Jiří Traxler

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Jiří Traxler at the celebrations for his 95th birthday

Jiří Traxler (born March 12, 1912 in Tábor , Austria-Hungary ; † August 7, 2011 in Edmonton ) was a Czech - Canadian jazz and swing pianist, composer , songwriter and arranger . He is considered one of the early protagonists of swing music in Czechoslovakia . Traxler was the last living musician to work with the Czech composer Jaroslav Ježek . In 1951 he emigrated to Canada and last lived with his wife Jarmila in Edmonton.

Life

Traxler was born in 1912 in the Bohemian town of Tábor, which was part of Austria-Hungary at the time. He began his musical education as a child in the music institute in Tábor. During his high school years he played in the dance orchestra The Red Ace Players . After graduating from high school, he began studying law, which he broke off for the sake of music.

Jiří Traxler (left) and Jaroslav Ježek on April 21, 1938 in the Ultraphon studio

From 1935 to 1937 Traxler appeared as a member of the Gramoklub Orchestra in Prague , with which the first recordings were made. Two of his compositions - Feelin 'Low and Short Story - were part of a series of recordings made in 1936 for the Ultraphon label . His foxtrot A Little Rhythm became the signature tune of the orchestra. In 1937 he became a member of the Ochranný svaz autorský (OSA) copyright association .

In 1938 he started his short collaboration with Jaroslav Ježek and his swing band . Traxler wrote four compositions for Ježek's band, including Full Moon's Music and Noisy Serenade for ultraphone . Ježek recorded the other two compositions ( Roaring in F and Blues ) for Prague radio in 1938. The sheet music and arrangements for the songs were lost. The collaboration between the two musicians ended in January 1939 when Jaroslav Ježek was forced to emigrate to the United States after the National Socialists occupied the country in the wake of the Sudeten crisis .

In the late 1930s and early 1940s, Traxler worked with the ensembles Blue Music (1938/39) and Elit Club (1942); He was also engaged as a composer of modern dance music for the Prague publishing house Mojmír Urbánek . In 1939 he signed a five-year contract with the publishing house of the singer and band leader RA Dvorský . As a member of the RA Dvorský Orchestra , Traxler appeared on stages in Bohemia and Moravia. He also had the function of arranger, songwriter, translator and supervised the concerts and radio recordings of the orchestra. In 1948 he returned to the Urbánek publishing house after his contract had been prematurely terminated with the expropriations by the communist regime of the CSSR. At the same time he played in the Karel Vlach Orchestra .

In 1949, one year after the communist coup d'état , Traxler composed music for the comedy Moje žena Penelopa ; However, the performance was banned by the rulers immediately after the premiere as "politically undesirable". In the same year he decided to leave the country. After a short stay in West Germany, he emigrated to Canada in 1950, where he worked as a composer and arranger for the next few years. He lived in Montreal and worked in the main job as a technical draftsman at Canadair Ltd .

In 1982 Traxler published his autobiography Já nic, já muzikant ( Don't Blame Me, I'm Just a Musician ) in the Czech-Canadian exile publisher Sixty-Eight Publishers , which was directed by Josef Škvorecký . In 1995 he and his wife moved to Edmonton, Alberta, Canada .

In 2009 the Czech musician Ondřej Havelka shot the documentary Poslední mohykán ( The Last of the Mohicans ), which tells the life story of Jiří Traxler.

Awards

  • Masaryk Prize (2006) of the Czech and Slovak Association of Canada (České a slovenské sdružení v Kanadě) for deserving personalities of Czech origin.
  • 2009 - Award for "Contributions to Czech Music" from the Society for the Protection of the Rights of Music Authors and Publishers ( Ochranný svaz autorský (OSA))

Works

During his career in Czechoslovakia, around 150 Traxler tracks were recorded on record. The total number of his compositions is around 200.

Film music

Incidental music

  • Hledá se zlato - music and text
  • Tak jako v nebi (1947) - music, with Petr Kareš
  • Moje žena Penelopa (1949)

Songs

  • Hádej, hádej
  • Jedu nocí
  • Soumrak
  • Padají hvězdy z nebe
  • Bloudění v rytmu
  • Nám to nevadí
  • Bílé mraky

Recordings

  • Hold Jiřímu Traxlerovi, CD (FR0167-2)
  • Kamil Běhounek, Jiří Traxler - Swing Time, CD

literature

  • Lubomír Dorůžka and Ivan Poledňák: Československý jazz - minulost a přítomnost Editio Supraphon, Prague / Bratislava, 1967
  • Jiří Traxler: Já nic, já muzikant… na penzi - literární etudy jazzového mohykána . 2008. ISBN 978-80-903997-4-7

Web links

Commons : Jiří Traxler  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Ve věku 99 let zemřel v Kanadě skladatel Jiří Traxler in Cesk Noviny 2011
  2. ↑ Čechokanaďan Jiří Traxler se dožívá pětadevadesátin - Radio.cz
  3. ↑ a b c d e Masarykova Cena za rok 2006 - Jiří Traxler at the Czech and Slovak Association of Canada ( Memento of the original from July 6, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / cssk.ca
  4. ↑ a b Já nic, já muzikant… na penzi - Kultura (Český rozhlas) Milena Marešová on Czech Radio
  5. ↑ # Dorůžka, Lubomír; Poledňák, Ivan (1967). Československý jazz - minulost a přítomnost. Prague / Bratislava: Editio Supraphon, p. 48
  6. ↑ a b c d Traxler portrait at krajane.net
  7. ^ Jiří Traxler v document Ondřeje Havelky at Czech Television 2010
  8. ↑ Hold Jiřímu Traxlerovi at Radioservis
  9. ↑ Kamil Běhounek, Jiří Traxler - Swing Time, CD (Popron) ( Memento of the original from July 27, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.popron.cz
personal data
SURNAME Traxler, Jiří
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Czech-Canadian jazz and swing pianist, composer, songwriter and arranger
DATE OF BIRTH March 12, 1912
PLACE OF BIRTH Tábor , Austria-Hungary
DATE OF DEATH August 7, 2011
Place of death Edmonton