The best disco in town

Bezinky & Pražské smyčce – Žiješ v éře diskoték (The Best Disco In Town)
from compilation “Disco klub”, 1978, Panton 110717
conducted by Jiří Hrábek


original compilation cover

What was valid thirty years ago still seems to be valid today – we’re living in a disco era. And this week I have the pleasure to present you literally the best disco in town:

Saturday, June 7, 23:00 h
Kuppel Basel
Czech Oldies Party with DJ Lou Kash

The opportunity for this event should be pretty obvious. So… if you (unlike me) are interested in this, the chances are that you might find yourself in Basel this Saturday. And since you already are reading this blog, it’s very likely that you will then appreciate our little party, too.
See you in the Kuppel!

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Interlude: Popmuseum

Although it might seem that Funky Czech-In has fallen into a sort of cozy winter sleep, the opposite is true and there’s quite a lot of activities going on behind the scenes. For example: since two weeks I am an official member of the “Museum and Archive of Popular Music Association”, a.k.a. popmuseum.cz. One of the benefits for me will be, among others, the access to their archive in Prague with an almost complete collection of Czech music magazines from the 1960s–1990s as well as a large photo archive. And what more can make a bigbít researcher like me even happier than that…? Yes, you guessed it: buying records! Last week I’ve managed to transport about 30 kg of pure Czechoslovak vinyl home to Basel by airplane, and there’s still another fresh 15 kg stored in our family flat in Prague.
Of course, there’s some really tasty funky stuff in the pipeline, yum!
Stay tuned!


A part of the exposition at Popmuseum Prague (photo © 2007 loukash.com)

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I keep on singing

Eva Olmerová & the Prague Big Band – Zpívám dál [sample]
from 7" single “Georgia”, 1980, Panton 81430053
conducted by Milan Svoboda, produced by Josef Novotný


original SP sleeve

It wouldn’t be appropriate to simply call Eva Olmerová a jazz singer, although the majority of her recorded material falls more or less into that category. But she also loved to sing blues, gospel, pop and even country & western music. Born in 1934, in her teen years she began to sing with dixieland groups in Prague’s coffee houses. Her professional career started relatively late in 1962, when she’s been discovered by composer Karel Mareš, the dramaturge of the Semafor theatre, who was looking for an Eva Pilarová replacement. At that time Olmerová recorded her first hit Jsi jako dlouhý most (You’re Like A Long Bridge) which eventually won the popular song contest “In search of a song for the weekday”.

However, Olmerová’s career probably had more downs than ups. The communist regime always kept an eye on her family, particularly because her grandfather used to be an assistant of the last democratic president Edvard Beneš. In the 1960s and 1970s she’d been regularly prohibited from performing. She also spent more than two years in jail: in 1958 for smacking an insolent police officer and in 1972 for a car accident while driving drunk. And the latter incident reveals that her other enemy was her own lifestyle; alcohol and medicament abuse often turned her unreliable both on stage and in studio…

Olmerová’s undisputed highlight was the debut album Jazz-Feeling, recorded in 1968 for Supraphon’s export subsidiary Artia, which made her quite popular abroad. (I will revisit it more thoroughly in a future Funky Czech-In entry next year.) In 1969 she’s been even asked by Ella Fitzgerald to join her world tour after both ladies jammed together on a river boat party in Prague! Yet the communist regime didn’t allow Olmerová to travel, not even inside the Eastern Bloc. Nevertheless, in 1974 Supraphon/Artia released another English-sung export album with traditional dixieland tunes, recorded between 1969 and 1972 in numerous sessions. But afterwards she slipped into obscurity for the rest of the decade.

She’s been “rediscovered” in the late 1970s by a young generation of jazz-rock musicians. Her new mentors were the keyboarders and bandleaders Milan Svoboda and – particularly in the early 1980s – Michael Kocáb, who both obviously appreciated Olmerová’s dirty voice as well as her untamed attitude. In 1979 she recorded two singles with Svoboda’s Pražský big band (Prague Big Band). Her later collaborations with Kocáb’s studio orchestra or with JOČR were documented on further 45s as well as on two nice pop-jazzy comeback LPs: Zahraj i pro mne (Play It For Me, Too), which in fact was her debut album (!) for the Czech market in 1981, and Vítr rváč (The Wind The Thug) two years later.

I’ve chosen Zpívám dál (I Keep On Singing) not only for its funky atmosphere, but especially because of its programmatic Czech title. While Olmerová likely didn’t deliver her best vocal performance ever from the technical point of view, in her voice you can truly feel the pain as well as the heavy weight of life that she had to carry on her shoulders. The tune is an arrangement of Clive Westlake’s ballad Only Once with Czech lyrics by Ronald Kraus: I keep on singing / Even through the veil of tears / My song is my medicine / My song is a soft muffler / I keep on singing / For all who wander aimlessly through the dark / For the love that I know / For those who are alone / I keep on singing for myself. As for the backing band, an article about the Prague Big Band is in the works and I will post it later this fall, so stay tuned.

Czech music critics have often compared Eva Olmerová to afro-american singers like Bessie Smith or Billie Holiday – not only for the blues in her voice but also for the blues in her life. One of the critics even wrote that she was the only Czech world-class female singer in the pop/jazz genre. But in any case, at her zenith she was never given a chance to introduce herself to the world in the first place.

She passed away in 1993 of liver cirrhosis. Jitka Zelenková sang at her funeral. And now, go and get her records. You’ll find Zpívám dál on the CD compilation Blues samotářky (Blues Of A Loner).

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I don’t want to have

Jitka Zelenková & The Gondolán Brothers Group – Já nechci mít [sample]
from 7 inch single “Čekej a neplakej”, 1969, Supraphon 0430818


original SP in a generic Supraphon sleeve

Jitka Zelenková was born in Brno in 1950. Her father was a symphony orchestra conductor, her mother sang with the Philharmonic Choir Prague. After winning several amateur singer contests, in 1968 she got an engagement at the renown Rokoko theatre in Prague where she performed with Waldemar Matuška or with Hana & Petr Ulrych. In 1973 she began to work as a background singer for Karel Gott. However, besides of recording a few singles as a solo artist and despite winning further awards at various Czechoslovak pop festivals, her solo career didn’t really took off before the end of the decade when Supraphon released her first solo album.

Multi-instrumentalist, singer and composer Antonín Gondolán was born in 1942 in Slovakia but his family moved to Bohemia two years later. At the age of merely 15 he got his first professional job with the Gustav Brom Orchestra. In the 1960s he studied double bass at the Prague Conservatory. In the mid 1960s he became a member of Prague’s Apollo theatre orchestra, Karel Gott’s backing band lead by the Štaidl brothers, with whom he also toured the USA in 1967. Back in Prague he founded a family combo with his brothers František, Jiří and Vojtěch, later joined by their teenage sister Věra on vocals (the Gondolán family were 12 siblings in total). In the late 1960s the group enjoyed big success at home and abroad, performing with major Czech pop stars like Gott, Waldemar Matuška or Helena Vondráčková. They played a unique blend of pop, beat and jazz with strong Romani folk influences. Besides of recording a couple of single sides on their own, they also used to back other singers on records. However, the family group disbanded in the early 1970s after most members with the exception of Antonín emigrated. He worked again as a freelance musician with Gott’s backing group (alias Ladislav Štaidl Orchestra), among others, until 1982 when he eventually exiled to West Germany as well. From then on he concentrated on playing jazz in general and double bass – his main instrument – in particular. In 1992 he returned back to the Czech republic. In 2004 he finally had the opportunity to release his long overdue first solo album with his folk-pop-jazz compositions.

If you are a regular reader, you might remember that I have a personal connection to the Gondolán family. One of Antonín’s sons, Roman, who unfortunately passed away last year, used to be a friend of ours in the mid 1980s while I lived with my family in Bern, Switzerland, and he also used to play drums in my band then. Additionally – and the reason why Roman came to Bern in the first place – his uncle Jiří (George), the original drummer of the Gondolán group, lived and still lives in Bern, too.

As a side note: Last week I’ve been in Prague (again!), so I’ve contacted Antonín Gondolán in order to do some research for this article. We met in the Reduta jazz club. He was supposed to have a gig with his combo that night, but his regular piano player has already left the country for studies in the United States. Thus Mr. Gondolán was forced to improvise in order to fulfill the contract. He decided to perform an ad-hoc repertoire of jazz standards as well as a medley of gipsy folk songs solely with his sister Věra Gondolánová, accompanying her on piano and on guitar. Well, to be honest, he’s not exactly a virtuoso on these instruments, yet Věra is such an outstanding and professional singer that she managed to turn this initially slightly chaotic jam session duet into a truly remarkable and unique event...


Antonín Gondolán with his sister Věra on the Reduta stage, August 11, 2007 (photo © 2007 Lukáš Machata)

Já nechci mít (I Don’t Want To Have) was penned by Antonín Gondolán with lyrics by Pavel Vrba. According to Mr. Gondolán, it was recorded spontaneously during a session with Jitka Zelenková. It’s hard to place the tune inside a particular genre drawer – I’d call it perhaps “gipsy soul”. Whatever, in my opinion this is one of the most soulful original songs that has ever been written and recorded in former Czechoslovakia. The track appeared as the flip side of Gondolán’s biggest hit ever, Čekej a neplakej (Wait And Don’t Cry), which is more of a pop-beat tune sung by Antonín himself. The original single sold about 150,000 copies. Já nechci mít has never been reissued yet, but it’s planned that it should appear on a new Gondolán CD scheduled for release next year.

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Piece of my heart

Eva Pilarová & TOČR - Padni na kolena (Piece Of My Heart) [sample]
from 7 inch single "Vlny", 1970, Supraphon 0431049
conducted by Josef Vobruba, produced by Miloš Skalka


original SP sleeve (a generic "Pilarová" sleeve with additional imprint on the back)

As I have promised, here's more soul from Eva Pilarová. Her star sank slightly in the second half of the 1960s, after a new breed of female singers popped up on the Czech scene: the miss pop Helena Vondráčková, the C&W queen Naďa Urbánková, the chanson-girlie Hana Zagorová or the beat ladies Marta Kubišová and Marie Rottrová. Pilarová's educated alto voice on the other hand - while technically perfect - usually sounded a bit "academic", possibly too academic for young listeners interested in contemporary pop music. She's always been more comfortable in pop-jazz, swing or even in classical music rather than being an expressive soul or rock shouter. Nevertheless, bravely following the vogue she recorded a couple of soulful and funky tunes around 1970 as well.

Piece Of My Heart is one of the most recognizable female soul songs of the late sixties. Originally written in 1967 by Bert Berns and Jerry Ragovoy for Aretha's older sister Erma Franklin (1939-2002), it has been widely popularized by Dusty Springfield in 1968 and of course ultimately immortalized by Joplin's Big Brother & The Holding Company the very same year. I must say, however, that personally I prefer the softer versions over Janis' overrated hysterical scream orgy. And thanks to a TV ad from a jeans manufacturer, even Franklin's nearly forgotten yet still unmatched original came back to consciousness of a wider audience more than a decade ago.

Pilarová's rendition Padni na kolena (Get Down On Your Knees) with Czech lyrics by Zdeněk Borovec exactly follows Dusty Springfield's model and therefore also stays quite close to the original version. While the Dance Orchestra of the Czechoslovak Radio (TOČR) and an unnamed choir did a steady job as usual, the tune suffers from a horrible mix, mastering and pressing: the guys at Supraphon obviously must have had a really bad day then. (Note that I have done quite a lot of "clean-up", normalization and re-compression while digitalizing the track. The 7" side in its original "glory" sounds much worse!)

As far as I know, this song has never been reissued yet. And what's more surprising, the single doesn't even show up in Pilarová's official discography document. So grab it while it's hot or good luck hunting.

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Viking's dreams

Jana Koubková & Horký dech - Vikingovy sny [sample]

from 7 inch EP "Mini jazz klub 23", 1979, Panton 81350005; also on export compilation "Jazz à la carte", 1981, Panton 81151981


original EP sleeve (front/inside)

If I stated before that Vlasta Průchová was the 1st lady of Czechoslovak jazz, then Jana Koubková (1944) must be the female president, for in the meantime she's a jazz "institution". She began to sing with Kulínský's Children Radio Chorus when she was six. From the early 1960s until the mid 1970s she was a member of possibly all important pop/jazz vocal groups that appeared on the scene: she co-founded the Linha Singers in 1963, she spent a few years with the Lubomír Pánek Singers & Swingers (alias Sbor Lubomíra Pánka) and she sang with the Inkognito Kvartet (a.k.a. Incognito Quartet). She quitted the latter shortly before their Mongolian tour with the Karel Duba Combo in August 1968, where the majority of both ensembles died in a car accident. Later she also briefly performed with Kučerovci, C&K Vocal, Jezinky and she worked in the Semafor Theatre.

Koubková came to "real" jazz quite late though, when she began to sing with Luděk Hulan's Jazz Sanatorium in 1975. Then she was a member of the Jazz Half Sextet and she also co-founded the female vocal trio/quartet Hot Tety (Hot Aunts). With both bands she recorded several 7" singles for Supraphon and Panton. After Hulan's tragical death in 1978 a group with the pun name Horký dech Jany Koubkové (Hot Breath Of Jana Koubková) came to existence. It was a relatively loose combo where Koubková's role wasn't that of a conventional lead singer, instead she used her voice as a further solo instrument. The nucleus of the group was made up of Ladislav Malina (dr), Ivo Durczak (b), Zdeněk Kalhous (p), Zdeněk Hrášek (g) and - surprise, surprise - Jiří Tomek on congas. (Really: if you hear any congas on a Czech record from the seventies, the chances might be around 90 % that it's been Tomek playing!) The rhythm section was augmented by a variable horn section, e.g. Rudolf Ticháček (ts), Zdeněk Šedivý (tp) and Zdeněk Bártík (tb) on these recordings.

Vikingovy sny (Viking's Dreams) was written by the future movie score composer Ilja Cmíral who also collaborated with Koubková on another track from the EP. It's a relatively complex fusion tune with a brazilian flavour in a vein similar to early Mahagon with Zdena Adamová, not necessarily danceable yet still very funky. Koubková excels as an expressive soloist, towards the end Ticháček joins in on tenor sax.

In 1982 Supraphon released Koubková's first solo album, a self titled LP under the Horký dech moniker. She reduced the line-up to a trio, however. She was backed only by guitarist Michal Pavlíček and drummer Jiří Hrubeš, who both joined Michael Kocáb's Pražský výběr shortly thereafter. Aside from a brief intermezzo with Jazz Q, from the 1980s on Koubková worked independently on numerous projects: from duos like with the Japanese pianist Aki Takase over Alan Vitouš Trio up to big band recordings with Kamil Hála's JOČR and others. And sort of stepping in Luděk Hulan's footprints (who also often worked behind the scenes), in 1981 she iniciated and organized the first edition of the Vokalíza jazz/blues/rock festival which ran annually until 2000. These days Koubková still can be heard performing on Prague's jazz stages regularly; a quick web search revealed that she plays at Jazzklub U staré paní (alias USP Jazz Lounge) tonight, for example...

As far as I know, Viking's Dreams has been reissued on a Japanese "best of" compilation. Besides of that, I still have the double LP Bratislava Jazz Days 1981 for sale in my web shop, which contains the live version of Fankuj fankuj vykrúcaj (Funky Funky Hop) by the late Horký dech trio.

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Bossa Nova

Jana Petrů & TOČR - Bossa Nova [sample]
recorded in 1964, from compilation "Starci a klarinety", 2002, BMG-Ariola 743214111826


CD compilation booklet

Starci na chmelu (Oldmen Picking Hop, known as Hop Side Story or The Hop Pickers) from 1964 was the first Czechoslovak musical film. The pun title "Hop Side Story" isn't a bad analogy: like its famous U.S. mold, it tells a story of teenagers in love, outsiders and the troubles that may arise in such situations. But I've actually never seen the movie, so I can't tell if it would stand a direct comparison with West Side Story. Probably not, the socialistic realism didn't allow as much drama as in Manhattan's Upper West Side.

The movie soundtrack, however, is an undisputed Czech classic. Composed by Jiří Bažant, Jiří Malásek and Vlastimil Hála with lyrics by Vratislav Blažek, it features several original hits sung by popular stars of the early sixties like Karel Gott, Josef Zíma and Karel Štědrý.

I don't have much informations about Jana Petrů. She began to record in 1962. Besides of singing easy listening pop and foxtrot tunes she also used to perform with brass ensembles. Her most popular song was Den je krásný (It's A Beautiful Day), a duet with Karel Gott and the signature melody from the Starci na chmelu movie. Petrů remained active as a singer until the mid 1970s. By the way, do not confuse Jana Petrů with the pop/rock singer Petra Janů (1952), whose birth name actually also was Jana Petrů. As you might have guessed by now, later she changed it in order not to get confused with the older singer...

Bossa Nova is, well, a nice bossa nova, sort of. Acoustic guitar, maracas, cheesy organ, cool voices, actually it's got all what's needed. The lyrics are quite absurd though: Let's pray, let's pray, bossa nova, bossa nova / Let's repeat those two words, bossa nova, bossa nova / With this little prayer you'll be coming a long way / It will help you to reach what ever you wanted / Although Charles IV was a cruel feudalist / He initiated viniculture and not hop. Uh, without seeing the movie, the connection between hop and bossa nova is somewhat beyond my horizon...

The compilation Starci a klarinety (Oldmen And Clarinetes) is a double feature: on the same CD it also contains the even more popular soundtrack from yet another musical Kdyby 1000 klarinetů (If 1000 Clarinets) from the same year.

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Life is just a coincidence

Martha & Tena & Vulkán - Život je jen náhoda [sample]
from SP "Martha-Tena", 1969, Panton 040250; also on 7"/33 rpm mini-LP compilation "První pantoniáda", 1970, Panton 080201 and on CD "Ať se múzy poperou", 2005, Supraphon
produced by Aleš Sigmund


original SP sleeve, 7" mini-LP compilation sleeve

This entry would almost qualify for the Half Czech-In section as well. The singing sisters Martha and Tena Elefteriadu (1946/1948) were born in former Yugoslavia and their parents were actually Greek political refugees. Nevertheless, since the early 1950s they grew up and went to school around Brno, so besides of their mother tongue they are absolutely fluent in Czech, too. In 1966 they began to work with guitarist and composer Aleš Sigmund (1944) and his Vulkán. The first version of Vulkán was actually Petr Ulrych's group, the talented Elefteriadu sisters were added as background singers for the second edition. In the beginning they were still sharing the vocal parts with the Ulrych siblings. However, Hana and Petr Ulrych launched their own successful career by the end of 1967 when they joined Atlantis (not the 1970s German group, of course) which already consisted of some earlier Vulkán members.

Like many Czech beat groups between 1967 and 1969, also Vulkán were then partly inspired by soul music. Still with the Ulrychs they recorded two 45s for Supraphon and another two for the very short-lived Discant label from Brno. In 1969 Martha & Tena got a deal with Panton. Besides of Sigmund-penned songs they recorded some of their favorite soul hits like Dancing In The Street, Rescue Me or River Deep Mountain High. The exact line-up of these Panton sessions is not confirmed. But after the group's original rhythm section emigrated to Austria and Switzerland in 1968, their successors were keyboarder Bedřich Crha, bass guitarist Cyril Kajnar and drummer Karel Antonín. In the studio they were augmented by a horn section most likely made of members of the Brno-based Gustav Brom orchestra as those were also regular guests on subsequent Martha & Tena or Ulrych's pop albums.

Their third Panton single features a cover version of another kind: Život je jen náhoda (Life Is Just A Coincidence) is one of the most popular original Czech evergreens ever. Written by composer and - even in global context - jazz pioneer Jaroslav Ježek (1906-1942) with intelligent lyrics by the comedian duo Voskovec & Werich, the original version of the song first appeared in V&W's and Jindřich Honzl's classic comedy movie Peníze nebo život (Your Money Or Your Life) from 1932. "Life is just a coincidence / one time you're up, another time you're down / life flows like the water / and the death is like the ocean." Sigmund added for Martha & Tena a contemporary pop-soul arrangement while the ladies' alto voices elegantly preserved the original tune's satirical feel. Singing a song like this in the political climate of the year after the Soviet invasion might have likely been meant as a statement.

Martha & Tena had a successful pop career in the seventies. Vulkán eventually transformed into the Aleš Sigmund Group which absorbed the members of another Brno rock legend, the Progress Organisation (alias Barnodaj alias the future Progres 2) including yet another Greek, Emanuel Sideridis on bass. Sigmund himself also often played bouzouki. The new Martha & Tena sound oscillated between folk-rock, mainstream pop and Greek-Moravian "world music". Unfortunately, soul got lost somewhere in that transition, let alone rock; the seventies were bad for any untamed musical expression. Although you can still find a few quite attractive covers from the Beatles, Bee Gees, Mamas & Papas or CCR on their first three vinyl albums. At least, Život je jen náhoda has made it onto their recent "Best Of" CD compilation.

Sigmund began to work for Panton as a producer and editor in the 1970s, later he also recorded a couple of easy listening retro-guitar instrumental albums. In that context it's almost hard to believe that he was supposedly one of the iniciators as well as the main force behind the Panton Mini Jazz Klub series of 7" EPs which began in 1976 and lasted for 10 years with about 50 releases. Martha Elefteriadu on the other hand - who mostly sung the lead voice of the duo, by the way - collaborated with jazz musicians actively in the late 1970s, namely with Jazz Q and with Michael Kocáb. The results were quite funky. That means: more Elefteriadu on Funky Czech-In is about to come.

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Taiga blues

Marta Kubišová & The Golden Kids Orchestra - Tajga-Blues '69 [sample]
from 7 inch single, 1969, Supraphon 0430646 (mono); also on CD "Tajga blues (Singly 5)", 2000, Bonton 4988602 (stereo version)
produced by Bohuslav Ondráček, conducted by Josef Vobruba


original SP sleeve (actually a generic "Kubišová" sleeve with additional track imprint on the back)

I admit it right away: I've been watching the semi-finale of the Eurovision Song Contest yesterday. Actually my wife did, that is. But I've seen it too. It's been the first time that Czechs participated on this silly contest, and since we're living in Switzerland, we've voted like crazy for the Czech representative, the hard rock group Kabát. Not that their song would mean anything special to us, but I've met those guys a couple of times personally as they are good friends of some good friends of mine from the city of Teplice. Thus I can say that they are really nice guys and actually also great musicians - something that you can't say of many of the other contest participants. Anyway, if you don't know the semi-finale results yet, you'll surely find out soon if it's really of any importance to you. Just as a side note: judging from the results, the Czech Republic obviously doesn't belong to the Eastern Europe anymore (which it never did in geographic sense anyway). And that's actually good news... ;)

Well then, what's left for us - let's have the Taiga blues today. Do I need to say more about Marta Kubišová than I already did in my very first music post last year? Tajga blues '69, written by producer Bohuslav Ondráček (1932-1998) with lyrics from the Golden Kids bass player Zdeněk Rytíř, is yet again a bitter reflection of the Soviet invasion in Czechoslovakia in late summer of 1968. And it is yet another proof what talent has been put to ice for long twenty years while Marta was prohibited from performing and recording by the communist regime.

The Tajga blues (Singly 5) double CD is an excellent compilation of the last 1969/1970 single sides by Marta Kubišová before she'd been banned. It also includes some unreleased material as well as a bunch of beautiful Moravian folk songs recorded clandestinely in 1978 with singer/songwriter Jaroslav Hutka in Prague. Ten out of five stars!

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Can't buy me love

Eva Pilarová & Karel Vlach Orchestra - Can't Buy Me Love [sample]
from album "Zpívá Eva Pilarová", 1966, Supraphon DV10206; reissued for export as "The Fascinating Czech Star" between 1966 and 1974 on Supraphon SUA15719, 55719 or 1130667


original 1966 LP sleeve, 1966 export sleeve, 1972 reissue export sleeve

Now, let's move back into time even further and also away from any funk or soul for a moment, although we're staying quite close to jazz. The Czech female superstar of the first half of the sixties was Eva Pilarová. She grew up in Brno but like many other pop singers of that decade, her career kicked off in Jiří Suchý's original Semafor Theatre in Prague. Yet ironically, it was in fact also her talent that massively helped to establish the relatively experimental Semafor stage in 1960 in the first place.

Pilarová has never been fixated on a particular genre or style: jazz, swing, pop, twist, rock'n'roll, blues, ballads, R&B, beat - anything goes. She had already won various awards and recorded numerous single and EP sides [link to an external MS Word document] before her first 12" LP has been released in 1966. On that album entitled simply Zpívá Eva Pilarová (Eva Pilarová Sings) the Supraphon editors decided to show off her jazzy side, however, and that was definitely an excellent choice. After all, her public nickname was "Fitz-Pilarka" which she received as a reference to her famous US idol. Recorded in the era of relative political freedom between 1964 and 1966, the album presented two popular Lennon/McCartney songs and ten American standards. Summertime, Night And Day and Moonlight In Vermont were recorded with the Dance Orchestra of the Czechoslovak Radio alias TOČR/JOČR. Anything Goes, Smoke Gets In Your Eyes, Misty and others have been done with the Karel Vlach Orchestra. Vlach is also backing both Beatles covers, Can't Buy Me Love and I Should Have Known Better. The latter however disguises a weakness of many "old school" jazz drummers (here probably the legendary Vladimír Žižka) when it comes to playing a straight and simple binary rock beat: sometimes it fails to groove as such...

Can't Buy Me Love on the other hand captures both the singer and the band in an excellent state. It takes the Beatles' rhythm'n'blues tune one step further to swinging big band jazz, like if Lennon & McCartney never had anything else in mind. A classic. According to the list mentioned above, it has been originally released with Czech lyrics as Já čekám dál (I Keep On Waiting) on the Supraphon single 013663 - which seems to be a pretty rare item as far as I can say.

The album also used to be very popular abroad and it has been reissued for export a couple of times (see images), so it's not hard to find it on vinyl at all. As a matter of fact, I'm selling a copy of the Czech edition for 1 Euro only in my WebShop. There's a snag though: the first track (Moonlight In Vermont) ist damaged albeit still playable - but the rest of the record plays fine, i.e. "Very Good". Actually this very MP3 has been ripped from it last year, though I may have likely filtered some pops and crackles here and there. (In the meantime I have finally found a slightly better copy in Prague.) And if you search my shop for "pilarova" you will also find lots of her singles for sale; sometimes it happens that I buy a single without realizing that I already own it, other times I'm not sure and then I think "better to have two of them than none" and sometimes I find an album with the same tracks that I already have on singles. Hence, at least when it comes to Czech records, usually the reason for selling them is that I actually have those tracks already. Searching my WebShop for "czech" should list all Czech items, by the way.

More from Eva Pilarová is coming later this year, also some of her really funky stuff. Stay tuned!

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This boy

Crystal - Tenhle kluk (Just One Look) [sample]
from SP Supraphon 013464, 1966


a Supraphon mid 1960s generic SP sleeve*

Well... 'nuff of the seventies prog-rock for a while. What we're gonna do right here is go back. Way back. Back into time. When one of the most popular Czech vocal girl groups were... the Krystalky!

Krystal or Crystal began to sparkle on the Prague music scene in 1962 as a young rock'n'roll combo founded by guitarist Jaroslav Nevrkla. One year later the group already gigged with a stable line-up that would last for the next few years of their existence: Nevrkla, the singer Jaroslav Jarosil (could it be the same guy who recently played cello with Ian Gillan?!), the lead guitarist Jiří Řádek, Lubor Drahota on bass and Vladimír Brodský on drums. And of course there were also the "Crystalettes" or Krystalky: Jiřina Menšlová, Irena Kubátová and Eva Fatková.**

Crystal recorded over a dozen of songs for radio and TV in the mid sixties. Tenhle kluk (This Boy), a cover version of Doris Troy's soul hit Just One Look with original Czech lyrics by Jiřina Menšlová, became their first single side in late 1966 and their biggest success. Nevrkla stated in 1967 that Crystal actually never were much into R&B or soul. Quite obviously they were covering the popular Hollies' version of the song. Still, thanks to the ladies the song preserves some of the original soul spirit for us "despite" its mersey-beat rework, including a slight and most likely unintended touch of ska on the rhythm guitar.

Tenhle kluk was one of the earlier pure beat sides on a Supraphon single played by an independent beat group; by "independent" I mean bands aside from the "usual suspects" and rock'n'roll veterans like Olympic, Mefisto or the Miroslav Kefurt and Karel Duba combos who all used to back many pop singers for Supraphon. In 1966 the "bigbít" explosion on records was yet to come. Apropos, just for the record (pun intended), on the flip side there's a ballad from the pop'n'swing softie Milan Chladil with the TOČR, but it's not worth to spend any more bytes on it or whatever.

Crystal (without the girls) recorded yet another single and an EP with popular beat and R&B cover versions in 1967 before they gave up. Menšlová on the other hand founded the female vocal duo Eminent who recorded a couple of Supraphon 45s in 1969 and 1970.

Notes:
* Coincidentally it's containing the today's track, but as far as I remember it wasn't the original sleeve when I bought the single a couple of years ago. But it could have easily been: Supraphon wasn't very picky about packaging, they just used to take what they had in stock. That applied even to numerous LP reissues until the early 1990s. (I plan to write an interlude later this year in order to shed more light onto the Supraphon record sleeves inferno.)

** The 7" label lists the names as Menšlová, Kubáková and Fatková whereas J. K. Sýkora's paperback book Czechoslovak Beat Music 67 (Panton 1968) spells them as Menčlová, Kubátová and Fadková. Since the almost 40 years old article supposedly was a transcript of a telephone interview with Nevrkla, Sýkora might have had misspelled some of the names. On the other hand, the Supraphon "empire" didn't care about correct name spelling in way too many other cases either, so who knows...? The unofficial Czech rock discographers M. Balák and J. Kytnar (Československý rock na gramofonových deskách, Indies 1998) are even pointing out that the text on the very first pressing had been spelled even more absurdely (thus turning it possibly into an interesting collector item).

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Without her

Helena Vondráčková & TOČR - Jsem bůh i ďábel (Without Her) [sample]
from album "Ostrov Heleny", 1970, Supraphon 1130839
produced by Bohuslav Ondráček & Vladimír Popelka
Václav Týfa & Konstelace Josefa Vobruby - Bez ní (Without Her) [sample]
from album "Václav Týfa", 1975, Supraphon 1131599
produced by Oskar Jelínek, arranged by Vladimír Popelka


original LP sleeves (Vondráčková/Týfa)

Here is a "double feature" with a "triple connection": both tracks were conducted by the TOČR leader Josef Vobruba (1932-1982), co-produced by arranger Vladimír Popelka and both are cover versions of the same song, Without Her by Harry Nilsson. Nilsson's original from 1967 is a very minimalistic version with its cello accompaniment, other mostly softly arranged renditions have been recorded for example by Blood Sweat & Tears, George Benson or Glen Campbell. Besides of his songwriting, Nilsson also became quite "famous" as John Lennon's drinking buddy in the mid seventies.

Regular readers will surely remember my Vondráčková entry from last December when we dived deep into her jazz-rock phase. Jsem bůh i ďábel (I'm The God As Well As The Devil) is not nearly as funky as that. It's pure easy listening pop with a very light touch of bossa nova. The "funkiness" lies more in tiny details as well as in the atmosphere. I like in particular the brilliant dynamic arrangement which precisely illustrates the excellent original Czech lyrics by old maestro Zdeněk Borovec. The story is a confession of a seductress. At one moment she's soft and lovely, the next second she burns you with passion. She's the god and the devil, Cain and Abel in one person and she promises you both heaven and hell at the same time. Yeah guys, there's definitely no hypocrisy on the lady's part since you've been warned. This here is the hottest version of Without Her that I know.

Jsem bůh i ďábel comes from Helena Vondráčková's second solo LP Ostrov Heleny (The Island Of Helena, not to be confused with her English export album The Isle Of Helena), recorded between 1969 and 1970. It's the album's only track that has been produced with the TOČR (a.k.a. JOČR) orchestra. All other songs are credited to the Golden Kids Orchestra & Chorus - which of course includes Marta Kubišová and Václav Neckář, for more info on them check out my first Marta Kubišová post (and more is about to come later this year). Ostrov Heleny is a much softer album than Kubišová's classic Songy a balady or both Golden Kids LPs, however. You can buy a CD online including 9 singles only bonus tracks or get the vinyl from a Czech auction site. Some singles are still available in my web shop, too, if you search there for "vondr".

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The trumpet player Václav Týfa (1943) oscillates between pop and jazz. His career started in 1962 in the Karel Vlach Orchestra. In the early 1970s he switched to the backing band of Karel Gott, the Ladislav Štaidl Orchestra. At the same time he also worked with Josef Vobruba's TOČR/JOČR. In 1974 Vobruba set up and conducted an all-star album project named Konstelace (The Constellation). The member list on this first effort is indeed stellar: besides of Týfa there are Radim Hladík (Blue Effect, ex-Matadors) and Petr Janda (Olympic) on guitars, Jiří Urbánek (Flamingo) on bass, Rudolf Rokl (Štaidl Orchestra) on Hammond organ, JOČR members Zdeněk Dvořák on guitar, Karel Růžička on piano and drummer Josef Vejvoda, Miroslav Kokoška (Czech TV Orchestra) on marimba, the flutist Jiří Válek (who got to record his own Konstelace solo album two years later) as well as jazzmen Ivan Dominák and Jiří Kysilka on percussions and Karel Velebný on vibes. Obviously the original concept of the project was to produce a series of albums that would feature exceptional soloists who were working in contemporary Czech pop/jazz orchestras at that time. But as far as I know, no other Konstelace albums besides of Týfa's and Válek's have ever been released.

Although Týfa later recorded lots of solo tunes for radio, TV or for movie soundtracks, this LP actually remains his only solo record to this day. He blows his trumpet in many shades, using lots of overdubs and sound effects, even a wah-wah pedal on some tracks. Side one is an original jazz-rock suite in six parts, Loutna česká (The Czech Lute), written by the arranger and co-producer Vladimír Popelka. On side two Popelka selected and re-arranged six tunes from the Blood Sweat & Tears repertoire like Mama Gets High, So Long Dixie, or the obligate Spinning Wheel which fortunately received an unusual jazzy treatment in 6/8. Without Her on the other hand has been funked up a lot, although I could live fine without the cheesy vocal parts since all other tracks sound fine without them, too...

These days Týfa works again with the Czech Radio Big Band or with the Vlach Orchestra and he can be heard on various CDs, too. The Konstelace vinyl album is really tough to find online, unless you are willing to pay real BIG bucks to these Japanese guys. But while the record may be "über-rare" in Japan, in Prague I've seen it many times for a Euro or two.

The girl on the broomstick

Petra Černocká & the Karel Vlach Orchestra - Saxana [sample]
from 7 inch SP "Dívka na koštěti", 1972, Supraphon 0431326, also on the compilation album "12 pro Mladý svět", 1972, Supraphon 1131294
conducted by Karel Vlach, produced by Jiří Baur


original SP sleeve & the compilation LP sleeve

Dívka na koštěti (The Girl On The Broomstick) is one of my favorite Czech fairy-tale movies from the 1970s. Actually, it's sort of a crossover genre because the director Václav Vorlíček was using elements from fairy-tales, fantasy and contemporary slapstick comedy, creating a fresh mix which still looks charming some 35 years later. I loved it then and I still love it now - in particular the lady who played the title role...

Petra Černocká (1949) is not an actor who sings but a singer who also used to act occasionally. She studied opera singing and piano on the Prague Conservatory. In 1967 she started to sing (and act) in the legendary Semafor Theatre. Her first record was her own song Ovečky (Little Sheep), recorded with a beat group of fellow conservatory students called Pastýři (The Shepherds). They recorded a couple of other 45s with folk-rock and pop tunes. In the early 1970s she joined the rock group Cardinals, but with the arrival of the "bubblegum-softie" Zdeněk Merta (from F.R. Čech's Shut Up Orchestra) the band soon transformed to Kardinálové and started to play and record dull pop and C&W music - thus slipping out of my funky focus anyway. As for acting, besides of small roles in various TV and movie productions, the young witch pupil character Saxana a.k.a. "the girl on the broomstick" was her first major role. She's nowhere to be seen singing in the movie though. According to a statement on her web site, originally she wasn't even considered to sing the title song either.

That tune from the movie, Saxana, remains Černocká's biggest hit and her signature song. It was composed by Angelo Michajlov with lyrics from Pavel Kopta. Michajlov was a Bulgarian who lived and studied music in Prague. Like Černocká, he also used to perform in the Semafor Theatre for some time. He wrote songs for Czech major pop artists like Marta Kubišová, Helena Vondráčková, Eva Pilarová or Václav Neckář. In the late sixties he began to work as a movie and TV score composer. Among his better known works were the scores for the popular 1980s children movie pictures Chobotnice z 2. patra (Octopuses From The 2nd Floor) or Lucie.

I have already briefly mentioned the Karel Vlach Orchestra as one of the best Czechoslovak big bands of the last century. That certainly applies if you dig swing, and the band history goes as far back as to the 1930s! Generally however, the orchestra's ouput wasn't necessarily funky in our sense; most of their recordings from the sixties on were anything else than progressive. Yet the boys in the band are still providing quite groovy backing on this particular track, although the overall production puts it rather closer to the "cheesy listening" genre. The 1970s orchestra line-up is unknown to me for most parts, but it's not unlikely that Michajlov himself was sitting at the piano.

The 7 inch record is the movie "soundtrack", although the b-side track, Georgie, has nothing to do with it (and it's even much closer to cheese anyway). The song Saxana is available on various Czech CD compilations as it was one of the most popular songs of the 70s in Czechoslovakia. The movie itself is available on DVD with English subtitles and if you already like Czech children movies, you're going to love this one too. (A sequel directed by Vorlíček again is currently being produced but I'm not holding my breath; the computer animated characters as they can be seen on this web site don't promise anything good.) The aforementioned Various Artists vinyl compilation 12 pro Mladý svět (12 for the Young World magazine) will be tougher to find though; I've seen it only once so far - and that was the copy I have now. While the record doesn't contain much "progressive" material either, there's a couple of other, well, obscurities of historical character like few songs played and sung by the official and highly unpopular young communist "rock" group Plameny (The Flames) or a rare (and rather silly) post-Framus-Five bubble-gum outing by Michal Prokop. And drum break junkies might perhaps appreciate a less known pop tune by Olympic...

P.S. Dívka na koštěti läuft lief in der deutschen Fassung als Das Mädchen auf dem Besenstiel am 31.12.2006 um 6:00 Uhr im RBB.

Interlude no. 1

As some of you might have already noticed, this music blog is less about being a diary giving away your daily dose of megabytes. Rather I consider it an archive of facts about Czech and Slovak music as defined in the blog header. It's based on my knowledge and what I have gathered from the web (which is mostly in Czech language only), from some books and from the record liner notes. Therefore I don't think it's a good idea to remove any traces of audio from earlier posts after a certain time - which has been after about five weeks so far. Instead, I have now uploaded lo-fi samples of each song that has been published, so in the future you will be still able to hear what I've been writing about. "Lo-fi" means 60 seconds of 64 kbps in mono. Front page audio will be still available in "full size" at 192 kbps (or 96 kbps if mono) as usual.

One more thing...



Someone asked for any rare Yvonne Přenosilová tracks. And indeed I've got one: He's So Heavenly [sample] that appeared on the 1990 album Sklípek, available on vinyl and MC only. In fact, the Sklípek compilation was Přenosilová's first long play album ever! The song was recorded around 1965 or 1966 with the Pavel Sedláček Group. It's a nice up-tempo R&B number, taken from the Brenda Lee repertoire.

An LP is available for sale very cheap. Hurry up!

Rings on the water

Helena Vondráčková & Jazz Q - Kruhy na vodě [sample]
from album "Paprsky", 1978, Supraphon 1132350
arranged by Martin Kratochvíl, produced by Jan Spálený, Mojmír Balling & Květoslav Rohleder


original LP sleeve (front/back)

Helena Vondráčková is without doubt the number one Czech female pop star. With more than 40 years in the show biz she's one of the few still active and still successful veterans from the early days of contemporary Czechoslovak pop music. The complete Vondráčková story is well documented on this English fan site, so I won't go much into details here.

Although she had plenty of top hits in the 1970s with a lot of airplay and TV appearances, her regular albums were neither really great nor very popular, partly because they were too mainstream oriented while lacking obvious hit material. This may have been the reason why she teamed up in early 1978 with jazz-rocker Martin Kratochvíl to record Paprsky (Beams), an album without hits, too, but with lots of exciting and funky music. It wasn't her first collaboration with jazz musicians though, ex-SHQ Luděk Švábenský and his Strýci (a.k.a. Šest strýců) used to be her live backing group in the mid seventies, recording a couple of pop 45s and a quite nice easy listening album in 1974.

Paprsky was recorded by Kratochvíl's regular group Jazz Q with František Francl, Vladimír Padrůněk (1952-1991) and Jaromír Helešic, including a few guests: Michal Gera, Jiří Tomek, Vladimír Merta, Petr Kalandra and Oskar Petr, who also wrote most of the lyrics. Kratochvíl was responsible for all keyboards, arrangements and most compositions. A few songs were penned by Vondráčková's younger brother Jiří Vondráček. Interesting fact in this context is the direct connection to the folk-rock group Marsyas, which I have featured on Funky Czech-In in October: Marsyas used to play live gigs with Jazz Q; Kalandra and Petr appeared on this album; Petr left Marsyas and became Jazz Q's lead singer (until his emigration in 1979) while Helena's brother Jiří Vondráček on the other hand joined Marsyas as Petr's replacement...

Back in the days this LP was considered a very experimental project for a pop singer like Vondráčková. Today it may sound more conventional than originally intended, but compared to her other outings from the late seventies and from the eighties it's still the one Vondráčková album that you might want to own. Paprsky is available as a double CD including the 1980 pure disco album Můzy (Muses a.k.a. Music) which is quite a logical choice. Get it e.g. on cdmusic.cz or on supermusic.cz, you can listen to Ogg Vorbis samples on this official discography page. For vinyl try eBay. Oh, by the way, a couple of her vinyl records from the sixties are available in my web shop, too (items no. 482, 964, 1194, 1197 and 1213).

The circle of light

Marie Rottrová & Flamingo - Kruh světla [sample]
from album "Marie Rottrová", 1972, Supraphon 1131268
arranged by Richard Kovalčík, produced by František Řebíček


original 1972 LP sleeve (front/back)

Marie Rottrová, born 1941 in Ostrava, started to sing with the beat group Samuel in the mid 1960s. Then she joined the soul group Majestic and since 1969 she worked professionally with its successor Flamingo - not to be confused with the famous beat/prog group from Prague called Flamengo. Flamingo recorded a couple of soul and R&B singles, their first long play album came out in 1970. It was one of the very few pure soul albums ever recorded in Czechoslovakia. Actually there were two Flamingo debut albums if you also count the very popular export edition This Is Our Soul which contains basically the same tracks but sung in English. Rottrová soon started to record as a solo artist as well. Nice is e.g. the up-tempo duet with superstar Karel Gott Mít pouhej tejden (Having Only A Week), a 1971 cover version of Good Morning Freedom, turning it into one of the better songs that Gott recorded in the 1970s. (Although it needs to be noted that Gott's Czech repertoire - especially the 1960s beat stuff - was always of much higher quality than his German schlager crap.)

Flamingo, who were later forced to change their name to the Czech equivalent Plameňáci, was a very tight combo with its own horn section. Some members were at the same time the nucleus of the Czechoslovak Radio Ostrava Orchestra which was recording with various other local pop artists like Pavel Novák. The group was originally lead by trumpet player Richard Kovalčík who was also responsible for most of the arrangements. After his death in 1975 the keyboardist Vladimír Figar took over the leadership. Other longtime members were bass player Jiří Urbánek, Rudolf Březina on tenor sax, Jan Hasník on guitar and the "funky drummer" Radek Dominik. Despite further personal changes, Flamingo/Plameňáci remained Marie Rottrová's main backing group until Vladimír Figar's death in 1989.

Kruh světla (The Ring Of Light) is the dramatical opener from Rottrová's first solo album which has been recorded while Flamingo's second lead singer, Petr Němec, had to serve his two years in the Czechoslovak army. The song was written by Karel Svoboda with Michael Prostějovský's lyrics. Yes, that Karel Svoboda who wrote Lady Carneval and Biene Maja for Karel Gott as well as probably hundreds of other maddening "normalized" Czech pop and schlager songs, including the title melody from the famous Xmas fairy-tale movie Tři oříšky pro Popelku (Three Hazelnuts For Cinderella). But that doesn't mean that Svoboda didn't have any flair for some funk here and there; watch out for some more Svoboda penned disco grooves in the Funky Czech-In pipeline.

The rest of the album sounds a lot softer, but there's also a funky cover version of Zawinul's Mercy Mercy Mercy with Czech lyrics, called Nechci (I Don't Want). This album sort of sketches the path that Rottrová was about to take for her future career, being a soul influenced pop singer with class. Compared to other Czechoslovak top entertainers of that era, Rottrová was one of the few who were able to maintain a very high standard without actually selling out to the apathetic real-socialistic TV-consuming masses. Even some of her later ballads still sound very tasteful after thirty years. In other words, this entry won't be her or Flamingo's only appearance on this blog.

I don't know Marie Rottrová's records after 1983, but she keeps on recording and performing actively.
If you're interested, I have five of her 7" singles from the seventies for sale (items no. 479, 843, 1070, 1193 and 1219). On cdmusic.cz you can also buy some CDs, search there for "rottrova".

Join us and we'll travel the world

Marta Kubišová - Tak dej se k nám a projdem svět [sample]
from album "Songy a balady", 1969, Supraphon 1130855 and 100587-1311
also on Golden Kids album "Micro-Magic-Circus", 1969, Supraphon, reissued 1997, Bonton 710505-2
The Golden Kids Orchestra conducted by Josef Vobruba, produced by Bohuslav Ondráček and Vladimír Popelka


the original 1969 LP, the 1990 LP/CD reissue sleeve and the Golden Kids LP/CD sleeve

Let's start the Funky Czech-In blog with the probably best known funky Czech song, the soulful Tak dej se k nám a projdem svět (Join Us And We'll Travel The World). It's the song that makes Marta Kubišová's first - and for twenty years her only - solo album appear on so many funk collectors' want lists. Marta Kubišová, born 1942, was probably the most popular Czech female pop singer between 1965 and 1970.

Written by the guitarist Otakar Petřina with lyrics from bass player Zdeněk Rytíř, the song literally kicks off with a funky drum break, most likely played by Petr Hejduk. Soon thereafter we'll get all pop ingredients that were "in" in late 1968 when the track was recorded: a funky bass line, a fuzzy guitar, a swirling organ, a swinging punchy horn section (probably played by members of the Czechoslovak Radio Prague Dance/Jazz Orchestra - TOČR/JOČR) and on top of it Marta's deep and urgent voice, indirectly reflecting the cheerless situation of the country occupied by Soviet tanks, while offering the listener a glimpse of hope.

The album itself is slightly uneven as it contains some "fillers" which sound like being intended for the German schlager market, after all Kubišová always was a pop singer in the first place. However, the majority of the songs are simply great, although not necessarily funky. The album begins with a solid cover of Beatles' Hey Jude, which basically follows the original version except that it's sung in Czech just like the rest of the record. Another climax of the album is the intense psychedelic sitar folk song Balada o kornetovi a dívce (The Ballad Of The Cornette And The Girl). I own the 1990 LP reissue which obviously omits Zlý dlouhý půst (Bad Long Fasting) and Kdo ti radu dá (Who Gives You An Advice) (a song I have never heard yet) in favor of a re-arranged version of her biggest hit Modlitba pro Martu (A Prayer For Marta) and another Petřina/Rytíř-penned up-tempo soul-beat protest song Ne (No). It's likely that those two crucial songs had to be removed from the early 1970 pressing due to their political message; that used to happen quite often in that part of the world. However, I'm not sure if they were ever included on the original issue at all. Whatever, according to a recent online interview with Marta, Tak dej se k nám as well as Ne were her favorite songs from the album, while the single-only Tajga-Blues '69 is obviously her favorite song ever. (I might feature Tajga-Blues in a future post as it's quite a funky psychedelic beat song.)

At the time when Songy a balady has been recorded and released, Kubišová was also a member of the Golden Kids, a vocal trio with Helena Vondráčková and Václav Neckář who were then already pop stars with their own solo albums, too. (Neckář was even starring in the main role in the 1968 Oscar winning movie Ostře sledované vlaky (Closely Watched Trains) directed by Jiří Menzel.) The Golden Kids were extremely popular in 1969 and they also performed in West Germany and in France. Many songs from Songy a balady were actually a part of the Golden Kids live show and both Vondráčková and Neckář sang background vocals on Marta's album. So watch out for a Golden Kids, a Neckář and a Vondráčková Funky Czech-In post, too.

In 1969 Kubišová's future was looking very bright, she had signed a record contract with Polydor and a couple of her and Golden Kids singles were already released in West Germany. But obviously she went "too far" with her political engagement. In 1970 Marta's voice has been silenced by the "normalizator" Husák's regime and all records with her name on the label had to disappear from Czech record stores. You can read more details on a Marta Kubišová fan site in English, including a detailed although not complete discography and a lot of other trivia. Unlike Vondráčková and Neckář, she was not allowed to record or perform in public for almost 20 years, until her appearance at a huge demonstration against the communist regime in November 1989 where she sang the Czechoslovak national anthem and her "signature" song, the ballad Modlitba pro Martu (A Prayer For Marta) [external audio link]. I can remember that while I was listening to her performance live on the Czech AM radio that I had tears in my eyes. And this particular song still moves me, despite the "cheesy" organ sound on the album version (but hey, the original 1968 single version with the Václav Hybš orchestra sounds even cheesier). It's the message that counts.

Marta Kubišová still - or rather: again - performs and records today, all of her recordings are available on CDs. Unlike the original, the 1990 vinyl reissue of Songy a balady isn't very hard to find in online auctions or in second hand record shops in Prague. If you're interested, I have four of her 7" singles from the sixties for sale (items no. 284, 963, 1068 and 1194). On cdmusic.cz you can also buy some CDs, search there for "kubisova".

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