Czech Bluegrass Spring.
Posted Under: Czech Bluegrass Spring.
Czech Bluegrass Spring.
This springtime I spent almost a month in Czech Republic.
I attended several bluegrass events and will report about some of them.
The first in a row were the incredible Kruger Brothers in Prague on March 30th.
The event was presented as usual by the banjo-maker Jarda Prucha in a nice concert hall.
Kruger Brothers, Jens, Uwe and the third “brother” Joel Lansberg are now based in North Carolina, moved there from Switzerland about eight years ago.
They always had a good connection to Czech audience.
On their last European tour they played several sold out concerts in Switzerland, Germany, Czech Republic and United Kingdom. Jens gave some banjo workshops as well.
For the first time we had seen the band with a drummer.
But he was very discreet and really enriched their music.
The fans came from all over the country and the place was bursting with people.
Some of less happy couldn’t even get in.
A Czech band The New Section opened the show; they performed mostly original songs with Czech lyrics. Audience loved them, but everybody was waiting for the Masters!
And finally the Kruger Brothers showed up.
We were listening almost without breathing, so beautiful the music was.
Toward the end Jens switched to Prucha banjo and played the last encore on it.
Who of you doesn’t know them yet, don’t miss their performance, when they are somewhere around your town. They are really awesome!
The next concert was in my hometown Brno April 7th.
I am sure, also this great band is familiar to the most of you: Robert Krestan & Druha Trava.
I always loved their music. On that special night the band had to say good-bye to their long years bass player and friend Petr Sury. He is just too busy with different other music projects and will be replaced with a new, young one, named Tomas Liska.
Also this concert was sold out.
They had played a lot of their old favorites songs, mostly written by Robert Krestan.
Also some from his last recording “Dylanovky”- the Songs of Bob Dylan, which he translated into Czech. Audience loved also the instrumentals by the banjo player Lubos Malina, who also plays beautifully the Irish pipes.
The other members of the band are Emil Formanek on guitar, Lubos Novotny on Dobro and David Lanstof on drums.
The weekend April 10th-11th I spent in a little town Luka nad Jihlavou, where several time in the year an event called the Bluegrass Minifestival “U Kuritku” takes place in local restaurant.
That night three bands were on program.
Festival opened the Giant Mountain’s Band, from South Bohemia. I saw them for the first time; through they suppose to exist for several years. The band has an American mandolin player and lead singer Lucien Holmes, who moved to Czech Republic in 2006. Before he used to play with the Highwater Bridge and Turtle Mountains Boys from North Dakota.
I like their performance very much.
Also the next young band Jewelci from southern Moravia was new for me. They sang mostly in Czech and it was a pleasure to listen.
The highlight of the night, everybody was waiting for was, when the band Monogram came on stage. They performed couple of songs from their newest CD“Hit the Road”.
As surprise Ralph Schut- (a young Dutch multiinstrumentalist, who moved to Czech Republic eight years ago, for the opportunity to play with young musicians on his own level. He plays with several bands now and speaks already well Czech and Slovak. His own main band is
G-Runs’n Roses, was just named the European Bluegrass Band of the Year 2010 at the EWOB in Holland) showed up on stage with a bottle of champagne and as a godfather christened the new CD.
The official release party supposed to be next Monday in the Gong Theatre in Prague.
I am sure, a great jam session followed, but I had a bad luck, picked up some strange virus and got sick. My friends brought me to their house.
Still ill I went home by train on Sunday and had to stay in bed for several days.
Anyway the next Saturday I was fit and on the road again.
There are very few white spots on my Czech bluegrass map.
The Old Rebel Pub in Sloupnice was one of them.
Saturday April 17th one of five regional qualifying rounds for the Banjo Jamboree band contest took place there.
Bluegrass Cwrkot - a very traditional house band, playing in Lester Flatt & Earls Scruggs style (the guitar player Hombre Lzicar is the pub owner) opened the evening program.
They are quite famous in Europe, last weekend at the EWOB in Holland they were placed second by audience popularity award.
There were five bands competing. The best will be chosen to play the main contest at the Banjo Jamboree Festival, the oldest bluegrass festival in Europe, Saturday June 18th.
The winner band will have then the opportunity to play next year in the main festival program. The bands were mostly new to me.
As first a band Early Times from Brno with a very good female singer Helena Novackova came on stage. Playing mostly traditional materials. If she will practice more on her guitar,
I can see a good future for them. I loved especially their encore, “Anthony” from Nickel Creek. Well done!
The next band was Twisted Timber. They play mostly progressive bluegrass with a lot of original materials. Their English was just perfect, with no accent. No wonder, their lead singer and fiddle player Matthews Whitten came from the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia. I liked also their female mandolin player Zuzka Liskova, who also is a great songwriter. Their instrumental work was very good.
The next band I met already last weekend at the Minifestival in Luka.
The Giant Mountain’s Band came from South Bohemia.
Well dressed, with accent free English and great instrumental work they were about the favorites.
Bruno Unit represented the older generation and their leader Vlada “White” Bily is one of the Czech bluegrass pioneers. The band was found in 2000 in Northern Moravia, close the Polish border. I know some of band members, but heard them for the first time. And I liked it!
The last band was a young local Trautengrass. Although the guitar player broke the string at the beginning, they showed a lot of temperament and audience loved them the most.
The three members of jury (the audience was the 4th one) had a really very hard job, because all the bands were about on the same level and it was pretty high.
The final decision felt on The Giant Mountain Band. But, if it were not in Czech Republic,
I am sure, all the bands could be chosen for any other festival…
The night jam sessions lasted almost till the dawn.
Sunday was held a huge Benefit concert in Lucerna Hall in Prague, near the Wenceslas Square. Organized by the instruments maker Rosta Capek.
He celebrated the 25th anniversary of his trademark Capek Instruments.
We drove from Sloupnice with Peter Brandejs, who plays banjo with Bluegrass Cwrkot, since their original banjo player Milan Leppelt – a Czech banjo legend - passed away last summer.
But he has his own, Peter Brandejs Band and this band opened the mammoth concert in Prague. On the way we picked up another band member, the guitar player Ondra Kozak.
He also has his own band named Kreni, one of the best in the land.
We arrived to Prague just in time for the sound check.
Concert started at six o’clock.
The Lucerna Hall is one of the most beautiful historical concert halls in the country.
The seats were sold out months ago. So many people had to stand.
A proceeds of the event was dedicated to Jan Deyl Conservatory for blind music students, which is just celebrating its 100 years.
Petr Brandejs Band opened the night. They brought as guests another great banjo pickers,
Vojta Zicha and Ondra Ruml (who was placed 2nd as a singer in a TV show X-factor last year)
They performed “Dixie Breakdown” with triple banjos.
That night we could see “who is who” in Czech music business.
Many artists came from different genres, jazz, bluegrass, country, Celtic and even classical music.
All linked by playing the Capek Instruments.
(Among his customers are also many U.S. artists, as Peter Rowan, David Grisman, Andy Statman, Ricky Skaggs and others.)
Also the mandolin wizard Radim Zenkl performed that night with several formations.
The most success belonged to his original music, as instrumentals “Greenpeace” and “Happy Grass”, he played with Jakub Racek, the guitar player from on of the best bluegrass bands Monogram and some other musicians.
Next to mandolin, he loves the Irish pipes and people had even the opportunity to see him playing the cow horn.
After a break, the first lady of bluegrass Pavlina Jisova & Friends came on stage. The band consisted her daughter Adelka, Jakub Racek from Monogramand Pavel Peroutka of the best Czech vocal band Relief on bass. Petr Malasek, the famous piano player joined them.
The next not only bluegrass act were Eliska Ptackova & Friends, with her father Vlada Ptacek on banjo – (maybe some of you are familiar with Ptacek Hand Made Tone rings, Capos, Tuners and so on) and Radek Vankat, a young great Dobro player.
She also sang a duet with Ondra Ruml.
Marek Eben, famous entertainer and TV star called on stage Marko Cermak, who was celebrating his 70th birthday.
Marko Cermak is the father of the Czech 5-string banjo. He received the IBMA Distinguish Achievement Award in 2008. It was him, who started the first Czech bluegrass bands the Greenhorns and White Stars in the late sixties. His first banjo was made after a picture of the one with long neck from Pete Seeger, who visited as the first American artist Czech Republic in 1964.
Marko is not only a musician, he is a man of many talents: painter, illustrator, and writer.
He wrote and published the first Czech school of 5-string banjo - Marko Cermak - Petistrunne Banjo in 1975; Banjo z mlznych lesu (Banjo from the Foggy Forrest) in 1998 and his last book and is called Marko Cermak-Posledni romantik (Marko Cermak – The last Romantic) came out recently.
He received as a birthday present a little travel banjo, Rosta Capek made especially for him.
The high point of the night was, when the Deyl Conservatory received the money check from Rosta rounded up by some sponsors. I am sure; the money gets on the right place!!!!
The show continued with many others artists. On the end, all musicians came on stage.
On the side screens showed up the pictures of beloved Czech singer and banjo player Waldemar Matuska, who passed away in his home in Florida last year. To pay tribute to him, everybody was singing his big hit – “To vsechno vodnes cas…” (Originally “I am in the jail house now…”)
And the five hours long mammoth concert was over.
I will remember this very special event for a long time…
Next Monday April 19th I did some sightseeing. There is so much to see in Prague.
I also went to an exhibition by the Charles Bridge, about the livelong work of Marko Cermak. Called as his last book, Marko Cermak – Posledni Romantik(The Last Romantic).
I could see there all his recordings, awards, books, paintings, comics and illustrations of the famous books for boys by the Boy Scout writer Jaroslav Foglar and others.
In the evening the very last event was waiting for me.
In the sold out Gong Theatre started a Release party for Monogram last CD – “Hit The Road”. The CD exceed thirteen songs, eleven of them are originals written by the band members.
Monogram are: Jakub Racek - guitar, Jarda Jahoda - banjo, Zdenek Jahoda - mandolin and Pavel Lzicar – bass.
They started immediately with the firework of their wonderful music.
I loved, where the boys thanked to the most important women in their lives: their mothers enabling them to learn to play musical instruments and wives, that they did not ban it.
The awaited moment came and the “Godfather” Misa Leicht of the band Cop from Pilsen
Showed up on stage with a bottle of champagne and poured it over the new CD.
So the CD was baptized!
Misa stayed on stage and performed two songs with the band.
Everybody was laughing, when they told us, as they were invited to play a bluegrass festival in Rumania and they put on some costume wigs and shirts and play very fast “Rumanian” Bluegrass. People calmed down by Jakubs beautiful love song “Cure for You” and stand by the instrumental by Jarda Jahoda “Kyril” about the terrible storm which cut down thousands of trees a some years ago. I also loved the “California Dream”…
Many songs and instrumentals from he new CD followed.
You can order the CD on there home page http://www.monogram.cz and I can kindly recommend it to you.
I am sure; some of you can remember their performance at the IBMA Fan Fest 2005.
.
What a great conclusion of my Czech holiday.
The next day I already was on my way back to Switzerland, already looking forward for the next trip, to the European World of Bluegrass in Holland May 13th-15th.
I returned from there three days ago and will write about it later…
Lilly Pavlak in Buelach, 22.5.2010
Czech Bluegrass Spring.
This springtime I spent almost a month in Czech Republic.
I attended several bluegrass events and will report about some of them.
The first in a row were the incredible Kruger Brothers in Prague on March 30th.
The event was presented as usual by the banjo-maker Jarda Prucha in a nice concert hall.
Kruger Brothers, Jens, Uwe and the third “brother” Joel Lansberg are now based in North Carolina, moved there from Switzerland about eight years ago.
They always had a good connection to Czech audience.
On their last European tour they played several sold out concerts in Switzerland, Germany, Czech Republic and United Kingdom. Jens gave some banjo workshops as well.
For the first time we had seen the band with a drummer.
But he was very discreet and really enriched their music.
The fans came from all over the country and the place was bursting with people.
Some of less happy couldn’t even get in.
A Czech band The New Section opened the show; they performed mostly original songs with Czech lyrics. Audience loved them, but everybody was waiting for the Masters!
And finally the Kruger Brothers showed up.
We were listening almost without breathing, so beautiful the music was.
Toward the end Jens switched to Prucha banjo and played the last encore on it.
Who of you doesn’t know them yet, don’t miss their performance, when they are somewhere around your town. They are really awesome!
The next concert was in my hometown Brno April 7th.
I am sure, also this great band is familiar to the most of you: Robert Krestan & Druha Trava.
I always loved their music. On that special night the band had to say good-bye to their long years bass player and friend Petr Sury. He is just too busy with different other music projects and will be replaced with a new, young one, named Tomas Liska.
Also this concert was sold out.
They had played a lot of their old favorites songs, mostly written by Robert Krestan.
Also some from his last recording “Dylanovky”- the Songs of Bob Dylan, which he translated into Czech. Audience loved also the instrumentals by the banjo player Lubos Malina, who also plays beautifully the Irish pipes.
The other members of the band are Emil Formanek on guitar, Lubos Novotny on Dobro and David Lanstof on drums.
The weekend April 10th-11th I spent in a little town Luka nad Jihlavou, where several time in the year an event called the Bluegrass Minifestival “U Kuritku” takes place in local restaurant.
That night three bands were on program.
Festival opened the Giant Mountain’s Band, from South Bohemia. I saw them for the first time; through they suppose to exist for several years. The band has an American mandolin player and lead singer Lucien Holmes, who moved to Czech Republic in 2006. Before he used to play with the Highwater Bridge and Turtle Mountains Boys from North Dakota.
I like their performance very much.
Also the next young band Jewelci from southern Moravia was new for me. They sang mostly in Czech and it was a pleasure to listen.
The highlight of the night, everybody was waiting for was, when the band Monogram came on stage. They performed couple of songs from their newest CD“Hit the Road”.
As surprise Ralph Schut- (a young Dutch multiinstrumentalist, who moved to Czech Republic eight years ago, for the opportunity to play with young musicians on his own level. He plays with several bands now and speaks already well Czech and Slovak. His own main band is
G-Runs’n Roses, was just named the European Bluegrass Band of the Year 2010 at the EWOB in Holland) showed up on stage with a bottle of champagne and as a godfather christened the new CD.
The official release party supposed to be next Monday in the Gong Theatre in Prague.
I am sure, a great jam session followed, but I had a bad luck, picked up some strange virus and got sick. My friends brought me to their house.
Still ill I went home by train on Sunday and had to stay in bed for several days.
Anyway the next Saturday I was fit and on the road again.
There are very few white spots on my Czech bluegrass map.
The Old Rebel Pub in Sloupnice was one of them.
Saturday April 17th one of five regional qualifying rounds for the Banjo Jamboree band contest took place there.
Bluegrass Cwrkot - a very traditional house band, playing in Lester Flatt & Earls Scruggs style (the guitar player Hombre Lzicar is the pub owner) opened the evening program.
They are quite famous in Europe, last weekend at the EWOB in Holland they were placed second by audience popularity award.
There were five bands competing. The best will be chosen to play the main contest at the Banjo Jamboree Festival, the oldest bluegrass festival in Europe, Saturday June 18th.
The winner band will have then the opportunity to play next year in the main festival program. The bands were mostly new to me.
As first a band Early Times from Brno with a very good female singer Helena Novackova came on stage. Playing mostly traditional materials. If she will practice more on her guitar,
I can see a good future for them. I loved especially their encore, “Anthony” from Nickel Creek. Well done!
The next band was Twisted Timber. They play mostly progressive bluegrass with a lot of original materials. Their English was just perfect, with no accent. No wonder, their lead singer and fiddle player Matthews Whitten came from the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia. I liked also their female mandolin player Zuzka Liskova, who also is a great songwriter. Their instrumental work was very good.
The next band I met already last weekend at the Minifestival in Luka.
The Giant Mountain’s Band came from South Bohemia.
Well dressed, with accent free English and great instrumental work they were about the favorites.
Bruno Unit represented the older generation and their leader Vlada “White” Bily is one of the Czech bluegrass pioneers. The band was found in 2000 in Northern Moravia, close the Polish border. I know some of band members, but heard them for the first time. And I liked it!
The last band was a young local Trautengrass. Although the guitar player broke the string at the beginning, they showed a lot of temperament and audience loved them the most.
The three members of jury (the audience was the 4th one) had a really very hard job, because all the bands were about on the same level and it was pretty high.
The final decision felt on The Giant Mountain Band. But, if it were not in Czech Republic,
I am sure, all the bands could be chosen for any other festival…
The night jam sessions lasted almost till the dawn.
Sunday was held a huge Benefit concert in Lucerna Hall in Prague, near the Wenceslas Square. Organized by the instruments maker Rosta Capek.
He celebrated the 25th anniversary of his trademark Capek Instruments.
We drove from Sloupnice with Peter Brandejs, who plays banjo with Bluegrass Cwrkot, since their original banjo player Milan Leppelt – a Czech banjo legend - passed away last summer.
But he has his own, Peter Brandejs Band and this band opened the mammoth concert in Prague. On the way we picked up another band member, the guitar player Ondra Kozak.
He also has his own band named Kreni, one of the best in the land.
We arrived to Prague just in time for the sound check.
Concert started at six o’clock.
The Lucerna Hall is one of the most beautiful historical concert halls in the country.
The seats were sold out months ago. So many people had to stand.
A proceeds of the event was dedicated to Jan Deyl Conservatory for blind music students, which is just celebrating its 100 years.
Petr Brandejs Band opened the night. They brought as guests another great banjo pickers,
Vojta Zicha and Ondra Ruml (who was placed 2nd as a singer in a TV show X-factor last year)
They performed “Dixie Breakdown” with triple banjos.
That night we could see “who is who” in Czech music business.
Many artists came from different genres, jazz, bluegrass, country, Celtic and even classical music.
All linked by playing the Capek Instruments.
(Among his customers are also many U.S. artists, as Peter Rowan, David Grisman, Andy Statman, Ricky Skaggs and others.)
Also the mandolin wizard Radim Zenkl performed that night with several formations.
The most success belonged to his original music, as instrumentals “Greenpeace” and “Happy Grass”, he played with Jakub Racek, the guitar player from on of the best bluegrass bands Monogram and some other musicians.
Next to mandolin, he loves the Irish pipes and people had even the opportunity to see him playing the cow horn.
After a break, the first lady of bluegrass Pavlina Jisova & Friends came on stage. The band consisted her daughter Adelka, Jakub Racek from Monogramand Pavel Peroutka of the best Czech vocal band Relief on bass. Petr Malasek, the famous piano player joined them.
The next not only bluegrass act were Eliska Ptackova & Friends, with her father Vlada Ptacek on banjo – (maybe some of you are familiar with Ptacek Hand Made Tone rings, Capos, Tuners and so on) and Radek Vankat, a young great Dobro player.
She also sang a duet with Ondra Ruml.
Marek Eben, famous entertainer and TV star called on stage Marko Cermak, who was celebrating his 70th birthday.
Marko Cermak is the father of the Czech 5-string banjo. He received the IBMA Distinguish Achievement Award in 2008. It was him, who started the first Czech bluegrass bands the Greenhorns and White Stars in the late sixties. His first banjo was made after a picture of the one with long neck from Pete Seeger, who visited as the first American artist Czech Republic in 1964.
Marko is not only a musician, he is a man of many talents: painter, illustrator, and writer.
He wrote and published the first Czech school of 5-string banjo - Marko Cermak - Petistrunne Banjo in 1975; Banjo z mlznych lesu (Banjo from the Foggy Forrest) in 1998 and his last book and is called Marko Cermak-Posledni romantik (Marko Cermak – The last Romantic) came out recently.
He received as a birthday present a little travel banjo, Rosta Capek made especially for him.
The high point of the night was, when the Deyl Conservatory received the money check from Rosta rounded up by some sponsors. I am sure; the money gets on the right place!!!!
The show continued with many others artists. On the end, all musicians came on stage.
On the side screens showed up the pictures of beloved Czech singer and banjo player Waldemar Matuska, who passed away in his home in Florida last year. To pay tribute to him, everybody was singing his big hit – “To vsechno vodnes cas…” (Originally “I am in the jail house now…”)
And the five hours long mammoth concert was over.
I will remember this very special event for a long time…
Next Monday April 19th I did some sightseeing. There is so much to see in Prague.
I also went to an exhibition by the Charles Bridge, about the livelong work of Marko Cermak. Called as his last book, Marko Cermak – Posledni Romantik(The Last Romantic).
I could see there all his recordings, awards, books, paintings, comics and illustrations of the famous books for boys by the Boy Scout writer Jaroslav Foglar and others.
In the evening the very last event was waiting for me.
In the sold out Gong Theatre started a Release party for Monogram last CD – “Hit The Road”. The CD exceed thirteen songs, eleven of them are originals written by the band members.
Monogram are: Jakub Racek - guitar, Jarda Jahoda - banjo, Zdenek Jahoda - mandolin and Pavel Lzicar – bass.
They started immediately with the firework of their wonderful music.
I loved, where the boys thanked to the most important women in their lives: their mothers enabling them to learn to play musical instruments and wives, that they did not ban it.
The awaited moment came and the “Godfather” Misa Leicht of the band Cop from Pilsen
Showed up on stage with a bottle of champagne and poured it over the new CD.
So the CD was baptized!
Misa stayed on stage and performed two songs with the band.
Everybody was laughing, when they told us, as they were invited to play a bluegrass festival in Rumania and they put on some costume wigs and shirts and play very fast “Rumanian” Bluegrass. People calmed down by Jakubs beautiful love song “Cure for You” and stand by the instrumental by Jarda Jahoda “Kyril” about the terrible storm which cut down thousands of trees a some years ago. I also loved the “California Dream”…
Many songs and instrumentals from he new CD followed.
You can order the CD on there home page http://www.monogram.cz and I can kindly recommend it to you.
I am sure; some of you can remember their performance at the IBMA Fan Fest 2005.
.
What a great conclusion of my Czech holiday.
The next day I already was on my way back to Switzerland, already looking forward for the next trip, to the European World of Bluegrass in Holland May 13th-15th.
I returned from there three days ago and will write about it later…
Lilly Pavlak in Buelach, 22.5.2010
Czech Bluegrass Spring.
This springtime I spent almost a month in Czech Republic.
I attended several bluegrass events and will report about some of them.
The first in a row were the incredible Kruger Brothers in Prague on March 30th.
The event was presented as usual by the banjo-maker Jarda Prucha in a nice concert hall.
Kruger Brothers, Jens, Uwe and the third “brother” Joel Lansberg are now based in North Carolina, moved there from Switzerland about eight years ago.
They always had a good connection to Czech audience.
On their last European tour they played several sold out concerts in Switzerland, Germany, Czech Republic and United Kingdom. Jens gave some banjo workshops as well.
For the first time we had seen the band with a drummer.
But he was very discreet and really enriched their music.
The fans came from all over the country and the place was bursting with people.
Some of less happy couldn’t even get in.
A Czech band The New Section opened the show; they performed mostly original songs with Czech lyrics. Audience loved them, but everybody was waiting for the Masters!
And finally the Kruger Brothers showed up.
We were listening almost without breathing, so beautiful the music was.
Toward the end Jens switched to Prucha banjo and played the last encore on it.
Who of you doesn’t know them yet, don’t miss their performance, when they are somewhere around your town. They are really awesome!
The next concert was in my hometown Brno April 7th.
I am sure, also this great band is familiar to the most of you: Robert Krestan & Druha Trava.
I always loved their music. On that special night the band had to say good-bye to their long years bass player and friend Petr Sury. He is just too busy with different other music projects and will be replaced with a new, young one, named Tomas Liska.
Also this concert was sold out.
They had played a lot of their old favorites songs, mostly written by Robert Krestan.
Also some from his last recording “Dylanovky”- the Songs of Bob Dylan, which he translated into Czech. Audience loved also the instrumentals by the banjo player Lubos Malina, who also plays beautifully the Irish pipes.
The other members of the band are Emil Formanek on guitar, Lubos Novotny on Dobro and David Lanstof on drums.
The weekend April 10th-11th I spent in a little town Luka nad Jihlavou, where several time in the year an event called the Bluegrass Minifestival “U Kuritku” takes place in local restaurant.
That night three bands were on program.
Festival opened the Giant Mountain’s Band, from South Bohemia. I saw them for the first time; through they suppose to exist for several years. The band has an American mandolin player and lead singer Lucien Holmes, who moved to Czech Republic in 2006. Before he used to play with the Highwater Bridge and Turtle Mountains Boys from North Dakota.
I like their performance very much.
Also the next young band Jewelci from southern Moravia was new for me. They sang mostly in Czech and it was a pleasure to listen.
The highlight of the night, everybody was waiting for was, when the band Monogram came on stage. They performed couple of songs from their newest CD“Hit the Road”.
As surprise Ralph Schut- (a young Dutch multiinstrumentalist, who moved to Czech Republic eight years ago, for the opportunity to play with young musicians on his own level. He plays with several bands now and speaks already well Czech and Slovak. His own main band is
G-Runs’n Roses, was just named the European Bluegrass Band of the Year 2010 at the EWOB in Holland) showed up on stage with a bottle of champagne and as a godfather christened the new CD.
The official release party supposed to be next Monday in the Gong Theatre in Prague.
I am sure, a great jam session followed, but I had a bad luck, picked up some strange virus and got sick. My friends brought me to their house.
Still ill I went home by train on Sunday and had to stay in bed for several days.
Anyway the next Saturday I was fit and on the road again.
There are very few white spots on my Czech bluegrass map.
The Old Rebel Pub in Sloupnice was one of them.
Saturday April 17th one of five regional qualifying rounds for the Banjo Jamboree band contest took place there.
Bluegrass Cwrkot - a very traditional house band, playing in Lester Flatt & Earls Scruggs style (the guitar player Hombre Lzicar is the pub owner) opened the evening program.
They are quite famous in Europe, last weekend at the EWOB in Holland they were placed second by audience popularity award.
There were five bands competing. The best will be chosen to play the main contest at the Banjo Jamboree Festival, the oldest bluegrass festival in Europe, Saturday June 18th.
The winner band will have then the opportunity to play next year in the main festival program. The bands were mostly new to me.
As first a band Early Times from Brno with a very good female singer Helena Novackova came on stage. Playing mostly traditional materials. If she will practice more on her guitar,
I can see a good future for them. I loved especially their encore, “Anthony” from Nickel Creek. Well done!
The next band was Twisted Timber. They play mostly progressive bluegrass with a lot of original materials. Their English was just perfect, with no accent. No wonder, their lead singer and fiddle player Matthews Whitten came from the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia. I liked also their female mandolin player Zuzka Liskova, who also is a great songwriter. Their instrumental work was very good.
The next band I met already last weekend at the Minifestival in Luka.
The Giant Mountain’s Band came from South Bohemia.
Well dressed, with accent free English and great instrumental work they were about the favorites.
Bruno Unit represented the older generation and their leader Vlada “White” Bily is one of the Czech bluegrass pioneers. The band was found in 2000 in Northern Moravia, close the Polish border. I know some of band members, but heard them for the first time. And I liked it!
The last band was a young local Trautengrass. Although the guitar player broke the string at the beginning, they showed a lot of temperament and audience loved them the most.
The three members of jury (the audience was the 4th one) had a really very hard job, because all the bands were about on the same level and it was pretty high.
The final decision felt on The Giant Mountain Band. But, if it were not in Czech Republic,
I am sure, all the bands could be chosen for any other festival…
The night jam sessions lasted almost till the dawn.
Sunday was held a huge Benefit concert in Lucerna Hall in Prague, near the Wenceslas Square. Organized by the instruments maker Rosta Capek.
He celebrated the 25th anniversary of his trademark Capek Instruments.
We drove from Sloupnice with Peter Brandejs, who plays banjo with Bluegrass Cwrkot, since their original banjo player Milan Leppelt – a Czech banjo legend - passed away last summer.
But he has his own, Peter Brandejs Band and this band opened the mammoth concert in Prague. On the way we picked up another band member, the guitar player Ondra Kozak.
He also has his own band named Kreni, one of the best in the land.
We arrived to Prague just in time for the sound check.
Concert started at six o’clock.
The Lucerna Hall is one of the most beautiful historical concert halls in the country.
The seats were sold out months ago. So many people had to stand.
A proceeds of the event was dedicated to Jan Deyl Conservatory for blind music students, which is just celebrating its 100 years.
Petr Brandejs Band opened the night. They brought as guests another great banjo pickers,
Vojta Zicha and Ondra Ruml (who was placed 2nd as a singer in a TV show X-factor last year)
They performed “Dixie Breakdown” with triple banjos.
That night we could see “who is who” in Czech music business.
Many artists came from different genres, jazz, bluegrass, country, Celtic and even classical music.
All linked by playing the Capek Instruments.
(Among his customers are also many U.S. artists, as Peter Rowan, David Grisman, Andy Statman, Ricky Skaggs and others.)
Also the mandolin wizard Radim Zenkl performed that night with several formations.
The most success belonged to his original music, as instrumentals “Greenpeace” and “Happy Grass”, he played with Jakub Racek, the guitar player from on of the best bluegrass bands Monogram and some other musicians.
Next to mandolin, he loves the Irish pipes and people had even the opportunity to see him playing the cow horn.
After a break, the first lady of bluegrass Pavlina Jisova & Friends came on stage. The band consisted her daughter Adelka, Jakub Racek from Monogramand Pavel Peroutka of the best Czech vocal band Relief on bass. Petr Malasek, the famous piano player joined them.
The next not only bluegrass act were Eliska Ptackova & Friends, with her father Vlada Ptacek on banjo – (maybe some of you are familiar with Ptacek Hand Made Tone rings, Capos, Tuners and so on) and Radek Vankat, a young great Dobro player.
She also sang a duet with Ondra Ruml.
Marek Eben, famous entertainer and TV star called on stage Marko Cermak, who was celebrating his 70th birthday.
Marko Cermak is the father of the Czech 5-string banjo. He received the IBMA Distinguish Achievement Award in 2008. It was him, who started the first Czech bluegrass bands the Greenhorns and White Stars in the late sixties. His first banjo was made after a picture of the one with long neck from Pete Seeger, who visited as the first American artist Czech Republic in 1964.
Marko is not only a musician, he is a man of many talents: painter, illustrator, and writer.
He wrote and published the first Czech school of 5-string banjo - Marko Cermak - Petistrunne Banjo in 1975; Banjo z mlznych lesu (Banjo from the Foggy Forrest) in 1998 and his last book and is called Marko Cermak-Posledni romantik (Marko Cermak – The last Romantic) came out recently.
He received as a birthday present a little travel banjo, Rosta Capek made especially for him.
The high point of the night was, when the Deyl Conservatory received the money check from Rosta rounded up by some sponsors. I am sure; the money gets on the right place!!!!
The show continued with many others artists. On the end, all musicians came on stage.
On the side screens showed up the pictures of beloved Czech singer and banjo player Waldemar Matuska, who passed away in his home in Florida last year. To pay tribute to him, everybody was singing his big hit – “To vsechno vodnes cas…” (Originally “I am in the jail house now…”)
And the five hours long mammoth concert was over.
I will remember this very special event for a long time…
Next Monday April 19th I did some sightseeing. There is so much to see in Prague.
I also went to an exhibition by the Charles Bridge, about the livelong work of Marko Cermak. Called as his last book, Marko Cermak – Posledni Romantik(The Last Romantic).
I could see there all his recordings, awards, books, paintings, comics and illustrations of the famous books for boys by the Boy Scout writer Jaroslav Foglar and others.
In the evening the very last event was waiting for me.
In the sold out Gong Theatre started a Release party for Monogram last CD – “Hit The Road”. The CD exceed thirteen songs, eleven of them are originals written by the band members.
Monogram are: Jakub Racek - guitar, Jarda Jahoda - banjo, Zdenek Jahoda - mandolin and Pavel Lzicar – bass.
They started immediately with the firework of their wonderful music.
I loved, where the boys thanked to the most important women in their lives: their mothers enabling them to learn to play musical instruments and wives, that they did not ban it.
The awaited moment came and the “Godfather” Misa Leicht of the band Cop from Pilsen
Showed up on stage with a bottle of champagne and poured it over the new CD.
So the CD was baptized!
Misa stayed on stage and performed two songs with the band.
Everybody was laughing, when they told us, as they were invited to play a bluegrass festival in Rumania and they put on some costume wigs and shirts and play very fast “Rumanian” Bluegrass. People calmed down by Jakubs beautiful love song “Cure for You” and stand by the instrumental by Jarda Jahoda “Kyril” about the terrible storm which cut down thousands of trees a some years ago. I also loved the “California Dream”…
Many songs and instrumentals from he new CD followed.
You can order the CD on there home page http://www.monogram.cz and I can kindly recommend it to you.
I am sure; some of you can remember their performance at the IBMA Fan Fest 2005.
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What a great conclusion of my Czech holiday.
The next day I already was on my way back to Switzerland, already looking forward for the next trip, to the European World of Bluegrass in Holland May 13th-15th.
I returned from there three days ago and will write about it later…
Lilly Pavlak in Buelach, 22.5.2010
