Masters belong to masters. And when such people gather on the basis of the celebration of the centenary of the founding of Czech Radio Brno, it of course makes sense. The connection is clear thanks to the work of the most important Moravian big band, which in the course of its more than eighty-year tradition has collaborated with many world stars, precisely in the Brno radio studio.
Saxophonist and composer Gustav Brom founded his orchestra as early as 1940, and he headed it until his death in 1995, when Vladimír Valovič took over the baton. Bromo's big band was exceptional on the home stage in several ways. His bandleader had a very good nose for musicians, so a lot of extremely high-quality and talented musicians appeared in his ranks, able to adapt to a lot of genres operatively and inventively. And this is precisely what makes the orchestra so special. The wider public knew Brom's orchestra as an accompanying group of pop singers and from the environment of former so-called dance music - but even in this distinctly popular genre, it never slipped into low-quality or even cheesy positions. Jazz fans then knew the big band as a top jazz ensemble, which included many jazz subgenres in their original and borrowed repertoire, from swing to outright avant-garde trends, and for example in the area of the so-called third stream, which combines elements of jazz and contemporary classical music, the "Bromovci" belonged to the world's top .
Over the years, many singers and instrumentalists have guested with Brom's orchestra, among the most famous are trumpet players Dizzy Gillespie and Maynard Ferguson or singer Diana Ross. That streak now continues in the form of Randy Brecker hosting. He has been one of the top American trumpet players since the 1960s. He began his professional career in the band Blood, Sweat & Tears, was a member of Art Blakey's legendary Jazz Messengers, performed concerts with Stevie Wonder, among others, and founded the Brecker Brothers group with his brother, the phenomenal saxophonist Michael, in 1975. The two siblings then worked together continuously until Michael's untimely death in 2007. On the solo track, Randy Brecker recorded roughly three dozen albums, but he made many more with the sound of his trumpet as a guest. And because he never confined himself to one genre, his name can be found outside the jazz context, for example, on the albums of Paul Simon, Lou Reed, Joe Cocker, Aretha Franklin, Bruce Springsteen or Ringo Starr.
