Dirty Linen

This is an excerpt from the print edition of Dirty Linen #131 (August/September 2007).
The full article is in the magazine, available on newsstands, by subscription, and at the Dirty Linen webstore.

Czechomor

Bouncing Czechs

A Conversation With Czechomor

by Steve Winick

"We make a bridge between history and how we live now," Karel Holas said. The "we" in question are Holas and the other members of Czechomor, the Czech Republic's leading folk-rock band. In speaking of a bridge between the past and the present, Holas is describing the problem that faces all musicians trying to bring old music to new people. Czechomor does it now through an electric folk-rock sound reminiscent of English bands like Steeleye Span, Fairport Convention, and especially the Home Service. In September 2006, the band brought this sound to Washington, D.C., to play a concert on the Kennedy Center's Millennium Stage. While they were in town, I invited the members to visit me at work at the American Folklife Center of the Library of Congress. I gave them a tour, my colleague Jennifer Cutting played them some of our Czech materials, and then I sat down with them for an interview… at which point a small problem became apparent: I could speak French, Spanish, and English, while they could speak Czech and German. Bandleader and fiddler Karel Holas was the best English-language spokesman, but our conversation was strained by the lack of a strong common tongue. ("I'm sorry," Holas said with a twinkle in his eye. "I am a poet. But not in English!") Still, we managed to cover Czechomor's history and approach in our conversation.

Given the pedigree of Czechomor's musicians, you might expect exactly what you get: energetic, gutsy music with the complexity of a chamber orchestra, the syncopation and swing of big-band jazz, and the fire of Celtic rock. Karel Holas is a good example of the varied backgrounds the members bring to the group: He graduated in classical violin from the conservatory in Brno, has played in many Czech bands, including Etc., Zoo, Tri Sestry, and Dobrohošt, and has collaborated with Czech stars Marta Kubišova, Vladimír Mišík, Oskar Petr, Petr Novák, Jaromir Nohavica, and others. In 1989, he founded the Czech Celtic rock band Czeské Srdce ("Bohemian Heart"). "It's not so far from our country, Celtic music, because the first people were Celtic people in our country," Holas explained, referring to the Boii, the Celtic tribe that gave its name to Bohemia.

Holas' Celtic group brought him in contact with Breton bandleader Alan Stivell in the 1990s. "We met at a concert in Brittany with a painter called Reon -- his Czech name is Jan Zahradnik," Holas told the Czech magazine Vikend in November 2006. "He invited us to the grand opening of his exhibit, where Stivell played on his harp. When he began his hit song, 'Tri Martolod,' I spontaneously accompanied him on my violin. That day, we decided to put together a joint concert at Lucerna called 'Celtic Christmas in Prague.' Three weeks later, it happened -- and it was totally sold out. Then, I asked Alan if he would guest on our CD Srdce z Avalonu. When I asked how much it would cost, he replied with a smile, 'It will not cost you anything, but I want something from you.' I immediately began to sweat, picturing myself painting a fence in Stivell's backyard or moving wheelbarrows full of bricks! But Stivell asked me if, in return, the guitar player from Czeské Srdce and I would play on his planned recording, Again, which featured a number of guests. Only after the album was produced did we realize that we played on it alongside Kate Bush and Shane MacGowan from the Pogues. And then Alan took us on a long tour with his band promoting this album." From 1993 to 1995 Holas played fiddle in Stivell's band and toured all of Europe. Holas credits his time with Stivell as a major inspiration for the arrangements of Czechomor. "When I played with Alan the first time, I really got inside Breton folklore. And inside my head, it started me to do something more with arrangement."

Holas isn't the only heavy-hitter in Czechomor. The group's other frontman, František Czerný, is a singer, songwriter, composer, and guitarist who has won several awards at the prestigious Porta Folk Festival with the bands Kanafas and Povijan and also played in the rock bands Kapitol and Verze 5. Like many on the Czech folk scene, he has also been involved in theater, both as a puppeteer and a dramaturge. The group's most versatile instrumentalist, Radek Poboril, graduated in both trumpet and accordion from the conservatory in Ostrava, and has since contributed to some 80 albums as a true session workhorse. For 15 years he was also a member of the National Theatre Orchestra in Prague. He teaches jazz improvisation when not playing with Czechomor. Cellist and bagpiper Michal Pavlík graduated from the State Conservatory in Prague under leading cellist František Pisinger, and also studied jazz with Karel Velebný. He has played cello and keyboards in many leading Czech pop and rock bands, including 5P, Jana Kratochvílová, Lesek Semelka, and Tango, and he led the band Flop. In the early 1990s, he was a member of Petr Novák's legendary group, George & Beathovens, as well as the Vít Quartet. The latest addition to the group, drummer Roman Lomtadze, was born in Tbilisi, Georgia, and hails from a family of musicians. He got his start on many instruments at an early age including violin, flute, French horn, and bass guitar. In 1992, his parents were hired as violinists by a theater company in the Czech Republic, and after moving there Lomtadze was accepted by the State Conservatory in Prague. During his second year of studies, he went professional with the band King Size. Later he played with Ivan Myslikovjan and the Blue Birds, Milos "DODO" Dolezal and the band Eleison, Laura and Her Tigers, and others. Lomtadze became a member of Czechomor in January 2004.

[cover #131]