Vlasta Průchová

Vlasta Průchová in Prague (1985)

Vlasta Průchová [ ˈvlasta ˈpruːxovaː ] (born  July 12, 1926 in Ružomberok , Czechoslovakia (now Slovakia ); †  June 16, 2006 in Prague ) was a Czech jazz singer . Their style ranged from swing to bebop and incorporated Czech folklore .

Career

Průchová was considered the first lady and a pioneer of Czech jazz music. Her career, which began in the Prague jazz club Pygmalion in the 1940s, lasted for more than half a century. She performed with well-known orchestras and musicians, for example with the orchestras of Karel Krautgartner , Karel Vlach or Ferdinand Havlík or the group Rytmus 47 from the Pygmalion. Her duets with Karel Gott , Milan Chladil and Karel Hála were also very successful .

Vlasta Průchova won a television competition in 1957 with the title "Docela všední obyčejný den o půl šesté ..." ("A completely normal, ordinary day at half past five").

After her son Jan Hammer emigrated from Czechoslovakia after the Prague Spring in 1968 , she was still able to perform, but did not make any recordings for twenty years. At that time she had to form or search for new bands and she started working with young musicians like Emil Viklický and Zdeněk Zdeněk . It was only after the Velvet Revolution in 1989 that she sang her jazz songs again.

She was married to the cardiologist and jazz musician Jan Hammer. Her son, Jan Hammer jr., Is a jazz pianist and keyboard player who now mainly creates film scores.

Discography

• Emil Viklický , Just an Ordinary Day , 1999
• Tonight , arta Records, 1992 (Vlasta Průchová - voc, Swinging Quintet: František Kop - ts, Zdeněk Zdeněk - p, Peter Binder - g, Vít Fiala - b, Vladimír Žižka - dr)

Web links

• Literature and other media by and about Vlasta Průchová in the catalog of the National Library of the Czech Republic
• Radio Prague: "Grande Dame of Jazz has died"
• Short biography on arta records

Individual evidence

1. ↑ English Wikipedia