The masters belong to the masters. And when such people come together on the basis of the celebration of the centenary of the founding of Czech Radio Brno, it makes sense, of course. The connection is clear thanks to the presence of the most important Moravian big band, which has collaborated with many world stars during its more than 80-year tradition, in the Brno radio studio.
Saxophonist and composer Gustav Brom founded the orchestra in 1940 and managed it until his death in 1995, when Vladimír Valovič took over the baton. Brom’s big band was exceptional on the domestic scene in several aspects. His bandleader had a very good taste for musicians, so his ranks included many extremely good and talented musicians, able to adapt to many genres with efficiency and inventiveness. And this is another exceptional feature of the orchestra. The general public knew the orchestra as a backing ensemble for pop singers and from the environment of the former so-called dance music – but even in this explicitly popular rank it never slipped into low-quality or even kitsch positions. Jazz fans knew the big band as a top jazz ensemble that encompassed many jazz sub-genres from swing to avant-garde movements in its original and adopted repertoire, and in the field of the so-called third stream, combining elements of jazz and contemporary classical music, “The Brom’s” were among the world’s top.
Over the years, many singers and instrumentalists have guested with the orchestra, among the best known are trumpeters Dizzy Gillespie and Maynard Ferguson and singer Diana Ross. This lineage now continues in the form of guest appearances by Randy Brecker. He has been one of America’s trumpet greats since the 1960s. He began his professional career in the band Blood, Sweat & Tears, was a member of Art Blakey’s legendary Jazz Messengers, toured with Stevie Wonder, among others, before forming the Brecker Brothers in 1975 with his brother, the phenomenal saxophonist Michael. The two siblings then worked together continuously until Michael’s early death in 2007. Randy Brecker recorded some thirty albums as a solo artist, but many times more with the sound of his trumpet as a guest. And because he never committed himself to only one genre, his name can be found outside the jazz context on albums by Paul Simon, Lou Reed, Joe Cocker, Aretha Franklin, Bruce Springsteen and Ringo Starr, to name a few.
