ZKKP - 12354

The Free Jazz Collective 60

By Stef Gijssels

We have not reviewed much Czech music lately. I was in Prague some weeks ago but with no real time to dig the local music scene. A record worth finding is this one, performed by the quartet of Pavel Zlámal on sax and clarinet, Tomáš Vunderle Koudelka on bass guitar, Jiří Kalousek on guitar, and Petr Ptáček on drums. They call their brand of music 'free fusion', and that's a good description: the rhythm section lays down a funky groove for the first track, reminiscent of some Miles Davis tunes in his later period, but with less of the showmanship, and luckily so, because the fusion is on the good side of taste on this album: no ambitions to be stars or superheroes, just the one ambition of making great music and having fun in the process.

And that's what you get: a little less than fourty minutes of unadulterated fun, that shifts between the rhythmic and completely free, highly enjoyable throughout.

Other worthwhile Czech music to check out:

Dalava: The Book of Transfigurations
Miroslav Vitous: Remembering Wheather Report
Jiří Stivín & Rudolf Dašek - System Tandem

The video below gives some idea of their music, but then without the written parts:

Sat Aug 18 04:00:00 GMT 2018