Mini Jazz Klub 16: Jazz Half Sextet from 1978

Now here's a real gem that just completely took my by surprise.  The band, who made nothing else in this incarnation, is clearly led by one Viktor Kotrubenko.  I have to wonder if that entry is incomplete given the strength of the 4 compositions with which he is credited here.

The astonishing library lightness and ingenious composition of track b2, Balada O Rosničce, Aneb Když Jsem Šel Zalévat Zahrádku:






And apologies for the skip. Jane Koubkova handling the graceful vocals there.
The remainder is just as good as that sample above, trust me, with the exception of the last throwaway, a dumb standard by Th. Monk, the dumbest he wrote actually (Straight No Chaser).  Because he did write some great songs.  Amazing how the dumbest standards are always the most popular ones, in jazz.  Which, I guess, explains why this blog will never be popular.

Some leftover Mini Jazz Klubs: another Jazz Q (#25), and Bohemia (#19)

I guess the lesson here is that Martin Kratochvil had the Midas touch, with everything he released just golden. When I searched through all the MJKs to see what was remaining in the fusion dept that might be worth hearing I came across this hidden number 25.  We had to extract the files from youtube, where some wonderful fan uploaded them, to make them available for consumption for you, but boy was it worth the effort.  (Recall they made the fantastic 5 one too, with the starry constellation composition.)  Side one features an outstanding fusion composition with all the hallmarks of Martin's style, the unison electric guitar and synthesizer playing the melody, the classical-inspired patterns, the drama of buildups and intensity increases to an ostinato on electric piano, the brilliantly imaginative chords that bridge the intro to the main body (at the 43 sec mark), I could go on forever:





Like, wow....

Turning our attention to Bohemia, their (only) MJK also featured two wonderful instrumental fusion tracks, which luckily were included, along with some singles, on the CD release of the well-known Zrnko album that I'm sure everyone out there already has heard.

In terms of well-known groups in MJK still outstanding as well is the Jazz Celula installment... you'll be hearing that one soon too.  I posted some of their albums here and here way back in November 2016.

Mini Jazz Klub 13 (77) and Emil Viklický in Folk-Inspired Jazz Piano (79), Window (80) and Door (85)

Emil was in both SHQ and Energit and for that reason his solo material only begins with the folk-inspired jazz piano work (included below).  I was shocked to see that his Mini Jazz Klub, the unlucky 13th, was never ripped, given the strength of the popular "Window" (Okno) album.  (It will be obvious when you hear it the reason why.)  Note that the great team Frisell / Driscoll / Johnson as backup (on both Window and Door) appeared with Michel Herr in the amazing Good Buddies record that I've raved about so much.

With regards to the 1977 EP we have side a with a presumably nonce group called Trio 74 playing a Chick Corea composition I've never heard of before, for good reason, and side b with Emil on piano solo, the first track (Zelený Satén) is familiar as an unplugged of the fusion version from the Energit MJK release, the second track is his homage to Chick Corea:





Which indeed recalls Chick's 'songs for children' pieces.

When all is said and done, Emil's greatest work was clearly with Energit, with Okno coming in as pale second or third place finisher.

From the sleeve notes: Track A recorded live at ČAJF (Czechoslovak Amateur Jazz Festival) Přerov 1974. Side B recorded at the Czechoslovak Radio Brno, May 1976.

Mini Jazz Klub 36: Michal Pavlíček, Jiří Hrubeš, 1983-- strongly recommended

Great choice of photos there guys, like two schoolboys apprehended in the girl's toilet?

Despite the guilty looks, this tiny little release hides 12 minutes worth of some generously magnificent progressive music complete with odd vocals and a dark riff persisting in its worldwide tritonal domination until it passes following a fade out to a most bizarre guitar composition that I admit outsmarts Heldon and Richard Pinhas by a mile on side A's composition called Tváří V Tvář:





Note that Michal is the composer here, and the producer is our well known multi-talented Michael Kocab (Elefteriadu, Olmerova, JOCR).  The other credited artist is Jiri Hrubes, whose discography you can see is less plentiful.

Prog fans might recognize Pavlicek from the famous Black Light album he made also with Kocab in 1990, which resembles this earlier release not a little, or from the prog rock band called Stromboli which is like a harder, 2-LP version of the track above.

Side b will surprise you even more, being pure electric guitar-based fusion along the lines of German Dzyan or Alcatraz on its magnificent 4 album.


So looks like this Panton Mini Jazz Klub series is turning out to have hidden a wealth of great treasures, isn't it?  Times like this I feel like it's so important to return this wonderful lost music to the attention of the world out there, little as that orb seems to care for it...

Mini Jazz Klub 33, Barok Jazz Kvintet

From 1981, this release presents a dichotomy between the baroque jazz composition (and it's exactly that) by Claude Bolling on side A and a much more modern, therefore interesting, composition on the flip side:





Which was written by the bass player, one Frantisek Uhlir.
The quintet seems to have produced only one other platter, an LP of probably modern music in 1984.