The Vilém Spilka Quartet included surprising material in their new album Podvod. The band, headed by the director and dramaturgist of the JazzFest Brno Festival, recorded instrumental jazz arrangements of songs Hejna včel, Tulácký ráno, Na kameni kámen, Stánky and other campfire hit songs by Jan Nedvěd. He had a chance to listen to the recording shortly after its completion and we spoke to Vilém Spilka about Nedvěd’s reaction. And the interview, of course, also covered Porta, sausages and a campfire pot.
Vilém, why did you decide to release an album with arrangements of songs by Jan Nedvěd? Is it a joke, or, conversely, a tribute to the author who has recently celebrated his 70th birthday?
I think that it includes something of both of the two positions. There is a certain Cimrman element in it, because we do not want anyone to know exactly what we mean by it. We take it somewhat seriously and somewhat we don't. Above all, those songs have their value, and that is why we chose them. Furthermore, they themselves encourage further arrangements. Their raw original interpretation by the Brontosauři band and that Jan Nedvěd himself is platitudinous, thus creates enough space for us to be able to do something with it rhythmically, harmonically and ideologically. The songs themselves therefore provoked my arrangement-focused thinking to arrange them somehow but not to assault them.
Cover version can work even when you simplify the original. But you are talking about the original "platitudinous" versions. Does this mean that you had to expand them in the arrangements?
To a certain extent. I tried to respect the basis of Nedvěd's music, which is largely based on common chords. So, tritone chords are used here which is typical of folk music, country and some pop. If I added more intervals and built the harmony on seventh chords, it would not be quite it. I have done that several times but I tried to keep the core of the selection in the harmonic base and only add other nuances – metric changes or improvisational segments that shifted the whole somewhere else, where my jazz "I" had more opportunity to express itself. I have that encoded in me more than folk which I used to listen to a lot when I was young. So, it seemed to me that we all as a band can sufficiently enjoy ourselves and the base can remain purer. The clarity of the songs, which may seem naive to some and seems naive to me in many lyrics, was supposed to excel. However, when one puts the lyrics aside, they are left with beautiful musical material that directly invites the person to play it.
So, do you see Jan Nedvěd more as a melody creator than an author of important messages?
Yes, more of a melody creator, even though the lyrics often correspond to the melody through a certain cheesiness. They may be sometimes too whiny for me and also indebted to the times, in which they were written, but I can free myself from that. However, the lyrics helped us when phrasing melodies. It is always good to respect the lyrics when phrasing the topics. The listeners known them that way and when you assault a song, suddenly you are telling a different story. That was therefore perhaps the main influence of the lyrics on our music. But as I said, Nedvěd's lyrics are lamentations or small complaints about how the world works, simply a confession of an idealist. We see them a little bit as an equivalent of American blues, where they originally lamented about slavery and work on plantations. Nedvěd's blues is not about plantations, instead it is about the fact that a person has some life ideals and values that the world and time break down.
So, did you try to make sure that people recognise the songs in your arrangements?
Mostly, of course, yes, but I also always added some sort of a puzzle in the arrangement. For example, the song Hejna včel is written with much respect to the original version but a long instrumental segment is inserted where the playing is almost entirely free and where there is no defined harmony but it is played freely around the pedal tone that unifies the entire composition. The song is written in a way that it is dominated by a repetitive riff and there is melody over it. I thought it would be a shame to demolish what works great. The basis is therefore original and the interpretation of Brontosauři is excellent, Jan Nedvěd wrote the song well and the band sang it excellently. However, we thought that due to the lamentation in the lyrics we would insert a slightly angry segment with dissonances that moved the song a little bit. But we respect the basis.
You speak in plural. Let's introduce your bandmates.
Saxophonist Radek Zapadlo is my long-time friend, with whom I have recorded many things and who plays in virtually all of my bands. Originally, he performed mainly on tenor saxophone, but in this band, it is today more often alt and soprano saxophone. Martin Kleibl, who is in the band with me for the first time, plays the drums. Originally, he focused on the classics and he gradually progressed to jazz. And Vlastimil Trllo, my colleague from the JazzFest Brno, plays bass. Originally he is a bass player but recently he has also been focusing on contrabass. We enjoy playing with this line-up not only because we are friends, which is the foundation, but we still have a lot to learn and we can keep moving forward.
When you joined the band with the idea to record songs by Jan Nedvěd, what were the reactions of your bandmates?
They were mixed – Radek Zapadlo even downright did not believe in it. Perhaps he had little doubt because people see him and subsequently us as the preservers of the purity of the genre or musicians who do not compromise much. However, I have been of a different opinion for several years. If you take it seriously and sincerely, you will find your audience. And if not, then you are probably doing something wrong. I really believed it. I gradually explained it to Radek and I think he understood that this music can work even before I brought the first arrangements.
I know that you consulted the recorded material with Jan Nedvěd. What was his reaction?
I met with Jan Nedvěd in the spring at Musilka in Brno, it was April which corresponded to the situation. We talked about the project in the changing room for about 15 minutes and then I sent him the compositions that we arranged. Allegedly, he liked Hejna včel the most. I think that he accepted it and there was no hint of offence in his reaction and he did not feel like we meant it pejoratively. And we didn't, as I explained at the beginning. I think that when someone takes your material and arranges it differently, it usually, unless it is a clear parody or ridicule, boosts the original author's ego.
And could you imagine that he would not accept it at all?
Yes, I counted with it as Plan B which I would have had to address. Consent of the author is important rather morally, it is not fully legally enforceable. In terms of royalties, most of it goes to him, therefore in principle he will not be worse off materially. He would have actually hurt himself, had he not consented.
There are many more well-known songs by Jan Nedvěd than the eight you eventually included in the album. How did you choose them?
I was thinking about what to choose because he certainly has thirty or forty good songs. I took the ones that began to sound in my head and ask for an arrangement themselves. For example, the song Valčíček was obvious, where I would have obligatorily changed the meter from 3/4 to 5/4 but eventually it seemed to me to be unnecessary to "brain assault" it like that. Therefore, I waited for songs that would intuitively appeal to me and then I arranged those. For example, Růže z papíru is a seven-eighths song and has a certain "jazz-Balkan touch" but it "asked" for this meter. I changed Tulácký ráno from 4/4 to 3/4 because the atmosphere of the misty morning at the Oslava and Sázava Rivers seemed adequate to waltz to me. And I had to rework Stánky because I initially did the chorus with my brain too and it did not pay off. Therefore, I wrote another option.
I know that you made a set of photos for the project...
Yes, we spent a pleasant weekend at the Oslava River. We were photographed by Roman Franc who still uses the traditional roll film. We spent time at the campsite, we cooked potato stew in a campfire pot, roasted sausages and in the evening we went to the village pub. We took photos and started conversations with real tramps, among whom we fit perfectly.
Would you like to head to folk and tramp festivals with Nedvěd's songs?
We are thinking about it a little bit and, of course, there has been the idea that we would sign up for Porta. I hope I do not forget about it and we do not miss the application deadline. It would be a continuation of the original Cimrman idea. We will frequently play these songs for a year or two and then only occasionally. I think that I could make another album out of Nedvěd's songs but it would be the same joke told twice.
You play the songs in concerts. Have you ever noticed some reactions of listeners who do not know Jan Nedvěd? Abroad, for instance?
A Slovak band played after us at a festival and they asked whether the songs were mine. And they said that they were good. And in August we had a concert in Debrecen, Hungary which was therefore a completely unknowing audience. I explained what the songs were and they took it well. We added a bonus and enjoyed it. People took it well since it is good music, played decently and with our own contribution.
