We spoke with the trumpeter, arranger and bandmaster of the Brno big band B-Side Band on the occasion of the 10th birthday of this remarkable orchestra. Among other things the B-Side Band celebrated this anniversary with three concerts in Brno’s Sono Centre.
You are celebrating the tenth birthday of the B-Side Band. Let’s return to the very beginning. Have you fulfilled the aims you had then? What sort of plans did you have for the big band when you set it up?
At the beginning I had no idea that I could be the bandmaster or manager. But I did understand the big band environment, for example occasionally playing with the Gustav Brom Orchestra. In the nineties people were talking about a decline in big bands but this did not really happen. Only our scene became a little fossilised and was not reacting to developments in the world. As if it had stalled in the 1980s. I had studied abroad and I knew that everything could be done differently. I wanted to play in a big band that would appeal among other things to young people and so I gave some thought to who might set up such an orchestra. I tried to persuade Milan Vidlák for example and other legends, but no-one wanted to do it. And so in the end I decided that I would try it myself. I set myself certain objectives and after ten years I have achieved practically all of them. We have played with international stars, we have played at festivals such as Colours of Ostrava or Rock for People, and we have filled halls. Looking back I have to say that maybe I was crazy to go into it. For five years I had no life at all and everything moved along like an express train. I became aware that I as fulfilling my greatest dream but I also needed to have some kind of a life. In the meantime I started a family and I think about things a bit differently today, perhaps a bit more consistently. Today I would think about a great deal more before deciding to do it again. But I am glad that I survived it and thank God for everything I experienced with the B-Side Band.
How big a part of the orchestra has been with you for the whole of the ten years?
The line-up has with a few exceptions remained pretty much unchanged throughout the ten years. I set it up with guys who I already knew, whether from foreign trips with the Brno Municipal Theatre or from various jazz ensembles in Brno. In the big bands that I worked with earlier it often bothered me that they worked on a “who has the time” system. I wanted the group to work like a family, to have a heart. And I think we managed that. Not long ago the phenomenal bass player Pepa Fečo played with us and he was shocked to see how things worked with us, ow the people in the band liked each other. Even though there are twenty of us, we have to function as a band. That is one of the important moments in our success.
You map out the first decade off the B-Side Band in your new CD Deset let (Ten Years), which has rather the character of a compilation (even if of previously unissued recordings) rather than a standard album. How did you put it together?
The album is made up of studio recordings and also those from concerts in various venues. There are recordings from Brno’s Sono, from the Congress Centre in Prague and from the Lucerna. Each of these venues obviously has a different sound but I think we managed to make it work together as a whole very well. I have to praise Honza Košulič from the Divadlo na Orlí in Brno. The earlier disc I did with Phil Bulla from New York, who has worked with Whitney Houston and the group Chicago. But it was clear that Honza Košulič knows how to mix big bands, and people like that should be valued. But to return to the CD. I would be sorry to see anyone looking for a programmatic whole in it. It is simply a record of our ten-year history and the most important moments in that as well as the most important guests who played with us.
These are not just international stars but also several Czech figures …
Yes of course, and we can’t miss out Vojtěch Dyk, who is virtually a member of the orchestra. There is also Matěj Ruppert, who gave one of our first bigger concerts with us. There is Tereza Černochová who has been with us throughout the ten years. Or Roman Dragoun, who has also sung with us from the beginning and for whom we have arranged several of his works. I see all these singers as pillars of the group. Aside from them I can’t forget the saxophonist Michal Žáček or the trumpeter Juraj Bartoš, who has been a lifelong example to me.
Of the famous international names singing with you on the album there are mainly New York Voices and also Kurt Elling. I fondly recall his concert with you. How did you start working with this guy, seen as one of the best vocalists on the planet, begin?
In 2003 I was in the Netherlands as a member of a group that was touring there for about half a year with the musical Jesus Christ Superstar. During the tour we used to listen to music and one of the great icons for us was Kurt Elling. At that time I had no idea that one day I would play with him or that he would feature on my CD. However in 2010 I managed to get in touch with him and get him to the Moravia Music Fest festival which I organise. He came with his group and performed in the Scala cinema. After the concert we had a chat, I gave him our first disc Live at La Fabrica and then asked him if he would like to play with us. He was interested and in the end we did a whole tour with him. It was a great experience for us. For three months before that I drilled the group as I knew we had to put in a one-hundred-percent performance. Kurt Elling, who is used to performing with international stars, came to the first rehearsal, greeted us and said: “Gentlemen, let’s get to work.” We played each number once, he saluted us and said: “Excellent, I’m looking forward to tomorrow.” And he left for his hotel. I see that as the greatest praise that we ever got in our professional lives.
How did you end up working with the swing group The Puppini Sisters?
One time in the Metro Music Bar DJ Harosh played various old and modern swing recordings. And among them was the Puppini Sisters. It caught my interest, I sought out further information on them and found out for example that they have worked with Michaelem Bublé and with Robbie Williams. While the New York Voices are complete professionals who work with more modern versions of jazz, the Puppini Sisters are also able to perform older swing and they do it fantastically. I invited them to Brno and they accepted.
We have said that the recordings on the album come from different environments. At the moment where do you prefer to play?
Obviously we like the Metro Music Bar as that is where we rehearse. It is not a large stage, so individual players stand almost next to each other, the sound is good and that is more pleasant for us. I also like playing in Sono Centre, which is rather damped, but it works well if properly amplified. In Prague we like playing in La Fabrica and recently especially in Fora Karlín.
We spoke about the big band crisis in the 1990s. Today I rather I have the feeling that things are once more going well for jazz orchestras. How do you see it?
I don’t want to make too much of our contribution but I think we certainly played a part in the popularisation of big bands with a wider public. Success does not depend on just music and sound. It depends on how the group comes across on the stage, how the members are dressed and how it is lit. All this has to be worked on. When we began I did not count on anyone calling me off their own bat to invite me to give a concert and pay a fee. You have to have a vision and prepare individual concerts well ahead. You can set up as many groups as you like, only what do you do with a band without a vision? From the beginning I tried to think everything through and plan it to the smallest detail. An important moment for us was of course the beginning of our cooperation with Vojta Dyk, who attracted young people. Today we sell out our venues and from halfway through the concerts people are standing and dancing to the end. And that is with audiences ranging from fifteen to eighty in age. Possibly thanks to our success lots of young big bands are being formed. They call me and ask me about our experience and are looking for scores. The renaissance in big bands started some time ago but I am sure that we are helping them in the way we promote this music.
It looks like a tale with a happy ending. However you must be wondering what next …
A more demanding objective is to get Czech big bands abroad. The Gustav Brom Orchestra, which in the 1960s and 1970s was a truly wonderful group, managed it. Today agencies don’t have much point. I know from my own experience that there are so many offers that there isn’t time to choose. But we began to work with Kurt Elling, with the New York Voices and with the Puppini Sisters and all of them are seriously considering whether to invite us on a European tour or in the case of Kurt Elling even to America. If it comes off then it will be the biggest thing that we could aspire to as a band. It is through cooperation with these people that we can make it abroad. There is no other way.
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