind albums by this artist, bassist Rastislav UhrikFind albums by this artist and drummer Daniel SoltisFind albums by this artist. The album presents eleven original compositions; five by Barta, three by Prochazka and one each by Barova (with her lyrics), Torok (with lyrics by Slovak poet Ivan KraskoFind albums by this artist) and Soltis. The music is a highly interesting mixture of contemporary Jazz, Chamber Classical music and some Fusion elements, a wonderfully weird, almost Zappaesque concoction, which offers a superb balance of composed and improvised music and should leave no open-minded listener indifferent. Since I am exposed on a daily basis to huge quantities of new music, it is not surprising that it is very difficult to surprise me ;) However this music is definitely a breath of fresh air with its chutzpah and seemingly complete disregard of conventionalism or populism. As a result the listener gets exposed to something different with each track on the album and yet the entire continuity preserves an aesthetic coherence, despite the diversity. The modus operandi of the ensemble is definitely focused on group performance, with the soloing being rather secondary, which does not however limit the superb individual contributions by all the members, which can be distinctly heard by an attentive listener. The intense ensemble sound dominates the proceedings and interestingly the usage of the human voices as instruments empowers the total result and adds another dimension. This music might require more than one listening session in order to penetrate the complexity and intricacy, but is definitely worth the effort. Personally it´s time for me to dig into the earlier recordings by the group, which are hopefully bearing gifts of the same nature. Overall this is a heck of an album, completely innovative and stunning by its chest of musical treasures, which is wholeheartedly recommended. My respect towards Czech / Slovak Jazz is well justified again and if you are bored by the mundane Jazz albums that clutter our life, this is definitely a fountain of youth ;) Enjoy and well done people (of the universe without plastic)!

Updated: 12/10/2020Posted: 12/10/2020

CD 1 Digipak Recommend To A Friend

VERTIGO ~ NIC ANIMAL MUSIC 107 (Barcode: 8594211850100) ~ CZECH REPUBLIC ~ Avant-Garde Jazz Recorded: 2022 Released: 2022 This is the eighth album by Czech / Slovak Jazz ensemble VertigoFind albums by this artist, which comprises of saxophonist Marcel BartaFind albums by this artist, trumpeter Oskar TorokFind albums by this artist, cellist Dorota BarovaFind albums by this artist, keyboardist Vojtech ProchazkaFind albums by this artist, bassist Rastislav UhrikFind albums by this artist and drummer Daniel SoltisFind albums by this artist. The album presents fourteen original compositions; eight by Barta, two by Prochazka, one by Uhrik and three collective improvisations. The music was recorded at the Sono Records studio and engineered by Milan CimfeFind albums by this artist, with the usual stunning sound quality. The music is a sublime amalgam of cross-genre explorations, including contemporary Jazz, Chamber Classical Music, some Rock / Fusion elements and everything in between, completely shunning any simplistic definitions. Perfectly melodic at one moment, it becomes almost Improvised Music at the next, taking the listener on a see-saw journey of epic proportions. This music remains definitely a breath of fresh air with its chutzpah and seemingly complete disregard of conventionalism or populism. As a result, the listener gets exposed to something different with each track on the album and yet the entire continuity preserves an aesthetic coherence, despite the diversity. The emphasis on creating an ensemble sound rather than featuring expressive soloing is typical of contemporary European music, and Vertigo functions perfectly within that realm. The ominous title (“nothing” in English) reflects well the emptiness of the contemporary non-culture, which dominates our lives, and perhaps suggests how the void can be filled by something else, with a tinge of pessimism attached. Overall, this is a brilliant album from start to finish, which continues the Vertigo legacy, now twenty years in existence, filling our hearts with hope for the future. As long as European music has ensembles like Vertigo creating music, not all is lost. This album is well beyond recommendation; it is an absolute must to every true music connoisseur anywhere on this planet, as are in fact all their earlier recordings. This is bloodcurdling (in the best meaning of the word) stuff!

Updated: 05/10/2022Posted: 05/10/2022

CD 1 Mini-Sleeve Recommend To A Friend