Vlasta Průchová

Vlasta Průchová [ vlasta pru ː xova ː ] ( born July 12, 1926 in Ružomberok, Czechoslovakia (now Slovakia), † 16 June, 2006 Prague) was a Czech jazz singer. Her style ranged from swing to bebop and referred Czech folklore with a.

Career

Průchová was the first lady and pioneer of Czech jazz music. Her career, which began in the 1940s in Prague jazz club Pygmalion, took more than half a century. She has performed with leading orchestras and musicians, for example, with the orchestras of Karel Krautgartner, Karel Vlach or Ferdinand Havlík or group Rytmus 47 from the Pygmalion. Very successful were her duets with Karel Gott, Milan Chladil or Karel Hála.

With the title " docela všední obyčejný the o PUL šesté ... " ( " A normal, ordinary day at half past five " ) won Vlasta Průchová 1957 a television competition.

After her son Jan Hammer emigrated from Czechoslovakia after the Prague Spring in 1968, she could still occur but do not take pictures for twenty years. At this time she had to form new bands or search and it began working with young musicians such as Emil Viklický and Zdeněk Zdeněk. Only after the Velvet Revolution in 1989 she sang again her jazz songs.

She was married to the cardiologist and jazz musician Jan Hammer. Her son, Jan Hammer Jr., is a jazz pianist and keyboardist, who now mainly creates film scores.

Discography

• Emil Viklický, Just an Ordinary Day, 1999
• Tonight, arta Records, 1992 ( Vlasta Průchová - voc, Swinging Quintet: František Kop - ts, Zdeněk Zdeněk - p, Peter Binder - g, Vít Fiala - b, Vladimír Zizka - dr)