More Marie Rottrova and Flamingo in 1974

Going way back to close to the beginning of the series I thought for completeness sake we should hear this one too.  Unfortunately not as much to hang on to overall.  For example,  A3 Dlouhá Ulice by Drahoslav Volejníček:





I was surprised to hear that track B5 stole a small instrumental from Chicago, apparently without credit.





Specifically, it's the virtually unknown track called AM Mourning from Chicago 2 that was lifted.  Not that anyone would ever have noticed.  Nonetheless, some nice compositions, surprisingly, one from Polish genius Czeslaw Niemen, which proved disappointing and not progressive at all, and one from Jan Spaleny who you may recall I covered in conjunction with prog outfit Mahagon (I think the links for those were taken down there, sorry).

More Marie Rottrová with Já A Ty from 1983

Later on in the 80s as we are here we find her deep voice is a little hoarser, from all that smoking (possibly), drinking (probably), drugs (definitely), and (maybe) the swallowed seed of so many rich and powerful music executives.  How times have changed.

The first track as sample:

Marie Rottrová in 1981, Muž Č.1

Curlier hair, and disappearing eyebrow lines, as we get into the 80s.

On this page, which features full credits for this record, you can see we have a mixture of apparently fresh Czechy slav stuff and rock covers, including an old favourite of mine from my soulful days, Aretha's composition Call Me.  There is a great deal of variety with soul, ballads, a hilarious disco opus called Playboy-- all of which serves to emphasize there is something, or rather many somethings, for everyone to enjoy in here.  Listen to the gorgeously powerful and intense musical yelling, track b4, composed by Jiri Urbanek, a bassist who clearly was closely associated with this singer:





Would love to know what that song is all about.
A good album, slightly diminished from the 1977 ones from earlier, but still worthy.

Marie Rottrová with Pěšky Po Dálnici in 1977

Very, very beautiful woman.
This album, coming in the same year as the preceding installment, sounds of course very similar, with its mix of all-American soul, pop-rock, chanson-style (e.g. Piaf) singing, and perhaps occasional slight fusion material.  The closer, with its heavenly 70s chord changes, just makes me want to cry:





Nothing like that is ever made anymore.

Marie Rottrová 75 with Plameňáci/Flamingo

Another very beautiful woman, as you can see from The Great Google, however, not much info on discogs:

Czech vocalist, songwriter, TV presenter. 
Born November 11, 1941 in Ostrava (former Czechoslovakia). In the late 1960s nicknamed “Lady Soul” in Czechoslovakia. Mother of Martin Kučaj (1963) and Vít Rotter (1965). Her first husband was Vlastimil Kučaj.

Presumably well known in her home country, her music is fully unknown on the outside, to our great loss, and hers.  At least until now.

This particular record, one of many she put out in the period, reminded me a little of my old favourite and great discovery, Uschi Bruning with the great Gunther Fischer Band, though it's not as incomparable.  One track that is comparable though is this one called Čas Motýlů:





Wild, huh?  But not all songs are as good.

We have here a mix of soul, pop-rock, and fusion-like tracks, mostly sung, some instrumentals from the backing band, with its double name.  Regarding the latter,

Czech soul/funk/pop group. Formed in 1966 in Ostrava, led by Richard Kovalčík until his death in 1975. During this first period the group’s lineup was essentially identical to the nucleus of the Ostravský Rozhlasový Orchestr, and many recordings performed by the latter could have been actually credited to Flamingo. 1975–1977 led by bass player Jiří Urbánek. Disbanded in 1989 after keyboardist and 3rd leader Vladimír Figar’s death. Between 1973–1987, due to communist censorship issues, they were mostly credited as “Plameňáci” (Czech for “flamingos”), while serving mainly as backing band for vocalists Marie Rottrová and Petr Němec.


I've included the much more primitive 1971 album infected with cover tunes from more famous soul singers which they made together.  More to come from Marie later.