The Cotatcha Orchestra big band has been on the music scene for 10 years. They will be celebrating with a spectacular concert at the Goose on a String Theatre together with four guests - singers Lenka Dusilová and Géraldine Schnyder, double bass matador Vincenzo Kummer and trombonist and Latin Grammy winner Ilja Reijngoud. The sixteen-member ensemble nominated for the Anděl Award was founded by trumpeter Jiří Kotača to play original and original big band music. The anniversary concert will feature a selection of their best from past and present, including new works. All accompanied by animations by Magdalena Bláhová.
"The Cotatcha Orchestra is a contemporary, very fresh and highly erudite big band, with a strong original repertoire and some very interesting thematic ideas, such as Christmas. They yearn to push the boundaries of the classical genre, to be inventive, and I find that very appealing," says Lenka Dusilová, one of the guests at the concert.
The big band, founded in 2014 by Jiří Kotača in Brno, has gone through several phases over the years. From compositions by world composers, through contemporary Czech works and collaborations with young talents from abroad, over time the orchestra has worked its way to its own original genre-spanning repertoire, which it released on its first album Bigbandova elektronika. Its originality and style saw it nominated for the Anděl Award and won it the Czech Jazz Harvest. "My main goal in starting a big band was to play music that no one else was playing here. We were young and enthusiastic, mostly students who met at the Janáček Academy of Performing Arts in Brno. We've played a lot during those ten years and it's been a varied ride. From the repertoire we played at the very beginning or our own programme that we shaped over time, the link was always an emphasis on added value through collaboration with guests from abroad or the performance of works that are not often heard in the Czech Republic. In this way, besides our own works, we’ve put together a series of Christmas programmes, for example, in which we play Czech Baroque carols and Christmas songs from Slovenia or Bulgaria, as well as a series dedicated to some of the leading figures of 20th century jazz. We’ve performed music by greats such as Gil Evans, Stravinsky and Stan Kenton." explains bandleader Jiří Kotača. The concert is scheduled for 26 November 2024 at 7:30 p.m. at the Goose on a String Theatre.
The choice of guests for the Brno concert is far from random. "It was no easy task for me to choose the guests and the repertoire, as I’d like to play the bulk of what we’ve been through with everybody. In the end, I decided on the four people we spent the most time with on the various programmes and who were important to the big band." adds Kotača.
The first guest is Lenka Dusilová, nine-time winner of the Anděl Awards and a quintessential part of the Czech scene. The Cotatcha Orchestra worked with her on their first album and subsequent concerts, including new work.
Next up is, Vincenc Kummer - matador not only of the Czech double bass, but also a long-time bandmate of Karel Gott. In his rich career he has played with legends such as Dizzy Gillespie and Dee Dee Bridgewater, and has also spent several years as bassist and co-arranger in the Cotatcha Orchestra. They will be playing several of Kummer's arrangements together at the concert.
Géraldine Schnyder is a young Swiss singer who fell in love with Brno, where she currently lives and teaches at JAMU. Her unique voice will be heard in several swing songs.
The concert’s fourth guest is Dutch composer and trombonist Ilja Reijngoud, winner of the Latin Grammy and laureate of the prestigious T. Monk Competition for composition. The big band collaborated with Reijngoud on the album Bigbandova elektronika and on its Czech tour in 2018, where they performed Reijngoud's compositions. New pieces by the Dutch trombonist will also be played at the upcoming concert in Brno.
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