Jaroslav Ježek

Jaroslav Ježek (IPA: [ˈjaroslaf ˈjɛʒɛk]) (September 25, 1906 - January 1, 1942) was a Czech composer. He was born in Prague, and died in New York City. The almost blind Ježek studied composition under Josef Suk and Alois Hába at the Prague Conservatory. When Ježek met playwrights/comedians Jan Werich and Jiří Voskovec (aka George Voskovec), leaders of the Osvobozené Divadlo (Liberated Theatre) in Prague, he took up the post as main composer and conductor. During the next decade, he composed incidental music, songs, dances, ballets for the grotesque political satirical plays of Voskovec and Werich. Many of his songs are still hugely popular in the Czech Republic. In addition to his other musical pursuits, Ježek evidently was fascinated by American jazz. Between 1929 and 1936, possibly earlier, he organized and conducted an orchestra featuring his original jazz compositions and arrangements. Billed variously as "Ježek's Jazz" and "Jezkuv Swing Band" they recorded for the Czech Ultraphon label, making some of the most original hot music in Europe. A few of these sides deserve special mention: "Ted Jeste Ne" (c. 1930; Ultraphon A10217) is rousing hot dance music in the best Jean Goldkette or Coon-Sanders' Nighthawks style. "Rubbish Heap Blues" (c. 1932; Ultraphon A11421) shows that Ježek not only listened to Duke Ellington's records, but was keeping up with Duke's very latest work. "Rubbish Heap" features a Johnny Hodges-like alto sax and a Cootie Williams-like growl trumpet, plus a three-trombone section to complement the three trumpets. It is amazing that Ježek was able to track these avant-garde American developments in far-off Prague! Most remarkable is a unique Ježek original titled simply "Polonaisa" (c. 1931; Ultraphon A10366). It is a traditional Polonaise clothed in ultra-modern "Symphonic Jazz" instrumentation, harmony and textures. It is as if Chopin and Gershwin had collaborated, the Polish dance rhythms mingling easily with hot syncopation. Ježek also turned the boys loose in records of his arrangements of well-known hot jazz standards, such as "Tiger Rag," "Dinah" and "Chinatown, My Chinatown." These exceedingly rare records, very few of which could have survived the Nazi occupation and World War II, are almost completely unknown, at least in the U.S.A. A seven-volume CD retrospective of Ježek and his Liberated Theater Orchestra (1929 - 1938), containing the items mentioned above and dozens of others, was issued on Czech Supraphon in 1994. This set may still be available (as of April, 2007); if it isn't, it richly deserves to be in print. Forced to leave Czechoslovakia following the Nazi occupation, Ježek, Voskovec and Werich went into exile in New York City. In 1942, the always ill-healthed Ježek died in exile. Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.