Emil Viklický – Pavel Hrubý DUO

A duo featuring Czech jazz legends: pianist and composer Emil Viklický and renowned bass clarinetist Pavel Hrubý.

Although Emil Viklický and Pavel Hrubý had known each other personally for quite some time, their musical collaboration began in 2020, when the two musicians came together to record the intimate and partly improvised album Between Us in the unusual combination of piano and bass clarinet. Following its release and very favorable reviews from music critics, the two musicians decided to take this duo to the concert stage. In this new project, the legend of Czech jazz piano, Emil Viklický, engages in an intimate dialogue with the renowned wind instrument player Pavel Hrubý, who is a generation his junior. In his musical interpretations, Hrubý utilizes the full sonic palette of the bass clarinet and incorporates elements of jazz, blues, classical music, and Moravian folk traditions into his compositions. In the warm and utterly original sound that both musicians create, one can sense a certain perfection and, at the same time, a tension that makes their performance a musical gem.

The musical persona of Emil Viklický (*1948) synthesizes the history of jazz, ranging from early jazz styles to modern jazz that borders on electronic music. This includes both echoes of Moravian music and free jazz. Viklický has collaborated with jazz greats such as Bill Frisell, George Mraz, Miroslav Vitouš, Karel Velebný, and Eric Marienthal. In addition to numerous jazz projects, his efforts to fuse Moravian folklore with jazz are significant; for this, he has collaborated with Zuzana Lapčíková, Iva Bittová, and Jiří Pavlica, the bandleader of Hradišťan. Viklický’s compositional work also extends into the realm of film and art music. He is the author of three operas and numerous compositions for film and television.

A generation younger, saxophonist and bass clarinetist Pavel Hrubý (*1970) is currently one of the most prominent jazz instrumentalists. He is known, for example, from the jazz group Limbo and the Tellemarkk trio. In 2021, he released his solo album Go Between, on which he showcases himself as a lover of improvised music and a virtuoso on various types of saxophones and clarinets.