Clubbing
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The Club Life series takes place in the stylish setting of Cabaret des Péchés, offering intimate, close-up concert experiences. Next year — when JazzFestBrno celebrates its 25th anniversary — the series adds nine new international and Czech artists, bands and ensembles. These include the trio of Jon Cowherd with the famed drummer Brian Blade, the Czech debut of young piano virtuoso Julius Rodriguez, the return of Israeli pianist Shai Maestro, the legendary American organ trio Bernstein–Goldings–Stewart, the Chicago-based Marquis Hill Composers Collective blending jazz, hip hop and neo-soul, and Israeli jazz-rock guitarist Oz Noy with his band. more
The House of Fleda Birthday: Phil Hartnoll, DJ Toky and more
One ticket, two nights, three venues. The Fléda music club celebrates its 24th birthday, bringing together the history of Brno’s club culture with its vibrant present. more
Brno Music Marathon 2025 invites you to enjoy some unique encounters spanning genres and continents
During the summer, Brno's streets, squares, courtyards and courtyards will be abuzz with the Brno Music Marathon 2025 festival. This year for the tenth time. To be held at the beginning of August, this multi-genre festival will offer four days packed with musical discoveries, powerful emotions and prominent names from around the world. You can look forward to a selection of world music, jazz, folk, acoustic and experimental music from more than ten countries. more
During April and May, Brno's Metro Music Bar will host several exceptional names from the world scene - British soul singer Mica Millar, guitar legend Neil Zaza and charismatic rocker Marco Mendoza, who has played with Whitesnake, Thin Lizzy and The Dead Daisies. more
A gig by hypnotic British trio Mammal Hands combining jazz and electronics will open the twenty-fourth annual JazzFestBrno festival at the Fléda club. Newly additions to the line-up are the May concerts of pianist Nikol Bóková with her trio, double bassist Klára Pudláková with MAOMAH, and guitarist David Dorůžka, who will be launching a new joint album with the Piotr Wyleżoł Quartet entitled When the Child Was a Child. From the beginning of February to May, the festival will offer thirteen gigs by some top world jazz stars, as well as performances with a club atmosphere from the Club Life series in the stylish Cabaret des Péchés. more
Iggy Mayerov starts 2025 with new single called Feels Like Yesterday
Iggy Mayerov kicks off 2025 with a new single, Feels Like Yesterday, offering an intimate look at life's losses and changes, and the path to come to terms with what we can't control. The single is currently available on YouTube as a recording of a live concert from the Brno Alterna club, and is a precursor to his upcoming album. more
Although there are still two concerts left before the end of this year's JazzFestBrno festival, the organisers are already coming up with the line-up for next year. From the beginning of February to May, they’ll be offering a total of thirteen concerts featuring major world jazz stars and intimate performances from the Club Life series in the stylish Cabaret des Péchés. The winner of five Grammys, singer Dianne Reeves, one of the most respected figures in the world of orchestral jazz, nine-time Grammy winner Maria Schneider with the Oslo Jazz Ensemble, jazz piano stars and Grammy winners Kris Davis and Sullivan Fortner, the British trio Mammal Hands combining jazz and electronics, Italian virtuoso guitarist Matteo Mancuso - these and many others will all be coming to Brno. more
The Cotatcha Orchestra big band has been on the music scene for 10 years. They will be celebrating with a spectacular concert at the Goose on a String Theatre together with four guests - singers Lenka Dusilová and Géraldine Schnyder, double bass matador Vincenzo Kummer and trombonist and Latin Grammy winner Ilja Reijngoud. The sixteen-member ensemble nominated for the Anděl Award was founded by trumpeter Jiří Kotača to play original and original big band music. The anniversary concert will feature a selection of their best from past and present, including new works. All accompanied by animations by Magdalena Bláhová. more
Singer-songwriter, composer and producer Katarzia is preparing two concerts with her band. They will be played in Brno and Prague. Both performances will feature a special line-up combining acoustic instruments and electronics. The music and lyrics will be enhanced by projected works of Czech-Icelandic artist DVDJ NNS. In addition, the Brno concert will be filmed by Czech Television under the direction of Tereza Reková. At the same time, Katarzia will be presenting some new work - her electronic album "Rest in Euphoria" with music composed for the eponymous performance of Prague's Cirk La Putyka will be released in early December. more
The autumn part of the year-long JazzFestBrno festival will open next week at the Sono Centre by Al Di Meola, one of the greatest jazz guitarists of all time. At the end of September, American trumpeter Randy Brecker, winner of seven Grammy Awards and twenty nominations, together with the Gustav Brom Radio Big Band, will celebrate 100 years of Czech Radio's Brno studio in their first ever joint concert at the same venue. The festival will also feature multi-instrumentalist Jiří Slavík and his ten-member ensemble Polka-boys. At the Goose on a String Theatre, as part of the Polkatime project, he will present radical adaptations of the polka that bring back the boldness and humour of this Czech national dance. American vibraphonist Joel Ross will be at the Letovice Elementary Art School Concert Hall. The autumn will also see the continuation of the Club Life series at Cabaret des Péchés. This time with the singer and "jazz artist for the hip hop generation" José James and a double concert featuring two of the Czech Republic’s leading jazz line-ups - the Robert Balzar Trio and the Matej Benko Quintet. The end of the festival will not feature cult American saxophonist Kamasi Washington, who is postponing his entire tour, including the Brno concert, to 18 March 2025 for health reasons. more
Feature articles
The now world-famous Swedish band Dirty Loops finished their autumn European tour on Saturday, 30 November at Brno's Metro Music Bar. The band featured on the programme of the seventeenth annual Groove Brno funk, soul and jazz festival. The virtuoso trio, consisting of Jonah Nilsson - vocals and keyboards, Henrik Linder - bass guitar and Aron Mellergård - drums, are famous for their flawless technical proficiency, sophisticated original compositions and cover versions of well-known numbers, especially pop songs. However, these songs are often reharmonised in their arrangements and the style is more a combination of disco, pop and jazz fusion. To avoid having to resort to using pre-recorded backing tracks, the trio was joined on tour by keyboardist and vocalist Kristian Kraftling. more
Another in a series of themed “anniversary” orchestral concepts by Jiří Kotača for his big band, this one commemorates the centenary of the birth of Canadian-American jazz pianist, composer, bandleader, and above all, genius arranger Gil Evans and his successful collaboration with legendary trumpeter Miles Davis in the late 1950s. more
Brno musicians are talented in various genres, and they’re generally long-lived and vital individuals. This was resoundingly clear during the jubilee celebration of Mojmír Bártek, a teacher, composer, arranger, and above all a virtuoso trombone player. The jubilee concert, dubbed Mojda Bártek 80, was prepared by his friends under the direction of B-Side Band trumpeter and bandleader Josef Buchta. Despite the birthday boy’s open and (sometimes emotional) enjoyment of the two and a half hour program, he still remained an active participant of the entire musical production except for brief moments of rest. He performed as the author of many compositions, but above all as a player, trombone in hand and fully committed. more
Electronic music, big beat and clubbing go together - but that’s only a small part of the truth. In fact electronic music was here long before clubbing, and thanks to enlightened teachers at JAMU it was doing very well indeed in Brno as early as the 1960s. That is, long before synthesizers and sequencers appeared on rock podiums, long before any old band had a computer, long before the first dance parties in glittering halls and dark cellars. Today electronic music is one of music’s most omnipresent genres: neither dance parties nor contemporary operas can do without it. Electronic big beat music has occupied reggae and swing, remixing is a daily affair, Brno artists have learned to sell instruments they built themselves to the whole world and to amplify an old knitting machine. As early as 1907 the composer Ferruccio Busoni dreamt of the future potential of electronic music, but not even his imagination and genius could have anticipated what Thaddeus Cahill’s first weird experiment with an immense electrical organ would lead to one day. more
Due to the impact of extraordinary measures taken because of the Covid-19 pandemic on stakeholders of the cultural and creative industries in Brno, Brno leaders and the Department of Culture of the Brno City Municipality are working intensively on a set of precautions for minimizing the damages. At the same time, communication is conducted on all levels of public administration, predominantly in collaboration with the Institut umění – Divadelní ústav [Arts and Theatre Institute], which is mapping the situation on the nationwide level. Until 22 March 2020 you can help assess the current situation by means of an online survey (the link is provided below). Further steps will be taken according to the results of the survey. more
Last year, after several years of stagnation, Brno's folklore enthusiasts woke up again and began organizing gatherings with dulcimer music, folklore parties, etc. at several different venues. This is certainly gratifying. However, motivation, experiences and concepts differ. One of them is We <3 folklore in the Metro music bar. more
Spontaneous joy of dancing is hiding behind the mysterious cry Šej-Haj-Hop! That is why the new school of Slovak folk dance in Brno chose it as its name. There are three friends behind it – Michal Janšto, Edita Borščová and Ondrej Mišík, who all met a few years ago at VSĽPT Poľana. more
The singer Lizz Wright was born in 1980 to the family of a pastor. From childhood, gospel music was close to her, she used to sing in a choir and later began to adore additional originally Afro-American genres, such as soul, blues and jazz. In November 2019 at the Blues Alive festival in Šumperk she performed with her own band, but in Brno she will be accompanied by the Brno Philharmonic along with a trio of Prague jazz performers (David Dorůžka – guitar, Tomáš Baroš – double bass, Daniel Šoltis – drums). The concert will take place on 3 May in the Janáček Theatre as part of the JAZZFESTBRNO 2020 festival. more
On Friday 14 February, the Sono Centre in Brno hosted a genre-diversified festival, which was also a celebration of three decades of activity of three publishing branches, which we associate with the original simple name Indies Records. Over the years, Indies Records has divided itself into three separate labels with three distinct edition catalogues – Indies MG, Indies Scope and Indies Happy Trails, which are operated by the personalities of Miloš Gruber, Milan Páleš and Jaromír Kratochvíl. more
As a UNESCO-listed city of music, Brno has had four festival days full of music and dance. Tens of concerts and performances with hundreds of performers took place at twenty-two music venues. Music in the streets sounded on every corner, but most attention this year was attracted by four rooms by the artist Kateřina Šedá, in which artists of different genres and nationalities took turns. Another attraction was the performances of the British Motionhouse and No Fit State Circus, who repeatedly enchanted the Náměstí Svobody Square with their acrobatic pieces and breathtaking performances. Two large stages were also set up – Dominik Stage on Dominikánské Square and Django Stage on Malinovského Square, on which appeared artists such as Jana Kirschner, Monika Bagárová, minus123minutes or Jan P. Muchow & The Antagonists. Traditionally, the festival was accompanied by the sound of barrel organs whose players met in Brno as part of their 10th international meeting. This year, singer and multi-instrumentalist Tinatin Tsereteli (Hannover) and violinist Nicola Manzan (Bologna) as artists from UNESCO partner cities of music also premiered at the Brno Music Marathon. The atmosphere of the festival is captured in the video below. more
Aaron Brooks (US) & Karolína Korecká (CZ)
Aaron Brooks - former lead singer and composer of most of the songs of the acclaimed American psychedelic rock band Simeon Soul Charger - released his debut solo album Homunculus in 2018, a genre-diverse mix of psychedelic rock and folk "American style" connected by orchestral elements. The album's release was followed by a series of European tours in 12 countries. In addition to frequent concerts with the band Simeon Soul Charger, he has visited the Czech Republic several times with his new backing band, as well as on his own with a guitar, and in the last two years in a duo with Pilsen cellist and vocalist Karolína Korecká.
Tribute to Zuzana Navarová
The band Pocta Zuzana Navarová was formed in 2017 from the original band Jazz Elements, which has been active on the Czech scene since 2015. At one of their concerts, they decided to play a few songs by the bands Nerez and Koa for fun, and the concert was such a success that after some time they decided to continue as Pocta Zuzana Navarová.
Andrea Kalousová
Come to one of the concerts of the first tour – I am me. The show is not only about music. It is about the courage to be yourself, about emotions, about what we feel, but often do not say out loud. An authentic musical show, which is a dream come true for the performer. After all, as Andrea herself says – each of us should fulfill our dreams – and to help her fulfill hers, all you have to do is come to the concert and support her. You may also know the talented and courageous beauty from the popular beauty contest, where she won the title of Czech Miss World 2015, or from the TV competition Your Face Has a Familiar Voice. At the concert you will hear new songs, experience an atmosphere full of energy and you will definitely all enjoy it together!
Frankie & The Deadbeats | JONÁŠ
Frankie & The Deadbeats (translated as losers, losers or lousy people) is a group of men with a dubious reputation, but as a musical group they are aiming high. A few years ago they moved from dirty clubs, where they played punk and rock’n’roll loudly and in the sweat of their faces (e.g. Hanba, Prague Conspiracy, Unholy Preachers, TiNG, Inverta Storca and others), to the music of their childhood, spent around campfires, and decided to win the hearts of Czech and foreign radio listeners and convince them that they like country, even if they never thought so before and that hats, shirts and cognacs are just cool. For Jonáš, music is a way to approach complex things in a straightforward way. Neither in the lyrics nor in the musical accompaniment is complex and they do not claim to be. It smells of the smoke of guitar campfires and the current alternative scene, inspired by 20th-century singer-songwriters led by Jonathan Richman and Vashti Bunyan.
Final Dose (UK) + Prayer Position (USA)
FINAL DOSE (UK) A fierce blend of the cold malevolence of black metal and the unyieldingness of raw punk. Final Dose's origins date back to the release of a demo in 2020, followed by the full-length Void Inside (2023) and two cuts on the 4-way split album Blood Price with Prayer Position (USA), Otras (SK) and Haunting Figure (USA). PRAYER POSITON (USA) Raw blackened punk from Boston, USA. Prayer Position's sound is based on primitive black metal, raw punk and sonic extremes. A cacophony of noise torn from the chain in an atmosphere of menacing chaos.
JFB / Esperanza Spalding
In February 2011, the music world was rocked. Something completely unexpected happened at the Grammy Awards—jazz double bassist, singer, and songwriter Esperanza Spalding won the Best New Artist category, beating out mainstream favorites like Justin Bieber, Drake, Florence & the Machine, and Mumford & Sons. The media spoke of a “shocking surprise” that secured her the status of the first jazz artist ever to win the prestigious award. This moment was not just a personal triumph—it was also the moment that, after many years (and unfortunately for the last time for a long time), put modern jazz in the pop spotlight and forced even the general public to ask the question: “What, Esperanza?”
Break the Curse | Valentine's Day at Fleda
Friday the 13th is written in the collective mind as a day of bad luck and fear. But this year we will transform it into a holiday of love. On Friday the 13th, we gather at Fléda to show*y that the only thing we refuse to fear is our own identity and love. Prejudice and oppression are the only real curses that we must break together. In the first half of the evening, we will immerse ourselves in mysticism and rituals. We will celebrate the archetype of the witch, a symbol of a person who refused to submit, lived on the margins, and who turned their otherness into strength. With the stroke of midnight, we will finish the ritual together. Fléda will be a safe haven for us all night, but as soon as midnight officially announces Valentine's Day, we will break the last remnants of superstition. The dark vibe will be replaced by pink, and we will make a dance floor out of the shards of all those old myths under our feet.
Ondřej Ruml & Matěj Benko Trio
They are all active musicians, they all move across genres. And yet they are united by one thing – a love of jazz. "We decided to try to return to where we came from, to the jazz club, and play the songs that influenced us the most on our musical journey," says Ondřej Ruml, adding that the repertoire will also include songs that were created in collaboration with Matěj Benko.
