Jana Koubková, Jazz Q Martina Kratochvíla - Mini Jazz Klub 38 (CZE 1984 Single)

 

This single contains some really nice tracks on it with the inimitable Jazz Q. I've added a compilation of her material for those interested, limited time only though.

Zly Sen:

Horký Dech Jany Koubkové - Mini Jazz Klub 23 ‎(CZE 1979 EP) and 1982 LP (Hot Breath of JK)

 

My apologies if this was posted already here, it wouldn't surprise me at all if I was starting to repeat myself. On the other hand if it wasn't posted here before I would be a little surprised.

The first track from the EP, which isn't included in the later LP, features her crazy and slightly annoying jazz vocal 'stylings':

Back to the dreaded Mini Jazz Club series with No. 30: Alternativa, 1981

This particular EP, no. 30 in the consecutive series to which we've devoted so much love and attention, is really the brainchild of someone called Pavel Kralicek, who doesn't seem to appear in many places otherwise.  I would love to know I'm wrong about that.  Also appearing is the Czech Radio Ostrava Orchestra, aka Flamingo who was backup for my Maria Rottrova through the seventies.  Small world.

So what about the music?
Well, it's amazing, and it's tragic that this is all we have, from these fusion masters.  Would be wonderful if it turned out there's a full length album from Alternativa missing from the database.  The only possible misstep, surprisingly, is the inclusion of a M. Urbaniak track called Komar, which panders to a more commercial easy sound.  Apparently the ever-irritating Urszula Dudziak is performing the vocals on there too, with those bizarre chirping noises that never fail to make my kids laugh if by misfortune they overhear it on the car stereo.

The first track, apologies for getting tricked into buying a vinyl that wasn't at all near mint as advertised:





Here the sound is most similar to the recent Martin Kratochvil and the great Jazz Q, with the fantastic interplay between acoustic and synthesizer keyboards building up to that beautiful electric fusionary energy.  Just as good, in fact.

A great addition to the collection, altogether, and I'm sure everyone will agree with that.

Back to the Baroque Jazz Quintet in a 1985 LP

Recall in 1981 the Barok Jazz Kwintet made the 33 Mini Jazz Klub (though on this LP the word jazz is quite supplementary).  This one is a modern chamber orchestra record such as I dearly love and others, I'm sure, dearly hate.  In case you need a point of comparison, it's similar to the Peabody College album, but the first one I posted.  The last track begins with an inauspicious panting percussion syncope mess that sounds like an ancient jazz fan (as they always are now) who lost his walker and fell to the floor and is now desperately trying to activate the clapper with his arthritic fingers to call his middle-aged grandkids to help him get up again, that then luckily transforms into an interesting modern classical 'take' on swing similar to Stravinsky's Ragtime but more organically competent, especially when the piano solo at the end is included for that comparison:





Enjoy it (hopefully)...

Gabriel Jonas in Mini Jazz Klub 10

I posted his piano conclave 2 weeks ago, here's his 1977 MJK entry.  Unlike the previous this is all-out high interest Rhodes electric piano fusion along the lines of the second Coronarias Dans album, thus highly recommended.  Consider the 1st track:





With the second side presenting to us more of a Keith Jarrett vibe.  Sadly there is no more to seek out in this series, so far as I know, though others may disagree.  With what we already have we can certainly thank Panton for such a wealth of treasures.


Discogs:

Slovak pianist, bass guitarist, composer. Born November 23, 1948 in Kukučínovo (Želiezovice district, former Czechoslovakia, presently Slovakia).

Jazz Celula in Mini Jazz Klub 21

You might recall I posted the 76 and 78 albums of this very Jazz-Q-like fusion group already.  Also in a somewhat futile attempt at being complete, I bought and ripped a later one, viz. from the dangerous year 1982, here and then concluded that the 1985 5th album was hardly worth hearing.  Note the info in the database:

Czechoslovak jazz combo. Formed 1968 in Prague, led by Laco Deczi. In the 1970s essentially identical to the Czechoslovak Radio Jazz Orchestra rhythm section and soloists. After a line-up change in the mid-1980s, featuring Deczi’s son Vaico Deczi on drums, and after Deczi’s immigration to New York, the group evolved to Cellula New York which is still actively performing as of 2012.

Big surprise to me then that they also made this 1979 EP with more material along the same lines.  I should've looked more carefully or rather, not assumed that the EP would be stuff already released on the LPs.  How generous the makers of this Mini Jazz Klub series were to never recycle a track from anything already put out!  In any case the compositions here proved to be disappointing (btw note the curious absence of Laco Deczi here), teaching me again to not attempt to complete the discography of Jazz Cel(l)ula:





Maybe next year I'll complete it.
Incidentally, I'll add in the Czech fusionary collection Third Eye which features a number of tracks that I've already uploaded for your entertainment (Jazz Fragment, Klavier Conclave, SHQ), plus the great Jiri Stivin...

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.

Mini Jazz Klub 29 with Jazz Fragment (1980)

This band made an LP called Anaconda in 1987-- anyone know if it's good?
Much earlier they made this phenomenal EP of all-out high intensity crossfit maximum heartrate fusion:





Isn't that delightful?

Mini Jazz Klub 28, 1980 (Quintetto di Giorgio Gaslini)

Italian composer Giorgio Gaslini has a huge output as you can see, and moreover he is blessed with a wikipedia page.  I'd be curious to know if there is something worth hearing somewhere in that stuff.  On the other hand his quintet didn't make too much, this Mini Jazz Klub its first production being a bit stuck in the trad. jazz territory versus fusion I found a slight bit disappointing.  The last track, Praga Song: