EMIL VIKLICKÝ & IMOGEN RYALL: SONGS

Imogen Ryall singing
Emil Viklický piano
Julian Nicholas saxophones
Petr Dvorský double bass
Eric Ford drums
London singer Imogen Ryall is exceptional on the home stage not only for her brilliant command of the full range of jazz vocals, highly developed talent for improvisation, excellent scat and extraordinary hard work, but also, which is not at all common for jazz vocalists, great poetic talent and therefore the ability to write great lyrics. She's not just any singer-songwriter", because she also writes verses for other performers and also provides lyrics for original instrumental compositions of world composers of the caliber of Larry Goldings or Carly Bley.
You could say that she also has a lot in common with fellow Canadian Joni Mitchell. And it is no coincidence that Imogen Ryall dedicated her latest album to her own interpretation of the singer's famous Mingus album. This followed the singer's three previous albums: Alone Together with guitarist Andy Williams, Waltz for Ruth with Rod Hart and Dave Green, and There Will Be Time with the Jack Kendon Quintet and Julian Nicholas. However, Imogen Ryall's current project is purely author's. The singer herself wrote the lyrics and the music was composed by the legendary Czech pianist and versatile composer Emil Viklický. For him, cooperation with foreign musicians has practically been his daily bread since the end of the seventies. Let's not forget that he recorded one of his first albums, Okno, with, among others, the then almost unknown guitarist Bill Frisell, whom he met during his studies at Boston's Berklee College. Since then, he has been recruiting musicians from all over the world, primarily from the USA, into his mostly instrumental projects. The joint album with Imogen Ryall has the telling title Songs. “This collection of original songs is absolutely magical. I've long admired Imogen Ryall's lyrical skills, but I think she really found herself in Emil's broad themes. His elegant and graceful melodies are ideal for this kind of lyrics, as if the songs were born as a whole, from one piece," wrote Imogen's colleague, British singer Claire Martin, to the address of this project. On the album and in the concert line-up in the Songs project, in addition to the two authors, Julian Nicholas plays saxophones, Petr Dvorský on double bass and Eric Ford on drums, and the album will be released by the British label Rubicon in October 2024. And on the 9th of this very month, Imogen Ryall will present with a quartet led by Emil Viklický song repertoire in Brno.