1. Devil’s rocks [5:30], 2. Memories
of tomorrow [3:58], 3. Witch Hunt [7:57],
4. Dolly from Vienna [6:51], 5. Dirty
Dozen [6:11], 6. Foot Prints [8:08],
7. Blue in Green [8:10], 8. Yes or No
[6:50], 9. Pasians [6:46
Radek Krampl: Vibraphone; Martin Vondra:
Saxophones ; Tomáš Liška :
Bass ; Pavel Razím :
Drums
Recorded 22 and 23 October, 2005 in
Studio Bič
Boží II, Jinočany, near Prague.
This disc is a must
for vibes lovers as Radek Krampl is
a wonderful player who puts the instrument
through its paces and produces some
truly beautiful sounds. He is backed
by a superb trio of musicians and all
four of them
studied at the Jaroslav Ježek Conservatoire
in Prague, an institution that has provided
the Czech Republic with some brilliant
ambassadors for the jazz idiom. Martin
Vondra on saxes has a silky smooth tone
that perfectly compliments Krampl’s
vibes and there are some lovely examples
of dialogue between instruments as on
Dolly from Vienna, for example, when
Krampl and Tomáš Liška a great
bass player duet together. Krampl is
also no mean composer having written
four of the disc’s 9 tracks, the rest
being from the pens of Wayne Shorter
(3), Keith Jarrett and Miles Davis.
Dirty Dozen has a blistering sax solo
and Krampl’s vibes introduce a calming
influence upon it and a gorgeous bass
solo further dampens down the fierceness
of the sax’s rant and Vondra comes back
to finish in a much more subdued mood.
Foot Prints opens with the bass bowed
over an almost other worldly vibes tune
with the sax taking up the main statement.
In all the tracks Pavel Razím’s
drumming is always supportive if, at
times, a little over discreet, but I’m
sure that someone who is also a graduate
of the army conservatoire can give it
out strongly if and when required! All
in all it’s a great disc – really cool
jazz doesn’t come any cooler than this!
Steve Arloff