Karel Vlach

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Karel Vlach (born October 8, 1911 in Prague ; † February 26, 1986 there ) was a Czech big band leader of jazz and light music.

Vlach learned the violin in elementary school and completed a commercial training. He then worked as a salesman and later as an authorized signatory in a department store (Kauders). Having become unemployed in the early 1930s, he founded the band Blue Music , Blue Boys (previously Charles Happy Boys) and in 1939 his first orchestra. It was based on Benny Goodman and performed with the Allanovy sisters (based on the Andrews Sisters ) (1940). During the German occupation, Kamil Běhounek and Jiří Traxler were in his band at times, and Fritz Weiss wrote arrangements for the band from the Theresienstadt concentration camp. After the Second World War, his big band was based on Glenn Miller with the singers Arnošt Kavka, Inka Zemánková (1915–2000) and Jiřina Salačová (1920–1991). In 1947/48 she played in the Osvobozené divadlo theater . From 1954 he moved with the band to the ABC Theater ( Divadlo ABC ) and from 1962 to the Karline Theater.

Many important Czech musicians from the fields of jazz and popular music emerged from his orchestra. He recorded a lot for the state record company Supraphon , including classical music as well as jazz and pop. He also worked as a film musician from 1940 .

Vlach was married to the singer Yvetta Simonová (* 1928), who also sang with his orchestra from 1958, as did Milan Chladil . He also worked with British singer Gery Scott in the late 1950s .

He died of a heart attack while preparing the musical Some like it hot .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Lubomil Doruzka Swing Music in the Protectorate
  2. ^ Czech biography of Simonova
personal data
SURNAME Vlach, Karel
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Czech band leader
DATE OF BIRTH October 8, 1911
PLACE OF BIRTH Prague
DATE OF DEATH February 26, 1986
Place of death Prague