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The trio was founded in 1998 by Josef Vejvoda (son of the composer of the world-famous „Beer Barrel Polka.“), who for many years participated as a top-ranking drummer in many projects on the Czech jazz scene. He was a member of the legendary Karel Velebney SHQ and Laco Dezci‘s Jazz Cellula. Kryštof Marek and Ondřej Štajnochr belong to the middle generation of musicians. Both are members of several jazz ensembles but have also made a name for themselves in the area of classical music and as studio musicians. The trio mostly perform their own compositions variously written by all three members with influences coming from the area of jazz as well as from classical music. They have made numerous recordings on compact disc and for radio and television; and they have appeared in many concert halls both in the Czech Republic and abroad. The Trio performs occasionally with saxophonist Štěpán Markovič. Among the many they have accompanied is American jazz trumpetist Benny Bailey (at the Přerov Jazz Festival). A recording of that performance has come out on the compact disc A Meeting to Build a Dream On, and in a Czech Radio poll it was selected as the best Czech jazz album of 2001. In 2003 they brought out the compact disc One Minute Dance with original compositions of all three members of the trio, some of which can also be heard in the film Victims and Murderers.
More recently the Josef Vejvoda Trio has also been concentrating on projects with chamber and symphony orchestras: in 2005, to mark the sixtieth birthday of Josef Vejvoda, they completed a tour throughout the whole country with the Northern Bohemian Philharmonic of Teplice (Tomáš Koutník conductor) as well as Pavel Šporcl, Štěpán Markovič and his trio performing Josef Vojveda’s NOVELTY CONCERTO, CELEBRATION and BRASILIAN PEARL JUBILEE. In 2006 the Josef Vejvoda Trio and the Virtuosi di Praga presented Vejvoda’s HOMMAGE TO JAROSLAV JEŽKA in the Rudolfinum, and in 2007 in conjunction with the Pardubice Chamber Philharmonic, the JVT gave the premiere of Vejvoda’s "Three Little Loves".
Discography:
A Meeting To Build A Dream On (J.Vejvoda Trio, Benny Bailey - Radioservis 2001)
One Minute Dance (J. Vejvoda Trio - Cube Metier 2003)
J. Vejvoda: NOVELTY CONCERTO, CELEBRATION, BRASILIAN PEARL JUBILEE
(Northern Bohemian Philharmonic of Teplice (Tomáš Koutník conductor; Pavlem Šporcl, Štěpán Markovič, J.Vejvoda Trio - JABUC 2005)
„…A Meeting To Build A Dream On. Unlike most dreams that haunt us at night, this dream is as pleasant as it could possibly be...“
LUBOMÍR DORŮŽKA
„…One Minute Dance, compact disc. ...most of his compositions, even if they come from all three members of the ensemble, have a lightness,an airiness, a translucence that bring to mind Chopin’s miniatures. This piano trio has feel of a workshop in which everyone is speaking the same language and breathing in the same rhythm...“
LUBOMÍR DORŮŽKA
„ ...Hommage to Jaroslav Ježka. ...in particular by giving this piece its own special style the composer bubbles over with ideas, playfulness, a sense of humour and quotations from Ježka’s songs, all of which literally had the public in musical stitches and demonstrated that he has inherited his father Jaromír’s skill with a melody and his artistic independence.... „
VLADIMÍR ŘÍHA, Hudební rozhledy 12/2006
Josef Vejvoda (born 1945) - percussion
After graduating from the Conservatory in Prague, he performed with many leading jazz ensembles (Karel Velebný’s SHQ, Big Band Radio Prague, Jazz Cellula, E.Viklický, J. Stivín, K.Růžička, Super Quartet, G.Brom and many others in Czechoslovakia and abroad) and with many musicians (Gerge Mraz, Tony Scott, John Surman, Lou Blackburn, Benny Bailey, Joe Newman, Ted Curson, Barre Phillipss, Toots Thilemans, Dave Friedman, Scott Robinson, Sonny Costanzo and others). He has appeared at major jazz festivals (the Ost West Jazz Festival Nürnberg, the Warsaw Jazz Jamboree, the Prague International Jazz Festival, the Montreal Jazz Festival, Chicago, the Jazz Festival on the Red Sea in Israel and many others). He has often won first place as a drummer in the All Stars Band poll and has performed in the Czech Republic and abroad (most recently in 2006 at the Přerov Jazz Festival) and has won several awards: in 1967 first place in percussion instruments in a nationwide jazz musician contest; in 2005 a platinum record from Supraphon; in 2005-2006 top place in Czech Radio 2‘s hit parade in Prague. He has recorded many jazz compact discs (SHQ - Motus, Jazzové nebajky (Jazz Unfables), Týnom tánom, SHQ & Woodwind Quintet, JOČR – Czechslovak Radio Jazz Orchestra, Jazz from Studio A, Jazz Celulla, Oheň až požár (From Fire to Conflagration), Midgest with Joe Newman, Inspiration with Folklore with Jiří, Round Midnight with Emil Viklický, Magic Eye with Scott Robinson, Bohemian Heights with Harald Gundhus, I Remember Love with Benny Bailey, Novelty Concerto with Pavel Šporcl) and he appears as band leader on the albums Big Band Radio Prague, Walkin´ and Talkin´(as both composer and conductor), the Josef Vejvoda Trio (One Minute Dance), the Josef Vejvoda Trio & Benny Bailey (A Meeting To Build A Dream On).
Vejvoda has written many compositions for trio, quartet, quintet, octet and big band. Recently he has been concentrating on compositions for trio and symphonic or chamber orchestra (NOVELTY CONCERTO, CELBRATION, BRASILIAN PEARL JUBILEE, THREE LITTLE LOVES, HOMMAGE TO JAROSLAV JEŽKA).
In 2002 in a virtually sold-out Carnegie Hall in New York, he had the extraordinary honour of conducting the Band of the Castle Guard and Police of the Czech Republic. Josef Vejvoda is the director of other orchestras: the Vejvoda Band and Salon Orchestra with which he has recorded a total of 15 albums. As guest conductor, he has led orchestras in the Czech Republic and abroad. More information at www.j-vejvoda.cz.
Kryštof Marek (born 1967) - piano
After graduating from the secondary school of arts and crafts (specializing in wood carving and painting), Marek studied piano at the Jaroslav Ježka Conservatory in Prague.
He has appeared with many leading music ensembles (Milan Svoboda’s Kontraband, the black theater musical group Imaginativ, the contemporary classical music ensemble Agon, and Radio Big Band Praha; he was in Karel Gott‘s back-up band, and more recently he accompanied J. Svěcený). He has worked with both Czech and international musicians: Benny Bailey, James Moody, Jim Odgren, Victor Mendoza (USA); Siggi Fingel (Austria); Tony Lakatos, Uwe Plath, Matthias Bergmann (West Germany); Robert Majewski, Piotr Baron (Poland); Štěpán Markovič, Jan Hasenohrl, Magdalena Rezková and many others (Czech Repubic).
He has recorded many jazz albums: 5 compact discs with Kontraband (on which some of his own compositions are played); 2 compact discs with his big band (www.bend.cz ) : „Smiles for Miles“ with vocalist Magdalena Rezková; a compact disc of his own music „Angel´s Crying in My Head, Angel´s Laughter in My Heart“ with Tony Lakatos as soloist; and his third big band album for trumpeter Jan Hasenöhrl and other outstanding Cech jazz soloists is to come out in 2007. He is currently active as a member of the Josef Vejvoda Trio.
He also has a career as a conductor. From 1999 to 2003, he was a conductor with the J.K. Tyl Theater in Plzeň. In 2002 he co-founded the big band group www.bend.cz, for which he also served as conductor, arranger, and composer. In Prague he was both conductor and musical director for the musicals Evita, Les Misérables and Miss Saigon. During his engagement in Plzeň, he conducted 10 different productions of musicals, opera and ballet, including Fiddler on the Roof, Gypsies go to Heaven, Crazy for You, Blood Brothers, and Some Like it Hot. He conceived and managed a concert series called the Wondrous World of Musicals, and in 2003 he premiered his own jazz operetta Kristián II (libretto and staging by A. Procházka). Currently he is conducting the Karlín Musical Theater production of the musical The Producers and preparing and arranging an adaptation of Lemonade Joe.
He also writes stage music and works as composer for Czech Radio and arranger for many theatrical and musical productions. He remains active in the areas of jazz, pop and contemporary classical music. For more information see www.krystofmarek.com or www.bend.cz.
Ondřej Štajnochr (born 1968) – double bass
After graduating from the electrical engineering school of Prague‘s Czech Technical University with specialization in audio-video (1991), Štajnochr studied at the Prague Conservatory (with V. Fuka), at the Jaroslav Ježka Conservatory in Prague (with P. Kořínek) and at the Dresdner Akademie für alte Musik (with Ch. Kyprianides and R.Boothby). He is active in the areas of classical music, jazz and cross-over genres. He has taken part in several courses in jazz (Frýdlant in the Czech Republic) and in authentic performance of older music (Dresden, Innsbruck and Prague with Ch. Kyprianides, R.Boothby and W.Rumer).
He has performed with many leading Czech jazz ensembles (Flavours, Karel Růžička Q, Emil Viklický Trio, Eye of the Hurricane, Luděk Švábenský Deposit) and musicians (M. Svoboda, J. Stivín, Najponk, V. Eckert, Š. Markovič, D. Dorůžka, P. Zelenka, R. Krampl and many others). He has also had the opportunity to accompany outstanding international jazz soloists such as Ken Peplowski, Magni Welzel, Roscoe Mitchel, Benny Golbin, Benny Bailey, Matthias Bergmann and Uwe Plath. He has recorded many jazz compact discs (with Karel Růžička, Josef Vejvoda, Zdeněk Dvořák, the Swing Quintet, Big Band Radio Praha and others) and made other recordings for Czech Television and Czech Radio.
Currently he plays with the Josef Vejvoda Trio, the Martin Vondra Quartet and the Ivan Dominák and occasionally accompanies other jazz soloists as sideman. In the area of classical music his main focus is on authentic performance of older music from the Baroque to Romantic period with groups such as Musica Florea, Collegium 1704, Ensemble Inégal and the Dresdner Barock Orchester, with which he has recorded a number of compact discs and performed in concerts and festivals all over the world. He has also had the opportunity to play under the direction of outstanding musicians in this area (S. Standage, Ch. Biancini, A. Parrott, J. van Immersel, S. Stubbs, Ch. Rousset). Along with the double bass, he also plays the baroque G violone. He has further been active in the musical ensemble Resonance, in a quintet with Pavel Šporcl, in a project on the compositions of A. Piazzolla and currently in a trio with Czech Philharmonic flautist Jan Machat and clarinettist Alena Grillová. He takes part in many international projects ranging from classical music through jazz to pop. He occasionally composes (works for Flavours, the Josef Vejvoda Trio) and writes film music (films for director A. Sedláčková’s Victims and Murders and My Father and Other Men).
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