The mere fact that an African American concert harpist leads a trio could, in theory, be enough to consider The Brandee Younger Trio a truly unique formation. But that would be a superficial judgment. It’s not just about the unusual sound—it’s about genuinely unique music.

 

Now forty-one years old, Brandee Younger has taken music seriously from a very young age and shaped her education around it. She first studied harp performance and music management at the Hartt School of Music in Connecticut, and later earned a Master of Music degree from New York University. Early in her career, she had the opportunity to collaborate with jazz giants such as Pharoah Sanders and Jack DeJohnette, as well as hip-hop and R&B stars like Lauryn Hill, The Roots, and John Legend.

A key turning point in Brandee Younger’s career came with an invitation from saxophonist Ravi Coltrane to perform at a memorial concert for his mother, Alice Coltrane—one of the first artists to successfully incorporate the harp into jazz music. Another milestone came a few years later, when her composition Hortense was featured in a concert documentary about Beyoncé.

Although Brandee Younger’s name had appeared in album credits since the mid-2000s, and she had been releasing her own records on small independent labels since her 2011 debut Prelude, her breakthrough into the major recording world came in 2021 with the album Somewhere Different, released on the prestigious Impulse! label. From that album came her first Grammy nomination, in the category of Best Instrumental Composition, for the piece Beautiful Is Black. Brandee Younger was notably the first African American woman ever nominated in this category. Her next and most recent album, Brand New Life, was released in 2023, again under the Impulse! label.

Brandee Younger is regarded as a pioneering force in bringing the harp into modern jazz and hip hop. She passes on her experience as a teacher at several universities, through masterclasses she regularly conducts, and, of course, through her live performances.

These three are truly in sync. With the live launch of their album Happily Ragged, they’re sure to keep the audience tuned in.

 

Jiří Levíček, Luan Gonçalves, and Jakub Tengler came together during the post-lockdown period as a new incarnation of the Jiří Levíček Trio. However, their musical chemistry proved so strong, their artistic interests so aligned, and their interpretive approach so unified, that they decided to adopt a collective name: Stay In Tune. The trio naturally builds upon Levíček’s earlier Stay In Tune program, which blends original compositions with creative reinterpretations of jazz standards.

Jiří Levíček is well known to Czech audiences as a virtuosic pianist with eight years of experience in the U.S. (including at the University of North Texas), and as a collaborator with Robert Balzar, Luboš Soukup, and Cyril Oswald, as well as a contributor to the Jazz Dock Orchestra. But he’s also full of surprises on stage—like when he suddenly picks up a saxophone, the piano trio disappears, and they switch to a strolling jazz setup. In another ensemble, The Survivors (with Jiří Slavík and Jakub Tengler), Levíček occasionally transforms into a clarinetist. He also enjoys taking on the role of composer and interpreter of contemporary music. Perhaps most strikingly, he demonstrated this with his 2022 Morana song cycle, composed for mezzo-soprano, violin, piano, and symphonic orchestra—premiered by the Prague Radio Symphony Orchestra (SOČR), featuring vocalist Chaazi Levíček and Levíček himself.

Luan Gonçalves, the Brazilian bassist living in the Czech Republic since 2013, is also a thoroughly cross-genre musician. A graduate of the Tom Jobim State Music School in São Paulo, HAMU, the Anton Bruckner University in Linz, and also musicology at Charles University in Prague, Gonçalves is known from experimental bands like Talaqpo and Jungle Debris. He performs contemporary chamber music with the Prague Quiet Music Collective, and is no stranger to electronic music either. Jakub Tengler, the trio’s drummer, takes a similarly expansive view of music. A JAMU graduate, he appears in electronic projects like FLOEX and Noisy Pots, and also performs with ensembles such as the Berg Orchestra, SOČR, and the Moravian Philharmonic.

So what keeps these three original personalities on the same wavelength? Perhaps it’s their shared genre-restlessness and a charming refusal to be boxed into one stylistic category—something clearly reflected in their treatment of even the most classic jazz standards. All three are also educators—but rest assured, there’s nothing dry or academic about their performance.

And as the cherry on top? During the evening, the trio will officially launch their new album, Happily Ragged (Bivak Records).

The project Greatest Hits 4000 by New York-based organist Ondřej Pivec actually came into being thanks to JazzFest Brno. And as the saying goes, the culprits always return to the scene of the crime.

 

Once upon a time, due to the complications of the COVID pandemic, instead of continuing to tour with Gregory Porter or playing with the band Kennedy Administration, Ondřej Pivec ended up stuck in his home country in 2020 for an unexpectedly long period. He didn’t waste the time—in fact, he made excellent use of it.

“Promoters were reaching out, asking me to do a concert, which made me incredibly happy. But I had nothing except Organic Quartet. That’s a band I love, but I also wanted to express something different. I wanted to find a sound that would reflect everything I had experienced over the years in the U.S.—which is a completely different sound than what you can achieve with a classic soul-jazz lineup. When the offer came from JazzFestBrno, I thought—this is exactly the reason to put together a new project,” Ondřej recalled.

The lineup of outstanding local musicians came together easily: “I knew with absolute certainty that I wanted to play with bassist Honza Jakubec. I’d admired him since 1999, when I moved to Prague and he was actively gigging with just about everyone. I met keyboardist Honza Steinsdörfer while recording for Vladimír Mišík, and I was surprised at how similarly we both approached music. Drummer Filip Ernst, I stumbled upon completely by chance on Instagram.”

However, lockdown ensured that Greatest Hits 4000 had a more adventurous beginning than the musicians had anticipated. Instead of honing their repertoire in front of live audiences, the quartet had its debut on December 13, 2020, straight in front of TV cameras—without a live audience—as part of a festival livestream. A trial by fire, or rather a trial by pandemic, turned out splendidly. This is confirmed by the recording released on the album Greatest Hits 4000 (Bivak Records, 2023) and officially christened in front of the Brno festival audience.

Now, the culprits return once again to the scene of the crime, and we’re left to wonder: How do “The Greatest Hits” sound after five years of occasional performances? How far have they pushed their jazz-funk-soul-gospel-hip-hop sound? How much new material will they bring?

This band is considered an all-stars ensemble on the Czech music scene. Like its namesake from television, Muff can be mischievous and a bit unruly—and it can also ignite the stage like the famous guitar effect pedal of the same name.

 

Muff was formed in 2000, but it wasn’t until a decade later that they released their debut album. The lineup consists of five distinctive musicians who create a collage on the border of jazz and rock, wrapped in a light haze of psychedelia interwoven with electronics and samples. These top-tier Czech instrumentalists come together in Muff primarily for the joy of making music free from any rules, showcasing their musical sophistication and sense of humour. All of this is evident not only at their concerts but also across their four released albums to date.

The leader of Muff is a saxophonist, clarinetist, and composer Marcel Bárta, also known for his work in many other projects, including the highly acclaimed jazz group Vertigo. Keyboardist and sound wizard Jakub Zitko founded and led the legendary mini-bigband NUO and, among other things, is the “right-hand man” of singer Aneta Langerová, co-authoring her songs and producing her recordings. Bassist Jakub Vejnar, besides his work with Muff, can be heard in various jazz and rock projects, including the successful band November 2nd, which won the 2023 Anděl Award for Album of the Year. Guitarist Jiří Šimek leads his own project, Electric Madness, and like his bandmates, participates in numerous musical ventures. The same is true for drummer Roman Vícha, a sought-after studio drummer who plays with both jazz and rock musicians and is a permanent member of singer Ewa Farna’s backing band.

You have to admit—getting such a busy group together is a feat worthy of a Nobel Prize for logistics!

Marcel Bárta – saxofon, Jakub Zitko – klávesy, Jiří Šimek – kytara, Jakub Vejnar – baskytara, Roman Vícha – bicí

Whatever form of art comes from Iceland, it is always somehow “different.” This holds true for literature, film, and visual arts, but perhaps most strikingly for music. And certainly for the quartet ADHD.

 

While some bands rush headlong into the unknown with every new album, ADHD continually expands and deepens the territory they have reliably cultivated. They insist on recording all their albums live to capture the magic of their concert cooperation—a kind of all-encompassing ritual where a Viking-like natural approach meets contemporary technology. They don’t distract listeners with elaborate album titles either. Since their 2009 debut—which was recorded two years after the band’s formation, simply titled ADHD, and awarded Jazz Album of the Year at the Icelandic Music Awards—they have released each subsequent album with just a sequential number. By last year, they had reached a total of nine entries in this minimalist series.

A journalistic bon mot claims that ADHD’s live performances demonstrate how the people of a remote island in the north of the planet managed to survive all those long centuries: they simply generated energy from within themselves. It’s no wonder that ADHD’s music fascinates not only jazz enthusiasts, who admire the sophisticated structure of their compositions and their brilliant musicianship, but also rock audiences, who value the aforementioned indomitable energy above all, and even fans of modern dance music.

Óskar Guðjónsson – saxophone, Ómar Guðjónsson – guitar, pedal steel, bass, Tómas Jónsson – piano, keyboards, Magnus Trygvason Eliassen – drums

A singer and songwriter from Los Angeles, Michael Mayo seemed destined for a vocal career on the borderlines of jazz, gospel, rhythm and blues, and soul. More precisely: it was his family environment that set the course. What other path could he have taken when, during his childhood, his parents—his father a saxophonist and his mother a singer—were performing with Stevie Wonder, Diana Ross, and Luther Vandross?

 

Michael Mayo had excellent role models from the cradle. When singer Gretchen Parlato visited his high school, the Los Angeles County High School for the Arts, and showcased some of her vocal magic, the decision was made: Michael would become a professional singer. He continued his education at the New England Conservatory of Music, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in jazz vocals, and in 2015, he became the third singer ever admitted to the Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz (now the Herbie Hancock Institute) at the University of California, Los Angeles. He could not have asked for better teachers: Herbie Hancock, Wayne Shorter, and Dianne Reeves.

And his relationship with Herbie Hancock didn’t end with the classroom—Hancock also took him on tour, an honour that in the jazz world is akin to a knighthood. Besides that, Mayo sang on several albums by drummer Nate Smith, was a member of the R&B band Shrek Is Love—which reinterpreted themes from the popular film series about the iconic green ogre—and collaborated with Kneebody, Moonchild, and Jacob Collier.

Michael Mayo made his solo debut in 2021 with the album Bones, produced by Eli Wolf, known for his work with Al Green, Norah Jones, and The Roots. Mayo even invited his two parents to participate in the recording—a fitting tribute to the good genes they passed on. He showcased the full extent of his abilities in the track Stolen Moments, where, in the style of Bobby McFerrin, he layered over 250 (!) of his own vocal tracks into a stunning arrangement. His most recent album, Fly, was released last year, cementing his status as a truly anointed singer and one of the brightest contemporary stars of jazz and vocal music at large.

One of the main stars of the autumn part of JazzFestBrno has been among the most important jazz—and beyond—instrumentalists, producers, and composers since the 1980s. Major figures like trumpeter Miles Davis and singer Luther Vandross entrusted him with their music.

 

Marcus Miller is one of those musicians blessed with innate musical talent, nurtured from childhood in a musically inclined family. He studied classical clarinet, but over the course of his life, he also mastered keyboards, saxophone, guitar, and of course, his number one instrument: the bass guitar.

For many years, Marcus Miller worked as an acclaimed sideman in New York recording studios, an experience that served as a profound musical education for him as a musician, producer, and composer. At the turn of the 1970s and 1980s, he was also a member of the house band for Saturday Night Live, America’s most-watched television show. The list of artists he has supported is nothing short of impressive, including Michael Jackson, Herbie Hancock, Eric Clapton, Wayne Shorter, McCoy Tyner, Frank Sinatra, and George Benson. He collaborated extensively with saxophonist Grover Washington Jr., recording six albums together in the 1980s, and with soul singer Luther Vandross, with whom he recorded no fewer than a dozen albums—many of them produced by Miller and often featuring his songwriting contributions. As a longtime collaborator with saxophonist David Sanborn, Miller helped shape fifteen of Sanborn’s albums during the 1980s and 1990s. A chapter unto itself was his work with Miles Davis: Marcus Miller was instrumental in one of Davis’s major “resurrections,” producing the Tutu album and writing its title track, which has since become a Davis standard. Miller also produced Davis’s subsequent albums Music from Siesta and Amandla, and contributed as an instrumentalist to three Davis albums preceding Tutu.

Given this extensive résumé, it might seem that Marcus Miller sacrificed his own solo career for the benefit of others, but that is not the case. Interestingly, at the beginning of the 1980s, his solo debut was primarily vocal: on his first two albums, he presented himself mainly as a singer and songwriter, and only secondarily as an instrumentalist. This approach, however, was never repeated, and on his later albums, vocals appear only sporadically. It is in instrumental music that Marcus Miller’s true strength lies—a fact confirmed by his Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Jazz Album for M² in 2001. Fourteen years later, his album Afrodeezia was nominated for Best Contemporary Instrumental Album.

An American drummer of the middle generation, Makaya McCraven is one of those musicians who convincingly shows the world that modern contemporary jazz—especially the kind meant to appeal to a younger audience—cannot exist without hip hop.

 

Although he was born in Paris, he grew up from the age of three in the U.S. state of Massachusetts. With a jazz drummer father and a Hungarian-born singer mother, McCraven inherited strong musical genes, and it’s no surprise that by the age of five he was already playing drums seriously in his father’s percussion ensemble. His path began to shift during high school: on one hand, he and a group of friends formed a band to accompany his mother’s singing, rooted in Hungarian folk traditions; on the other, he initiated the creation of Cold Duck Complex, a band that skillfully blended jazz, hip hop, and politically charged rap lyrics. The group cited activist ensembles like The Roots and Rage Against the Machine as their main influences. During their existence from 2002 to 2009, they released four albums and performed countless gigs, becoming a popular attraction on university campuses.

Makaya McCraven studied at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, where he was a member of the university’s jazz orchestra, but ultimately left school before graduating, as his musical career led him to Chicago. There, he played with various bands and became a sought-after studio musician. In 2012, he made his solo debut with the album Split Decision, but gained wider recognition with its follow-up, In The Moment, which led to an extensive European tour and an invitation to collaborate with one of the most influential contemporary American jazz musicians, Kamasi Washington. McCraven’s profile grew not only among listeners but also among critics—he was named both Best New Producer and Best New Drummer in the 2020 DownBeat Critics Poll.

Today, Makaya McCraven has nothing left to prove. He has firmly established himself in the top league of jazz musicians in their forties, and his latest album, In These Times—a project he worked on for seven years across five different studios—secured him a place among the elite roster of Nonesuch Records, one of the most prestigious labels not only in jazz but in music overall.

In recent years, Nate Smith has become one of the most closely watched and influential drummers of his generation. This is not only because, alongside his other work, he has focused on creating a series of viral videos that have garnered millions of views. He is simply remarkable in every respect.

 

The now 50-year-old Virginia native started playing drums at the age of eleven, initially drawn to rock and funk. A turning point came at sixteen, when he heard Album of the Year, the famous 1981 recording by Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers. He began to take jazz drumming seriously, though he also studied design and other artistic disciplines. His first major opportunity came when he performed with Betty Carter at the legendary Blue Note club in New York. This launched a remarkable era of collaborations with top-tier artists, through which he built a portfolio many would envy.

In 2003, the renowned bassist Dave Holland invited Nate Smith to join his quintet, and as a member he recorded two albums: Critical Mass (2005) and Pathways (2009). Around the same time, he began working closely with saxophonist Chris Potter, recording four albums with him between 2006 and 2015. His discography also includes individual recordings with stars such as Patricia Barber, Randy Brecker, Takuya Kuroda, and even Czech musician Karel Růžička Jr., with whom he recorded the album Grace & Gratitude for Animal Music.

Nate Smith never confined himself strictly to jazz boundaries, and the more experienced he became, the more he expanded his scope. That’s why his name can be found on albums by Paul Simon, Brittany Howard (lead singer of Alabama Shakes), and genre-less José James. Interestingly, one of his major non-jazz credits predates his professional drumming career: in 2001, he co-wrote and co-produced Michael Jackson’s song Heaven Can Wait, released on the Invincible album—one of the singer’s slowest tracks ever.

Nate Smith’s solo career also unfolds in this genre-blending, style-crossing spirit. His debut, KINFOLK: Postcards from Everywhere, earned two Grammy nominations. Speaking about his vision for the album, Smith said: “My goal was to start with the simplest elements—singable melodies with familiar harmonies—and use them to weave stories that felt nostalgic without being overly sentimental.” He received the same number of nominations for his follow-up project, Kinfolk 2: See The Birds. In addition to these well-known albums, he has released three more titles, all marked by a distinctive compositional and instrumental contribution.

At his JazzFestBrno concert, Nate Smith will perform in a trio with James Francies, a keyboardist signed to the prestigious Blue Note label, for which he has recorded two solo albums, and bassist Michael League, the driving force behind the highly successful and popular group Snarky Puppy.

Nate Smith – drums, James Francies – keys, Michael League – bass

One of the greatest living legends of jazz—and one of the most important and influential saxophonists in the history of the genre—celebrated his eighty-seventh birthday this March. Charles Lloyd has, over the course of his career, traversed virtually the entire history of jazz, beginning in the early 1950s when he first stepped onto the professional scene.

 

The Memphis native’s bloodline is a mix of African, Native American, Mongolian, and Irish heritage. However, it was the African American roots that prevailed, and Charles Lloyd began his musical journey with the best foundation: the blues. And not just any blues—early in his career, he accompanied such legendary blues singers as Howlin’ Wolf, B.B. King, and Bobby “Blue” Bland. In 1956, he moved to Los Angeles, where he absorbed the art of musicianship and “the jazz life” from figures like Ornette Coleman, Billy Higgins, Don Cherry, and Eric Dolphy.

In the mid-1960s, he formed his famous quartet featuring Keith Jarrett (piano), Cecil McBee (double bass), and Jack DeJohnette (drums), and found success with the album Dream Weaver. The real breakthrough came with the release of Forest Flower: Live at Monterey (1966), an album considered one of the most significant jazz recordings of the decade. It was among the first jazz albums to sell over a million copies and to be played on mainstream radio stations. Charles Lloyd became, in effect, a pop star of the “Summer of Love,” sharing stages with the likes of Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, Cream, the Grateful Dead, and Jefferson Airplane. In 1967, he even toured behind the Iron Curtain, performing at Prague’s Lucerna Hall. Reflecting on that concert, Charles Lloyd later said:
“I remember that time as an incredibly fragile balance between the people and the ruling powers. Music was like a magnet, a signal calling for freedom. It was, in a way, an expression of a claim to freedom. I think because we ourselves head toward freedom each night on our explorations into the world of music, people feel it directly, heart to heart.”

At the peak of his career in the early 1970s, however, Charles Lloyd disbanded his group and withdrew from the wild lifestyle of the music industry to settle in Big Sur, California. He ventured out only occasionally for guest recordings, including contributing to four late-period albums by the rock group The Beach Boys. Lloyd fully returned to the scene more than a decade later with a new group featuring the young, soon-to-be-famous French pianist Michel Petrucciani. After two live albums and one cassette, Lloyd once again retreated to Big Sur, devoting his time to meditation and the study of Indian philosophy. His music has always reflected a leaning toward Eastern musical thinking, deeply connected to his spiritual orientation—often noted as a continuation of the path set by another jazz giant, John Coltrane.

Charles Lloyd’s lasting return to music came in 1988 with a new quartet featuring the gifted Swedish pianist Bobo Stenson. Signing with the iconic Munich label ECM, Lloyd remained loyal to it until 2013. Two years later, he joined the equally prestigious Blue Note label, producing a series of fascinating projects—such as The Marvels featuring country singer Lucinda Williams, offering a unique vision of modern Americana, and a trilogy of trio recordings, each with a different star-studded lineup (including Bill Frisell, Gerald Clayton, and Julian Lage).

His most recent album, The Sky Will Still Be There Tomorrow, was released in March last year, recorded with an all-star quartet featuring pianist Jason Moran, bassist Larry Grenadier, and drummer Brian Blade. The album received an extraordinary score of 95 out of 100 on Metacritic, a site that aggregates reviews from critics—an excellent invitation to his upcoming concert in Brno. And indeed, Lloyd will appear in a very similar lineup at JazzFestBrno, with one change: behind the drums, the equally brilliant Eric Harland will take the place of Brian Blade.

Charles Lloyd – tenor saxophone, Jason Moran – piano, Larry Grenadier – bass, Eric Harland – drums

One of the most beautiful voices on the Czech music scene. But not only that. There are many singers who are brilliant performers, for whom vocal mastery is the alpha and omega of everything they do. But Marie Puttnerová is a completely different case. She has something to say—and she says something important through her singing.

 

She began in the children’s choir Skřivánek, continued with the ensemble Ondráš, but her true career really started when she became a member of the genre-defying group Jablkoň, with whom she had already performed as part of Skřivánek. Over time, together with Michal Němec, Jablkoň’s frontman, she formed the duo Půljablkoň, and soon other artists began to take notice—mostly those who created anything but background music for relaxation. Among them was Jakub König, who invited her to join his project Kittchen as a guest and later as a full-fledged member of the “alternative big band” Zvíře jménem Podzim. She also collaborated with singer-songwriters such as Cermaque, Petr Linhart, and Mirek Kemel. Still, she was waiting for the opportunity to show, through a solo project, what she truly had inside.

That moment came in 2023, when she released her debut album Lajla Tov. Deep, introspective songs, created in collaboration with guitarists Martin Novák and Petr Uvira, and brilliantly produced by renowned Brit Eddie Stevens, became one of the highlights of the season. It’s no wonder the album won the Anděl Award in the folk category—even though its sound was far removed from traditional Czech perceptions of the genre. The album and its corresponding live program include not only Puttnerová’s own lyrics, but also musical settings of poetry by two writers: Vlastimil Třešňák and Jan Zahradníček, the latter a political prisoner under communism, whose testimony Puttnerová imbued with striking depth and tenderness.

Marie Puttnerová further cemented her place on the Czech music scene in 2024 with the album Zelená oblaka, růžové stromy (Green Clouds, Pink Trees), on which she sang songs by Zuzana Navarová—a legendary Czech songwriter—together with some of the finest musicians on the scene, under the production of Petr Ostrouchov. This was no easy feat—few would dare take on such a task. The overwhelmingly positive response confirmed that this bold move had been the right one.

If you have the chance to see a duo on stage who have collaborated on just three albums—two of which won Grammy Awards—there’s hardly a better recommendation for attending such an extraordinary soirée.

 

Taylor Eigsti was considered a child prodigy by the age of four. He quickly began showcasing his piano skills in live concerts, smoothly advanced through his musical education, and eventually left university during his second year to pursue a flourishing professional career. The list of artists he has performed or recorded with reads like a jazz encyclopedia: Dave Brubeck, Joshua Redman, Sting, John Mayer, Esperanza Spalding, Chick Corea, Snarky Puppy, McCoy Tyner, Dianne Reeves, Kurt Elling, John Patitucci, Joe Lovano, Terence Blanchard, and Julian Lage, to name just a few.

And that doesn’t even include the symphony orchestras with which Eigsti regularly collaborates, walking a parallel path in the world of classical music—both as a performer and a composer.

He recorded his first solo album, Tay’s Groove, in the classic piano trio format at the age of 14. His major-label debut, Lucky To Be Me, was released by Concord Records in 2006 and featured an all-star lineup including guitarist Julian Lage, bassist Christian McBride, and drummer Lewis Nash. The album earned Eigsti his first two Grammy nominations.

On his seventh album, Daylight at Midnight (2010), Eigsti invited vocalist Becca Stevens to join him. After more than a decade-long hiatus from recording, he returned to the studio to create Tree Falls, again featuring Becca Stevens. Three years later, they reunited for his most recent release, Plot Armor. Both albums won Grammy Awards. While they triumphed in the category of Best Contemporary Instrumental Album, there’s no doubt that Stevens’ vocal contributions left a lasting impression on the Grammy voting committee.

Becca Stevens has, for over a decade, ranked among the most beloved artists working at the intersection of jazz, pop, indie rock, and folk. Her distinctive voice and singular style have captivated not only Taylor Eigsti but also legendary figures such as David Crosby, pianist Brad Mehldau, and multi-instrumentalist Jacob Collier—with each of whom she has recorded multiple albums. She has also collaborated with major names like Esperanza Spalding, Gretchen Parlato, José James, and Snarky Puppy, all while developing a rich solo career, which has seen her release nearly ten albums of original material to the delight of her devoted fan base.

The eccentric flutist in a beanie has, for decades—and still today at eighty-two years old—been a kind of visual “logo,” the embodiment of Czech jazz. And that’s despite the fact that Jiří Stivín has spent most of his life crossing and transcending that narrow category in every imaginable direction. One such direction is his lifelong passion for photography, which will be showcased in a retrospective exhibition as part of JazzFestBrno.

 

It all began with the fact that he didn’t originally study music at all—he studied cinematography at FAMU. No surprise there: his mother, Eva Svobodová, was a prominent Czech film actress. His first noteworthy band, where he played the saxophone, was the rock’n’roll group Sputnici, but his serious journey into jazz began in 1964, when he co-founded the group Jazz Q with pianist Martin Kratochvíl. After a few years, he left the group and began focusing on various projects under his own name. His first major international success came with his unique duo with guitarist Rudolf Dašek, known as System Tandem. The duo’s live album recorded in Lublin, Poland, was also highly successful.

Jiří Stivín absorbed a wide range of musical influences—from early music, through various developmental phases of jazz and rock, to avant-garde and contemporary classical music—and transformed them into something uniquely his own in both recordings and live performances. Some of his most notable albums include the genre-defying Zvěrokruh (Zodiac), the free-jazz collaboration Výlety (Excursions) with percussionist Pierre Favre, the minimalist Zrcadlení (Reflections) with vocalist Mirka Křivánková, and Status Quo Vadis, where he shared the spotlight with rock guitarist Michal Pavlíček. Unlike the carefully crafted studio projects of the 1970s and 1980s, most of Stivín’s discography since the 1990s consists of live concert recordings. That’s because a key element of Jiří Stivín’s artistry—alongside his ever-present wit and virtuosity—has always been his relentless passion for improvisation. There were times when attending a Stivín concert meant being prepared for anything: you never knew what lineup he’d appear with, what style he’d explore, or what kind of show he’d put on. And Jiří Stivín remains faithful to his reputation as a dynamic live performer to this day.

A pianist and composer regarded as one of the greatest jazz talents in the United Kingdom—a claim that is not just a wishful boast, but a logical consequence of his accomplishments so far.

 

Ashley Henry studied at the Royal Academy of Music. After graduating in 2016, he performed with artists such as Jason Marsalis, Terence Blanchard, Jean Toussaint, and at the International Piano Trio Festival with Robert Glasper. He was also a finalist in the Unisa International Piano Competition in South Africa.

Henry’s debut album, Beautiful Vinyl Hunter, was released in 2020 and received significant critical acclaim. BBC 6, for example, nominated it for Album of the Year, making it only the second jazz album ever to achieve such recognition. That same year, Ashley Henry was named New Jazz Artist of the Year by France Jazz Magazine.

Ashley Henry’s sound reflects both his London upbringing and his Caribbean heritage. While grounded in his classical music education, he is unafraid to stray from formal training whenever his distinctive music demands it. His intellectual and musical inspirations include James Baldwin and Angela Davis, as well as Ahmad Jamal, George Benson, Geri Allen, and Aretha Franklin.

In 2023, Ashley Henry founded his own label, Royal Raw Music, with the aim of continually advancing and expanding the boundaries of artistic expression and collaboration. The following year, he released his second and most recent studio album, Who We Are. The answer to that question will surely resonate during his November concert at JazzFestBrno.