Nikol Bóková is primarily through her training and in her focus a classically trained pianist, but by her own admission, she has become addicted to the sound of the classical jazz trio. The Czech jazz discography has been enriched, thanks to Nikola’s fascination and thanks to Animal Music, with the CD Inner Place. It has deservedly achieved high acclaim.
“My lectures take place when I go for a pint with jazzmen and listen to their conversation about music, and then I join in the debates,” she recently confessed in an interview for the Czech Radio jazz programme. The interviewer Milan Tesař added briskly: “What is interesting about Nikola’s album is the fact that she approaches her own “jazz” work from a different angle than is common with trained jazz musicians.”
Nikol Bóková regularly collaborates with leading Czech orchestral ensembles; as a nine-year-old, she first performed as a soloist with the Janáček Philharmonic Orchestra in Ostrava, with which she still collaborates. Her first self-penned album draws on jazz, classical music and minimalism, and partly also on popular music. Her compositions are simple miniatures, formally precisely polished, with clear traces of the harmonic and melodic refinement of classical piano literature, as well as a way of playing defined by classical interpretation. Perfect technique and control of dynamics are unique in the world of jazz piano. She has invited talented players of the young jazz generation: the double bass player Martin Kocián and the drummer Michał Wierzgoń, who bring a new dimension to her compositions with their experience and jazz background.
