Martin Kratochvíl

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Martin Kratochvíl (2011)

Martin Kratochvíl (born May 22, 1946 in Prague ) is a Czech musician of modern and fusion jazz ( piano , composition ), documentary filmmaker and businessman.

Live and act

In 1964, Kratochvíl and Jiří Stivín founded his quartet Jazz Q , from which one of the most important fusion bands in Czechoslovakia developed in the 1970s with the guitarist Luboš Andršt and the bassist Vladimír Padrůněk, who also composed. Together with the rock band Blue Effect , the album Coniunctio was created in 1970, an "encounter between free jazz and free rock - a mixture that had never existed anywhere in the world in such a style." The musicians, inspired by Ornette , intervened Coleman's album Free Jazz (1961), the concept of a double rhythm section, in front of which Kratochvíl with his keyboards, Radim Hladík with the guitar and Stivín on saxophone and flute formed the front line. The result was a “mixture of free sound improvisations, hard rock riffs, wild guitar solos and expressive saxophone lines” in a sound aesthetic that was “bold and liberating European despite the occasional blues harmonies ”. Jazz Q existed until 1984 and released another seven albums.

Kratochvíl also composed for the singer Helena Vondráčková. Since 1976 he continued to make documentaries (initially for television), for which he also composed the music.

In 1989 Kratochvíl founded the record label Bonton Music , today the largest Czech record label. Since the 1990s he has also been active as an entrepreneur in other fields.

In 2001 he founded a new quartet, which in 2013 released the album Znovu ("Auf ein Neues") with guitarist Zdeněk Fischer, bassist Přemysl Faukner and drums Ladislav Déczi , which was followed in 2014 by the soundtrack album Temné Slunce . He also performed in a duo with American guitarist Tony Ackerman.

Discographic notes

  • Milan Svoboda / Martin Kratochvíl April Orchestra (1979)
  • Kratochvíl & Ackerman Duolog (2001)
with Jazz Q
  • Blue Effect & Jazz Q Praha Coniunctio (1970)
  • Pozorovatelna (1973)
  • Symbiosis (1974)
  • Elegy (1977)
  • Zvesti (1979)
  • Hvezdon (1984)
  • Znovu (2013)

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b Mathias Bäumel Prague guitarist Radim Hladík died , jazz newspaper
  2. ^ Prague's Velvet Hangover: After Their Revolution, Czech Artists Are Up Against the Wall Los Angeles Times , May 12, 1991
personal data
SURNAME Kratochvíl, Martin
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Czech jazz musician (piano, composition), documentary filmmaker and businessman
DATE OF BIRTH May 22, 1946
PLACE OF BIRTH Prague