Bedřich Smetana, Antonín Dvořák, ragtime, Lemonade Joe and polka not only in syncopation. The multi-talented jazz composer and multi-instrumentalist Jiří Slavík brings back the boldness and humour of dance to polka.
From its rural origins, the polka became the rebellious rebellion of European bourgeois youth, a fashionable dance hit in Paris, the music of cowboys in Latin America, a mainstream American pop music, and even a Grammy category award for best polka between 1986 and 2009. It can be said, in an exaggerated way, that wherever the Czech entered, polka music began to be played.
However, in the works of Bedřich Smetana, Antonín Dvořák and Leoš Janáček, as well as in the compositions of many world composers, the piano polka has largely been transformed into a salon art. “In some arrangements by Czech greats, the polka has changed so much that sometimes its original purpose – dance – has completely disappeared,” said Jiří Slavík, explaining why he and Polka-boys decided to return the polka to its dance character and straightforward boldness. With humour, exaggeration, simplicity, but virtuosically and in syncopation as in ragtime or as the composers Jan Rychlík and Vlastimil Hala did in the legendary film Lemonade Joe.
“From my point of view, polka must have played an important role in the creation of ragtime. The first black pianists had to learn to play something with the very atypical and almost un-pianoesque left hand that we hear in polka. Just change the phrasing of the right hand a little, add a little swing and ragtime is not far away. And it’s certainly no coincidence that polkas were also written by Jaroslav Ježek, who was otherwise mostly considered a jazz musician drawing inspiration mainly from American music,” says Jiří Slavík, adding to the concept of his project: “I have borrowed themes from the fields of famous Czech composers, but I am transforming them, decorating them and, as the tradition of jazz musicianship dictates, improvising on them.”
Let’s not doubt that Jiří Slavík’s new project will once again produce something extraordinary. The composer, double bassist and, in this case, accordionist will be joined by all the big names of our jazz and classical scene: Cyrille Oswald (flutes and tenor saxophone), Michal Wróblewski (clarinet and alto saxophone), Marcel Bárta (bass clarinet and tenor saxophone), Štěpán Blinka (violin), Milan Kárník Jakeš (viola), Jan Keller (cello), Taras Voloschuk (double bass) and Jakub Tengler (drums and percussion).
