Czech bassist Robert Balzar has put together an intriguing collection of contemporary but very accessible jazz on his 2005 release, Overnight. This is the trio’s third release under the bassist’s name. Piano trios notoriously have little aural variation. That is not the case here.
With some creative arranging and intelligent programming, there is a wide spectrum of mood and approach. From the gentle ‘Lady Behind the Window’ to the frenetic undertaking of John Coltrane’s ‘Moment’s Notice’ there is plenty of variety. Balzar employs the full range of the instrument and his tasteful arco playing at times soars above the others. The natural woody character of the bass is clear and propels the trio throughout the CD.
Balzar comfortably moves between his supportive roles of playing solid bass- lines to leading the charge with inventive, melodic solos. There are three standard tunes and all are arranged with rhythmical devices in mind, playing in odd time signatures. These are the more sprightly of the nine tracks. However, it is the original compositions where this group shines. Balzar is as talented a composer as he is a double bassist.
There is a decidedly classical influence on the music as well as the obvious jazz influences such as Keith Jarrett’s groups of the 1970s. There is also a sense of purpose in the original music that isn’t shared in the standards. The players become more attuned to one another, which is evident in the performance.
All in all, a good outing for the trio.
Duncan Hopkins
Robert Balzar is one of the best and busiest jazz bassists in town. His acoustic group, the Robert Balzar Trio, recently released a new CD of acoustic jazz originals and covers called Overnight. He also plays and records with a number of vocalists.
Unlike his previous two CDs with his trio, this one was recorded in Warsaw, Poland. "I met a great sound engineer who works for Polish Radio," Balzar says. "In an acoustic trio, you really need a good sound engineer to create a space and make clear sound."
Working with Tadeusz Mieczkowski — who made a hit CD with Pat Metheny and Polish singer and pianist Anna Marie Jopek — wasn't the only reason for crossing the border. "In Polish Radio they have eight Steinway pianos," Balzar says.
Of the nine songs on the new CD, three are covers and six are originals. While there are no lyrics, the original songs all have a meaning. "Ben in Jam" is inspired by his son Benjamin. "Lady Behind the Window" is dedicated to his girlfriend.
The covers, including "Moment's Notice" by John Coltrane, feature new arrangements. A new perspective on the songs is important when you are living in 2005, Balzar says. "It's different than it was in 1950." He borrows ideas from heroes such as Charlie Parker and Miles Davis but also works in influences from rock, funk, soul and world music. "Today you can feel more ethno music because the world is brought closer by the Internet and everything else," Balzar says.
Live shows with his trio, which includes Stanislav Mácha on piano and Jirí Slavícek on drums, feature songs from the new CD along with his previous two. While the shows aren't jam sessions, they generally aren't planned beyond the first three songs, after which Balzar tries to sense what the audience wants to hear. "We feel what they want, like more swingy stuff, more classical stuff," he says.
Balzar and his trio also back vocalist Yvonne Sanchez. "It is really a different sound when you play with singers," he says. That show consists mostly of standards like "All of Me" and "The Way You Look Tonight."
Balzar adopts a different style for his performances with chanson singer Hana Hegerová. "I play with the bow, more classical style, because this group doesn't use a drummer. That means the rhythm is on me."
Balzar also plays with Dan Bárta's groups Illustratosphere and J.A.R. He likes the interaction between jazz and rock, although the big shows are less intimate and spontaneous than playing in a jazz club.
One of Balzar's claims to fame is playing at Reduta with then-President Bill Clinton in 1994. "He's a nice person, very friendly," Balzar says. "He knows jazz standards by ear because he's an American and this is American culture." Not surprisingly, Balzar was more impressed by his opportunity to jam with Wynton Marsalis. "He takes you to a little bit of a different kind of rhythm."
Balzar plays a restored 150-year-old double bass that his father found in a church in a badly damaged state. "It was totally crushed, you know, a thousand pieces," Balzar says. Still, it was easier than finding a new double bass. "Now, the violin makers make [strictly] violins because for one violin they get the same money as for one bass. So nobody is making double basses anymore."
But Balzar is quick to note that while an old instrument often adds a distinctive flavor, it's not the key element. "The instrument is important," he says, "but you have your own sound inside you."
Raymond Johnston
The Prague Post - 31. 08. 2005
There's no need to look for superlatives and endorsements from world-renowned names because music created by Balzar - double bass, Macha - piano, Slavicek - drums leaves no doubt. I'm known as a sensible person, very judicious and critical, and also quite bored by jazz. However, the guys play fantastically!!! The solos! The sounds! This is timeless well-mastered mainstream, which oozes with jazz like the spring with new life. It also draws handfuls of beauty from classical music. This is the finish line in a long-distance race.
Petra Konrádová
Reflex - 02. 06. 2005
On a crowded night at Reduta jazz club, a large group of noisy teenage tourists walk in during a performance by the Robert Balzar Trio. The group of fidgety boys and girls appears more interested in conversation and taking photos than in listening to a jazz performance. Playing to an indifferent audience: It’s every performer’s nightmare. But on this particular night, that is exactly what Robert Balzar must do. And so, in the middle of Wayne Shorter’s Black Nile, the pianist and drummer fade out as Balzar launches into a seven-minute bass solo. The teenage mob is not only silent, the kids are downright riveted. In the realm of mainstream Prague jazz, it doesn’t get much better than Robert Balzar and his stage partners, Stanislav Mácha (piano) and Jiøí Slavíèek (drums). They are all conservatory graduates, and Balzar was trained as a classical musician. He sees no conflict between his schooling and his current occupation: “If guys like (J.S.) Bach were alive today, they’d be jazz musicians.” Slavíèek is one of the few local jazz drummers who goes beyond technical proficiency. Slavíèek ‘could go to New York tomorrow and make it. As far as I´m concerned, I play with the two best musicians in Prague”, Balzar says. Last year the group picked up a couple of Karel Velebný – prestigious Czech jazz prizes – winning best album for its double CD, Alone, and also winning best group of the year. (The trio’s CD is available at Bontonland, Václavské nám. 1). The single “Alone” also appears on the Czech Gramy-award-winning album Illustratosphere put out by Dan Bárta, a fixture on the Czech music scene. Balzar´s trio performs mostly originals. Its repertoire, flavored with bebop, covers a spectrum of rhythms, from the disharmonic “Vinohradská 32” to the melodic “Wintertime” and the energetic “Rob-in”. In the 1990s, Balzar himself bounced around from band to band, but for the last two years he seems to have found a home with his present trio.
When Balzar handles his 150-yers-old double bass, he does so with an aggressive tenacity, sweat falls from his forehead and veins become visible on his temples and arms. Usually the bass, producing a less dynamic sound than the drums or piano, has difficulty drawing an audience in with its solos. But Balzar’s bass solos, as the teenage tourists witnessed, are remarkably absorbing. And part of the allure is just watching the master get lost in the moment. Balzar says, "There are times on stage when I don’t know what’s around me."
Lance Crossley
The Prague Post - 08. 01. 2001
Jazz vocalist Yvonne Sanchez first saw Dan Bárta sing five or six years ago. The frontman for the band Alice was “singing this hard rock, and I was thinking ‘My god, this guy has a voice,’ she says. “Even though it wasn’t my genre of music, I connected with it. When something is good, you know it’s good.” Some time later, the two met again, while working with local bassist Robert Balzar. That collaboration led to a new duo that is quickly becoming one of the sweetest, hottest tickets in town. “There is no other singer I would dream of being with beyond Dan.” The exotically beautiful Sanchez says. “There is no other singer in this country who can sing jazz like him.” Bárta has wrapped his versatile voice around almost every genre of music – from his hard rock days with Alice to the funky Sexy Dancers to the musical Jesus Christ Superstar. “I’m trying to find myself through singing,” says Bárta, whose recent album Illustratosphere won a Czech Gramy. “What I love about singing jazz is its fragility. It brings forth this fragile voice in me. And with Yvonne’s wonderful, voluptuous voice, I think it offers a great contrast.” The result on stage is a tender exchange of yin and yang, with the roles of yin and yang alternating between the two artists. “It’s about love,” Sanchez says. “It’s about passion.” Though Sanchez and Bárta could easily fill a bigger venue than Železná (it is absolutely essential to reserve tickets), they aren’t looking for another location. “This is a small stage and an intimate place. It’s perfect for the music and our voices,” Sanchez says. “Also, we aren’t looking to push this thing. We are just enjoying it.” Bárta doesn’t know if he has found himself in jazz, but he does know that he is getting closer to where he wants to be. “The world consists of details and the details are fragile,” he says. “That fragility is exciting for me. The worlds and the scales of everything are changing in the details. That fascinates me.”
Lance Crossley
The Prague Post - 09. 12. 2001
It’s never been easy to be a jazz musician – especially in your native land. Just consider Bud Powell going mad in Paris, Ben Webster freezing in Stockholm and Eric Dolphy dead of heart failure, at 36, in Berlin. Never mind the racism that drove many American jazz musicians to drink, dope and exile, the nature of the music itself seems to threaten those who like their music bland, derivative and profitable.
Or, as the avant-garde saxophonist Ornette Coleman put it, “It’s gotten so that in your relationships to every system that has some sort of power, you have to pay to become part of that power, just in order to do what you want to do. ...Power makes purpose secondary.”
Unless they are named, for example, Marsalis, Rollins or Stivín, jazz musicians are vulnerable to the power of the market and its marketeers, especially in a jazz market as small as that in this country. The scramble for limited profits inevitably breeds petty jealousies, trivial conflicts and small minds. So, it speaks volumes about the Czech jazz scene that one of its most accomplished musicians, the 35-year-old bassist Robert Balzar – who has played with the likes of Benny Bailey, Joe Newman, David Friedman and Carter Jefferson and has been a sideman on at lest 10 other Czech jazz CDs – had to go outside the Czech Republic to record his first CD under his own name. The reason is simple. The powers-that-be in Czech jazz are for the most part nasty, brutish and short-sighted.
Perhaps even more egregious, the CD, which was issued in May of last year, has not been available in any of the large (or small) music outlets in the country until very recently. And, who knows, if the aptly titled Travelling (it was recorded in Ostrava and produced in Weinsberg, Germany) had not been selected jazz record of the year by the listeners of Radio Vltava and if the Robert Balzar Trio had not been named group of the year by the Czech Jazz Society, the CD still might not be on sale here except at Balzar’s gigs and through private outlets.
The good news is that Travelling makes monkeys out of the musical martinets who control the recording scene here. It’s a marvelously hip and accessible record, and provides more proof that Balzar is the authentic heir to the rich tradition that has produced such outstanding, internationally known Czech bassists as Miroslav Vitouš and George Mraz. The CD comprises eight tunes composed by Balzar, and from the seductive opening bars of “The Patriot” to the brief closing bass solo "For Your Sound" the tracks illustrate not only his virtuosity and inventiveness as a musician but his maturity as a composer. The music is consistently toetappingly rhythmic and irrepressibly mellow, even in the lovely ballad “Ginette,” where Balzar’s bass presents an articulate and blithe counterpoint to pianist Stanislav Mácha’s long meditative lines.
The CD’s highlight is no doubt the title tune, which shifts tempo with blissful ease and contains a marvelous exchange of choruses between Balzar and the trio’s drummer, Marek Patrman. (As engaging ad the tune is on CD, it’s a sheer swinging delight when experienced live in one of Prague’s jazz clubs.)
Since the Robert Balzar Trio was formed nearly three years ago, it has developed into the country’s best jazz combo. Mácha has blossomed into a marvelous pianist. His playing has become assured and muscular, but without losing the sensitivity that distinguishes him from other pianists his age. Patrman has always been a powerful and creative percussionist. With Balzar, he has developed discipline and tact.
The sad news is that Patrman is currently in Belgium, looking for a more felicitous setting in which to practice his trade, which could signify the end of the trio. The brilliant saxophonist Karel Rùžièka Jr. is in New York, slowly building a career. And it remains to be seen how much longer Balzar, Mácha and pianist Jan Knop, the best of their generation, will hold out here if the climate does not improve.
Not surprisingly, the Robert Balzar Trio’s next CD, Moon River, a marvelous collection of standards and two Balzar compositions, will also be produced abroad, either with the Norwegian label Gemini or in France.
I can certainly foresee a time in the not-too-distant future when the Czech Republic’s best young jazz musicians will all be abroad, and only elder statesmen and young second-raters will remain. Then, someone may raise serious questions about the reasons for the decline and fall of Czech jazz.
Or perhaps not.
Siegfried Mortkowitz
The Prague Post