Experienced jazzmen often surround themselves by musicians considerably younger; in jazz the necessary know-how has always been passed from mouth to mouth.After Karel Velebný, the teacher of several generations of Czech modern jazzmen, Emil Viklický, one of his pupils, is following the same track.
His present quartet joins together musicians of two different generations: Viklický’s(b.1948) and Josef Vejvoda’s (1945) partners are the trumpet player Juraj Bartoš (1967) and the bassist Robert BAlzar (1962). The common denominator of this workshop in which the younger men can „pay their dues“ is the living and vibrating modern mainstream of today.
In the background you may fell the gigantic figure of Thelonious Monk, a classic whose importance grows as time goes by. He is represented by two titles and also some of the band’s originals indicate expert familiarity with the rhytmic and melodic contours of his themes. But the band has also some specific traits, reflecting the origin of two of its members. Emil Viklický was born in the Moravian town Olomouc and throughout his career he has been showing his love for the unique character of Moravian folk songs. (To a Command Performance for members of the British Royal family he was invited as „the jazz pianist who plays something like Janáček“.) Juraj Bartoš, a fenomenal young trumpet player (recently he graduated from the Bratislava conservatoire performing, one after the other, three trumpet concertos, of which classical virtuosi usually play just one at a time, and then adding some jazz as an after-thought) comes from Slovakia, Moravia’s neighbour in the East.
The framing of the disc – from the Moravian folk song Overflown to Monk’s ‘Round Midnight – is almost symbolic: Viklický’s Quartet is one of the rare Czech groups fully integrated into today’s world jazz but at the same time keeping its own face. And if the record starts and ends in balladic mood, don’t forget that ballads are often regarded by jazzmen as a real touchstone of maturity.
Lubomír Dorůžka
