The Hammond theme

Braňo Hronec Orchestra – Téma pre Hammond [sample]
from 7 inch SP “Žltá rieka (Yellow River)”, 1971, Opus 90430015


original SP in an Opus label sleeve

The subtitle of this blog indicates that I’m supposed to introduce you to funky Slovak music too, and it’s right about time to do so. Let’s start with an early obscure b-side from organist and composer Branislav “Braňo” Hronec.

Hronec was born 1940 in Hronsek and studied on the state conservatory in Bratislava. After playing in various jazz bands since the late 1950s, in the mid 1960s he established his own jazz sextet, pioneering the use of the (then rare and expensive) Hammond organ in Czechoslovakia. To get more gigs, since the late 1960s the group used to enhance its playlist with cover versions of most recent international hits. They began to tour frequently both Eastern and Western Europe where they often played in night clubs. In Slovakia they released a couple of singles with own compositions as well as popular songs like Aquarius/Let The Sunshine In.

One of those 45s on Slovakia’s new record label Opus was a cover version of Christie’s smash pop hit Yellow River with Slovak lyrics. Hm, so what? Well, the actual subject of interest for us funk-heads is of course Hronec’s instrumental flip side “filler” Téma pre Hammond (The Hammond Theme). Based on a funked up basic blues scheme, with its pretty complex rhythmical patterns this one of the most authentic original raw funk tracks that have ever emerged from Eastern Europe; authentic in terms of sounding quite close to its afro-american roots. The Hammond, the horns, the thick bass, the wah-wah fuzz guitar – all expected ingredients are there. Shake yer booty.

The seven-inch doesn’t list the orchestra line-up, but I assume that it’s the same group which has also recorded the debut album Braňo Hronec uvádza (Braňo Hronec Presents) one year later: Hronec on organ, the ex-Beatmen Marián Bednár on bass, Gábor Koval on guitar, Ferdinand Szabó on drums, Igor Parma on trumpet and Pavol Paprčka on saxophones. Additionally, the female vocalists on Žltá rieka (Yellow River) were probably Eva Kostolányiová and Eva Máziková. Internationally the orchestra was also known as the Braňo Hronec Sound or simply Branjo Sound.

Braňo Hronec recorded three long-players in the 1970s before fading into obscurity as a conductor of the Slovak Television Dance Orchestra and a hotel-keeper: the aforementioned soulful Presents which includes a live Slovak version of Tony Ashton’s Resurrection Shuffle (Urob ten krok) (although they were most likely covering the more famous Tom Jones’ rendition), then there’s the 1974 Srdečný pozdrav (Best Greetings) with a pair of killer funk tracks and the ironical yet solid disco album Natrhaj mi dážď (Pick Some Rain For Me) as well as its export English version named I Wanna Dance Bump, both from 1977. And you guessed it, Braňo Hronec will return to Funky Czech-In soon…

As you might have expected, the Hronec records are rather hard to find and the “Best Of” CD mentioned on Hronec’s homepage seems to be actually nonexistent. Try the usual sources: eBay, Gemm or Google. Good luck.

P.S. I just arrived in Prague this morning and I’ll stay for one week. Going to dig for some more funky czech-ins, among other things to do… :) Three good news: My grandmother (83) is doing very well, my old school friend Ondra who is going to celebrate his 40th birthday on thursday is doing very well, too, and finally, the Prague 5 district has enhanced its public WiFi access points which means free internet at my granny’s house…

Drifting with Energit

Energit - Drift [sample]
from "Piknik", 1978, Panton 110695
produced by Hynek Žalčík, arranged by Milan Svoboda


original LP sleeve

Luboš Andršt is actually a bluesman. Born in 1948, after playing guitar in several less known blues combos he joined Michal Prokop and his Framus Five in 1970, being featured on their legendary album Město Er (see this earlier post for details). After their break up he joined Martin Kratochvíl's Jazz Q with whom he recorded Pozorovatelna (The Watchtower) in 1973.

Energit was originally conceived as a hard rock follow-up to Vladimír Mišík's Flamengo with Vladimír Padrůněk on bass, however the communist authorities hardly allowed them to perform in public. The consequences were Mišík's and Padrůněk's departure in order to form Etc... and the emigration of organist Ivan Khunt and drummer Jaroslav Erno Šedivý. Andršt rebuilt the group from ground up while he kept the name as his trademark. By participating in the jazz-rock "craze" he attempted to bypass the existential problems known to most professional Czechoslovak rock musicians of the 1970s. With instrumental music there was not much censorship to fear, and eventually he received at least the public attention he deserved as one of the country's top guitar players. The successful self-titled debut album from 1975 (Supraphon 1131787) is without doubt an international classic of its genre, namely the funky 7/4 suite Ráno (The Morning) which takes up the whole side one. Prominent members of this Energit edition were the young jazzman Emil Viklický on piano and the drummers Anatoli Kohout, Karel Jenčík and Josef Vejvoda (son of the Beer Barrel Polka composer).

Drift is the opener from Energit's second album Piknik (The Picnic). The debut veterans Rudolf Ticháček (1943-1982) on sax and Jan Vytrhlík on bass were joined by another keyboard maestro and arranger Milan Svoboda of the Prague Big Band fame and the drummer Jaromír Helešic (also P.B.B., Jazz Q or Impuls) along with a juicy horn section by Michal Gera, Zdeněk Zahálka and Bohuslav Volf, as well as Jiří Tomek on congas. But after the promising wah-wah guitar intro and the happy "Hancock-ish" theme the tune indeed sort of slips into drifting: it just doesn't really take off and the "B-part" doesn't make much sense either. Andršt's subsequent solo is alright, but the timbre of his lead guitar is definitely not everyone's taste anymore. Well, the funky enlightenment finally arrives with Ticháček's fresh soprano sax solo exactly in the middle of the six-and-a-half-minute tune, followed by Svoboda's Arp synthesizer.

Piknik offers another six Andršt-penned tracks in which he switches between his dull lead sound, phased sirupy rhythm and occasional acoustic guitars. My other pick would be certainly Říční písek (River Sand), a beautiful fusion tune carried by floating acoustic guitar patterns with a spanish flavor. And drum break junkies can fire up their samplers for the title track which closes the side two. Anyway, despite its flaws in terms of composition and production - note the thin bass guitar and drums sound - this album still belongs to the funkier Czech jazz-rock records, quite similar to Elegie (Elegy) by Jazz Q (coming soon on Funky Czech-In). So take it or leave it, this is probably as funky as Andršt can get.

Energit appeared on the 1976 Panton compilation Jazzrocková dílna 2 (Jazz-Rock Workshop 2) with the heavy 12:30 minutes track in 5/4, Superstimulátor, resembling the funkier output of Return To Forever or Stanley Clarke. There's also a rare 7" from Panton's Mini Jazz Klub series, no. 6, which I haven't heard yet but which is supposed to be very tasty, yum. In 1977 Andršt recorded yet another instrumental album with Jazz Q, the obscure Zvěsti (Heralds). In the 1980s he eventually returned to playing the blues (sort of), either as a band leader or in collaboration with singers like Peter Lipa, Michal Prokop and even as the leader of Marta Kubišová's comeback group in 1990-1992. You may want to check out his complete discography. Today he still performs with his Blues Band in Prague jazz clubs featuring the US singer Reesie Davis. And finally, it seems that an Energit revival is on the way, too, at least in its original rock incarnation.

There are no Energit CDs, but you can buy vinyl on eBay or gemm.com, among others. If you google hard enough, you will surely find much cheaper copies from Czech sellers; try to combine search keywords like "energit", "supraphon", "panton" and the like.

The best woman of our days

Vladimír Mišík & Etc... - Nejlepší ženská našich dnů [sample]
from album "Etc... 2", 1980, Supraphon 11132558
produced by Hynek Žalčík & Jan Spálený


original LP sleeve

If anybody deserves the title Living Legend of Czech Rock, Vladimír Mišík has to be the one, which is an undisputed fact, I guess. He's been right there out in front from the very beginning: Matadors, George & Beatovens, Blue Effect and of course Flamengo. Flamengo disbanded shortly after their epochal album Kuře v hodinkách (The Chicken In The Wrist-Watch) has been recorded in 1972; this period will be covered in a future Funky Czech-In post. While many of his former fellow rockers either emigrated to the West or decided to splash about in shallow socialistic pop muzak in order to make some living, Mišík stayed true to his passion all the way through, even in times when "rock" certainly was a bad word in the land behind Brezhnev's Iron Curtain. After a short intermezzo with Luboš Andršt's Energit, around 1975 he formed a rock group with the symptomatic name Etc. Although the line-up changed accordingly often, the group sound remained surprisingly compact as Mišík's first solo album from 1976 proves. That was not only due to his characteristic singing in a bluesy manner, but also thanks to his long-time band mate, the virtuoso violinist, composer and arranger Jan Hrubý. Other musicians involved over the years are the who-is-who in Czech rock anyway: Pavel Fořt, Vladimír Padrůněk, Anatoli Kohout, Jiří Jelínek, František Francl, later also Petr Skoumal, Stanislav Kubeš or the ex-Flamengo bassist Vladimír Kulhánek. The album Etc...2 has been recorded in 1979 with Petr Pokorný on guitar, Jiří Veselý on bass, the drummer Jiří Šustera and Jan Kolář on keyboards and oboe, besides of the aforementioned Hrubý.

Nejlepší ženská našich dnů (The Best Woman Of Our Days) opens the album with a simple and bright slavic folk rock theme. (This is not unusual for Mišík at all; in times when the communist authorities used to push hard on the group, cancelling their regular gigs, Mišík & co. often performed "unplugged" in small clubs with a mixture of blues and folk songs.) But after this short intro Mišík introduces us to the "best woman of our days". And obviously, that lady wants to party! Well, it's 1979 and the Etc... crew delivers her the latest get-down soundtrack, laying down about two minutes of a tight funk rock groove that might please even a hard core P-Funk aficionado. In the second part of the song each musician presents his individual skills to the lady in a breathtaking series of short mini-solos - and I do mean solos - before all guys join forces again for the final section, taking the tune back where it originally started. Not surprisingly, the song was co-written by the virtuoso bass player Veselý. The ironical lyrics came from writer and translator Michal Staša.

The other eight songs of the album oscillate between the typical Mišík singer/songwriter folk like his biggest hit Variace na renesanční téma (A Variation On A Renaissance Theme), the sarcastic cajun blues Sladké je žít (It's Sweet To Be Alive) and the dismal high-speed jazzrock Na okraji (On The Edge) which was written by their former guitarist Jiří Jelínek, also a member of the legendary Mahagon who died tragically in 1977, aged mere 23.

Okay, I may be surely biased because I'm listening to this album since the early eighties, but Etc...2 doesn't have a single weak point. I admit though that it may help if you understand the Czech language to fully appreciate it. But even then, this record is so full of high class musicianship that it can be compared to the mighty Kuře v hodinkách, which again is actually a Mišík album, too... So, when I initially said "Living Legend", I surely mean it, and not just because nowadays Vladimír Mišík knows only one opponent that can sometimes keep him from entering a stage and singing his ass off: his long-standing asthma. Obviously his illness has been quite bad recently, so unfortunatelly Mišík had to cancel most of his summer gigs this year.

The rest of the Mišík story will be told another time while I'll introduce you to Flamengo. In the meantime, "turn up the lights, the best woman of our days comes inside, the day turns into night, the night turns into day, should I trust my eyes or my dreams?" And now, buy it already (try eBay or Gemm for vinyl), will ya?! This record is timeless.

Blues in soul

The Framus Five - Hold On I'm Comin' [sample]
from album "Blues In Soul", 1971, Supraphon 1130578
produced by Michael Prostějovský & Jaromír Tůma


1971 export reissue LP sleeve, on the left: Michal Prokop

Of the troika of my favorite Czech male rock singers, Michal Prokop is certainly my Mr. Soul (while the other two, Mr. Rock Jiří Schelinger and Mr. Blues Vladimír Mišík, will be featured on this blog very soon). Prokop, born 1946, co-founded the Framus Five in the early sixties. Initially they were devoted to the Mersey sound like the majority of other Czech beat groups but soon they added a horn section and switched to Memphis-oriented rhythm'n'blues. They performed at the famous 1st Czechoslovak Beat Festival 1967 in Prague where Prokop was (rightfully) declared the best singer of the event. They spent the following two years with successful touring all over the country and through Poland.

Hold On I'm Comin', a Hayes/Porter composition originally recorded by Sam & Dave for Stax, is the closing song from Framus Five's first album "Blues In Soul", recorded in the fall of 1968. Although you can hear applause at the beginning and at the end, this is only a pseudo-live "audience" which has been overdubbed to "glue" the album tracks together. Oh well, that gimmick used to be fashionable all around the world at that time. Nevertheless, the song steams like a locomotive engine on the loose, and, even in direct comparison to the certainly soulful S&D original, it is right about to explode. Hold on, baby, Michal Prokop sho 'nuff IS comin'!

Blues In Soul delivers exactly what its title promises. Originally released in 1969 as Framus Five + Michal Prokop, it contains ten R&B and soul covers like Got My Mojo Working, I Believe To My Soul, What'd I Say or Chuck Berry's funked up Around And Around - as well as Prokop's instrumental title track. This is your ultimate Czech R&B long play album because it is in fact, besides Flamingo's first LP (a.k.a. This Is Our Soul), the only one. Unfortunately, in 1971 when this stereo export reissue was finally released, the Framus Five were already history. Besides Prokop who also used to play the lead guitar, the original members were Ivan Trnka on keyboards, Ladislav Eliáš on bass, Petr Klárfeld on drums, Ivan Umáčený on trumpet and saxophonist Jiří Burda who also wrote the arrangements.

Later known as Michal Prokop & Framus 5, the group gave up the horn section and - most likely involuntarily - the English lyrics and for most parts also the "pure" soul. After recording another single as a quartet, in 1970 they were joined by the blues guitarist Luboš Andršt. Soon they began to work with the young producer Hynek Žalčík and poet Josef Kainar on their next album Město Er (A Town Called R). However, the band already broke up in the middle of the production, mostly due to elementary problems like "how do I manage to feed my family while being a musician"; remember, the "normalization" of the real-socialistic society has just begun and rock music was among the first sectors to be "normalized". But despite a few "fillers" on the b-side, Město Er, released in late 1971, remains one of the undisputed masterpieces in Czechoslovak rock history, thanks to the monumental 19 minutes title track where a prog-rock group meets blues poetry and a jazz big band.

Prokop spent most of the 1970s as a background singer with various Czech mainstream pop artists and in the ensemble of the renown Semafor theatre. At least, his superfunky Czech version of Edwin Starr's War (Nač nám je válka) was captured in 1975 on an obscure "socialistic" anti-war compilation Slunci vstříc (Facing The Sun), making it probably the only Norman Whitfield song that has ever been recorded by a Czech artist. (Hm, I guess that's definitely worth a separate Funky Czech-In post...) In 1978 he revived the Framus 5 trademark and recorded a rather puzzling disco-rock-soul LP Holubí dante (Pigeon's Dante) in 1980. But his best work was yet to come: the "free trilogy" albums Kolej Yesterday (College Yesterday, 1984), Nic ve zlým nic v dobrým (Nothing For Bad Nothing For Good, 1987) and Snad nám naše děti prominou (Perhaps Our Children Will Forgive Us, 1989) all belong to the best Czech rock records of the decade. (You can trust me because generally I consider myself an "eighties hater".)

In the 1990s Prokop has been performing only sporadically. He actively helped to build up the new democracy and worked a couple of years as a parliamentarian and even became a deputy minister of culture. Later he has been given the opportunity to host talk shows on Czech TV. The one named Krásný ztráty (Beautiful Losses) after a song from his 1984 album Kolej Yesterday - where Prokop intelligently interviews personalities from culture, sports and politics - is still up and running; even my 82 years old grandmother is quite a fan. (Coincidentally, one of the guests in the last friday issue is our "guest" from the previous Funky Czech-In post: ex-Marsyas singer Oskar Petr!) Prokop also released a new studio record earlier this year, his first after 17 years.

Blues In Soul and Město Er have been reissued on CDs including all 7-inch-only bonus tracks, so buy them, there's lots of music for a few bucks. The 1980s albums reissues should be available as well. You can also check out the vinyl on gemm.com or eBay: unlike Město Er (which I have finally found in Prague on vinyl only one year ago), Blues In Soul is not as rare as one might think.

In the Heat Bay

Marsyas - Záliv Žár [sample]
from 7 inch SP, 1979, Panton 81430006
arranged by Michael Kocáb


original SP sleeve (front/back, l. to r.: Petr, Michnová, Kalandra)

Marsyas started in the early 1970s as a folk duo of singer Zuzana Michnová with Petr Kalandra on guitar, harp and vocals. Soon they teamed up with the talented singer/songwriter, guitarist, photographer and painter Oskar Petr. After recording a "conservative" folk single and touring with Jazz Q and Pražský výběr, by 1977 they were ready for their debut long player. For the self-titled album they decided to present their folk repertoire in adequate new clothes, so the producer Hynek Žalčík brought them Pavel Fořt's studio group Labyrint. The line-up reads like a who-is-who in Czech jazz and rock music: besides guitar player Fořt (Karel Gott orchestra, ex-Flamengo) there was the original Pražský výběr rhythm section Kocáb/Soukup/Malina, another ex-Flamengo Jan Kubík on sax and flute, jazz keyboarder Emil Viklický and the ubiquitous percussionist Jiří Tomek, among others. The result was a timeless blend of folk rock with progressive and funky jazz rock. In the late 1970s the Marsyas members also appeared on other jazz and rock records as guests musicians, e.g. with Pražský výběr (album Žízeň/Thirst), Jiří Schelinger, Vladimír Mišík, Helena Vondráčková or Jazz Q.

Oskar Petr's Záliv Žár (Heat Bay) has been released in 1979 as a 7" single after he had already left Marsyas. With its rich string orchestration arranged by classically educated Michael Kocáb the song sounds quite depressing, sort of reflecting the unpleasant era of an escapist society in the midst of the normalization. The main theme is carried by Kocáb's funky clavinet vamp, augmented by sleazy synthesizers while Oskar sings about birds of passage flying over deserts and oases. Only occasionally the dark mood is broken by a short optimistic but wordless bridge with Zuzana's angel-like voice. The dramatical section in the middle of the song isn't much fun either: "In the Heat Bay the sun is merging with the water, I'm scared that it will fall over, almost as it would be drinking for the very last time" - followed by Kalandra's bluesy harp solo.
The exact line-up of the backing group is unknown to me, but according to Oskar Petr (as he recently replied to my question on his web site), the group and orchestra were overdubbed to the vocal/guitar basic tracks. Quite impressive. Thus most likely we're hearing Pražský výběr in its pre-new-wave line-up with Ondřej Soukup on bass and either Ladislav Malina or Vratislav Placheta on drums. 

After a short period of performing as the Jazz Q's lead singer, in 1979 Oskar Petr exiled to the USA. As it was a common rule in such a case then, most records mentioning him as a performer or songwriter disappeared from the store shelves and from radio airplay. Zuzana Michnová kept Marsyas alive for almost another decade as a groovy folk rock combo, in some songs partly anticipating Galliano's or Urban Species' acid-jazz/folk-rock fusion by more than ten years. Kalandra left the group in 1984 and passed away in 1995, after being seriously ill for a couple of years. Meanwhile, another edition of Marsyas came to life in 2004-2005, albeit without Petr.

So, here you have one of my most favorite Czech songs of all times. It took me about 20 years to locate a dusty copy of this particular vinyl single which I only used to know from a tape I once got from my uncle. While in the meantime all 1990s CD reissues have been deleted from the catalogues again, this masterpiece is still available on a recent best-of-CD Marsyas 1978-2004. A second reissue of the debut album - with Záliv Žár as one of the bonus tracks - is also planned and the CD is available for pre-order. So go and get it now! You can listen to audio samples of all Marsyas songs on their web site. Vinyl is available on gemm.com, musicstack.com or occasionally on eBay. Besides of that, I also have two Marsyas vinyl records for sale (items no. 20 and 23 in my list) from the late 1980s. But well, that's already that typical 80s drum machine pop rock...