Every year, ahead of the new concert season, the Brno Philharmonic organises the week-long open-air Špilberk Festival in the great courtyard of Brno’s Špilberk Castle, featuring a diverse programme of genres and ensembles. On Thursday, 20 August, the festival project entitled Erik Truffaz & Gustav Brom Czech Radio Big Band: Around Miles was performed to commemorate the centenary of the birth of jazz trumpeter Miles Davis. This third concert in the series was co-produced with JazzFest Brno and Czech Radio and broadcast live on Czech Radio’s Vltava station.
The programme featured a fusion of modal and experimental jazz from the albums of Miles Davis and contemporary composers. The soloist was the Swiss trumpeter Erik Truffaz, who continues Davis’s legacy and innovation in jazz composition. His distinctive style lies in combining jazz with trends in electronic music, such as drum and bass, hip-hop and ambient music. Another featured soloist was Slovak guitarist David Kollar, known for his work in progressive electronic music. The musicians have been collaborating since 2023, when a live recording of their joint concert was released. On Thursday evening, they were accompanied by the Gustav Brom Czech Radio Big Band, conducted by Vlad Valovič, a big band with a tradition stretching back more than eighty years.
The first part of the programme was dedicated to the collaboration between Miles Davis and the composer Gil Evans and his orchestra. First, they performed a selection of tracks from the 1959 album Porgy and Bess featuring arrangements from George Gershwin’s opera of the same name. This album is notable for its modal nature, Davis’s improvisations and the big band’s instrumentation. From the opening track, The Buzzard Song, Erik Truffaz demonstrated excellent chemistry with the orchestra, playing with effortless nonchalance; even Davis’s iconic playing pose was present. From this selection of tracks, the melancholic Summertime and the final track, Prayer, with the musicians’ perfect unison, were undeniably the highlights. The joy of playing continued on the next album from 1960, Sketches of Spain, which blends Spanish folk music and flamenco into modern jazz. With guitarist David Kollar, the piece Concierto de Aranjuez took on a new, almost rock-like character, mainly thanks to the added tremolo effects of the electronic guitar produced by synthesiser. Will o’ the Wisp, by contrast, had a spiritual quality characterised by layered, cyclical motifs. The finale, Solea, delighted the audience with a sensual trombone and clarinet solo full of energetic melodic embellishments.
The second part of the evening opened with a big band programme featuring both traditional and contemporary repertoire. Vlado Valovič’s conducting was firm and precise, complementing the natural improvisations of the individual soloists. Duke Ellington’s world-famous In a Sentimental Mood gave centre stage to saxophonist Osian Roberts, who shifted the mood from sentimentality towards a more sensual, erotic atmosphere. It is worth highlighting the compositions by the musicians themselves, which lent the evening its unique character. Tomáš Baroš impressed with D1 and its expressive double bass solo, while Richard Šanda brought plenty of energy to the stage with the vibrant trombone number The Flower She Loves the Most.
To round off the evening, Truffaz and Kollar returned to showcase Truffaz’s compositional style. The mysterious Le Soleil d’Eline featured a walking guitar ostinato, over which a mystical flugelhorn monologue floated. In this piece, both musicians seemed to be in an introspective artistic mood. For the finale, the big band joined them to perform the composition Et La Vie Continue. The piece, in which the rhythm section and the guitarist played reggae elements interwoven with swing brass, brought the concert to a close with this original combination in a lively spirit.
Despite the rainy weather at the start, the concert was characterised by a very pleasant and relaxed atmosphere created by the unflagging energy on stage. The only minor criticism concerns a typo in the title of Truffaz’s final piece in the programme.
Performers:
Erik Truffaz – trumpet, flugelhorn
David Kollar – acoustic and electric guitar
The Gustav Brom Czech Radio Big Band, conducted by Vlado Valovič
David Brada – presenter
Programme:
Miles Davis and Gil Evans, based on George Gershwin’s opera of the same name, arr. Richard Šanda
from the album Porgy and Bess – selection:
‘The Buzzard Song’ – ‘Gone, Gone, Gone’ – ‘Summertime’ – ‘There’s a Boat’ – ‘Prayer’
Miles Davis and Gil Evans, arr. Richard Šanda
album Sketches of Spain – selection:
‘Concierto de Aranjuez’ – ‘Will o’ the Wisp’ – ‘Solea’
John Klenner, arr. Rob McConnell
‘Just Friends’
Peter Herbolzheimer
‘Ballad for a Friend’
Tomáš Baroš and Pavel Klimashevski
‘D1’
Duke Ellington
‘In a Sentimental Mood’
Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart
‘My Funny Valentine’
Richard Šanda
‘The Flower She Loves the Most’
Erik Truffaz, arr. Jan Jirucha
‘Le Soleil d’Eline’
‘Et La Vie Continue’
Thursday, 20 August 2026 at 8 pm, Great Courtyard of Špilberk Castle, Brno
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