Martin Kratochvíl is one of Czech’s biggest jazz and jazz fusion pioneers. In 1964 he co founded the group Jazz Q which allowed him to become one of the most popular musicians of Czechoslovakia. Leading up to the Velvet Revolution in 1989, Kratochvíl and his group continued gaining popularity both within Czechoslovakia and the world. Post 1989, Kratochvíl was able to launch his career to new heights even founding his own record label, Bonton Music.
Picture courtesy of Celeste Newman
How did you begin playing music?
My mother was singing to the cradle when I was young, some nice songs. But really, I started playing about the age of maybe five, six years of age. It was actually a year before I attended regular school. My mother was so clever. She said, “well, okay, we’ll start before you go to class”. But I mean, that was just some modest beginning, but it was interrupted several times. Because sometimes it was boring and I didn’t like it. Sometimes I had a very good teacher, but then it caught up again, you know, and so it was divided into maybe three or four chapters depending on the teachers.
Did you always play piano?
No, I wanted to play the trumpet. But I actually started with piano, then there was the first intermission where I cut piano and started playing trumpet. Then, I met a trumpet player who was, you know, 1000 times better than I was. So, I thought that the piano would be more appropriate. We actually started a group: trumpet, piano, and then drums. Three guys from school. It was around the age of probably twelve or thirteen.
Did you start with classical music or folk music?
I had a funny family set up. My mother was schooled and trained in classical piano music. She loved playing operas. While my father was a real failure, you know, he couldn’t play accurately or real chords, but he just loved it. So it was a funny setup, because my mother didn’t play often. My father was playing all the time. So I had both examples. Maybe jazz and music belong to both of these.
What was it like playing jazz, which is very individualistic and improvisational during the time of communism?
Well, I’ll tell you first that it probably was not the “jazz” as you’ll perceive it now. It wasn’t Armstrong or Ellington. But rather it was, “jazz something” which was touching real jazz, but also touching popular music and of dance music and stuff. So it was all sort of a mixture. And it only became jazz when I was about 18, when I actually started to understand where the Jazz is and where the dance music is. And in the communist time, in between the two wars, there was a tradition of Cabaret in Prague, where the black guys from the States were coming to play, you know, it wasn’t very common. And everybody had a black man singing or playing harp or whatever and people were coming to see them.
But then the Depression came, and the producers didn’t have enough money to keep the black groups. And I had a friend who actually was one of them. I met him in Munich 50 years after this, because I wasn’t born in those days, but he was telling me exactly what it was. So the landlord or the dance hall said, “Okay, I’m sorry, I wouldn’t have enough money to pay. The Depression is here.” So what can we do? And then he said, “Okay, I’ll keep you for the next two years. But there is one condition that you will be singing in the Czech language.”
So you can imagine it was funny. And we met this guy with Tony Ackerman (musician and Professor at NYU), playing in Munich at Symphony Hall, and he drank all our whiskey. And then he was telling us what it was like because he knew all the politicians of those between the wars, that’s, you know, so it was kind of fun to hear how it was swinging there in Germany. And then communist era came with a funny dichotomy. On one hand, they hated everything which was coming from the west. On the other hand, they didn’t want to touch the jazz, because they thought Jazz is a music of the oppressed working class.
So, they would let jazz be performed, because it was a black working class music of poor American people. So the communists wouldn’t touch jazz, but they would purge rock and roll, which was born in those days in the 50s and 60s. We had this name Jazz Q and it’s not a genius name, I think my mother gave it to us, when we were somewhere starting playing somewhere. And then we found out that it was very clever, because it was bringing this sort of immunity that they will purge all these rock groups in the early 70s. But the jazz was protected or maybe not, not open to the beating. We had a year, 1972 after the Russian invasion, which was very rough and was anti revolution communist crap. They stopped all the rock music because they didn’t like it. But jazz Q was somehow making it. It was a funny thing where jazz could maybe save your career.
How did you discover jazz fusion?
I was about 22 I think in the year 1967. And I thought it’d be nice to have a year or two, spending time somewhere else besides Prague. I picked Great Britain. So I went to Britain and spent this most beautiful 1968 year in the golden era seeing Jimi Hendrix and all those very famous guys. They were there. They were not famous yet but already performing. And so that’s how I’ve seen the beginnings of jazz fusion like John McLaughlin, maybe John Sermon, which was more on the jazz side. And so that was the boiling pot. You know, there was a boiling thing in the end of the 60s. And I was at the right time at the right place. So I’ve seen all those festivals and all the Isle of Wight and I’ve seen Jimi Hendrix and all those, all those famous guys. It was happening in England, maybe more than in the States. But England was good in those days.
We went to the Pori Jazz Festival in Finland in 1972. And we already were playing on the influence of John McLaughlin. Maybe or, and there was Chick Corea coming but nobody knew him too much. And so we’re playing, we’re sharing the concerts. Us playing second after him. I always say that he was, like, opening stuff to go out and then we came to play. First, it’s not quite true. I think he was actually catching a plane. But on the other hand, nobody knew him. It was 1972 when it was actually gaining some shape that was returned to forever cheaper. But it was forming already. It wasn’t hanging in the air, you know?
If you are interested in seeing Martin Kratochvíl and Jazz Q in person, check out Agharta’s website to see the next time he is playing.