Reduta Jazz Club is a music club and theatre scene in

Prague Prague ( ; ) is the capital and List of cities and towns in the Czech Republic, largest city of the Czech Republic and the historical capital of Bohemia. Prague, located on the Vltava River, has a population of about 1.4 million, while its P ...

Czech Republic The Czech Republic, also known as Czechia, and historically known as Bohemia, is a landlocked country in Central Europe. The country is bordered by Austria to the south, Germany to the west, Poland to the northeast, and Slovakia to the south ...

. It is situated on Národní street in the centre of the city, close to the National Theatre. The club is particularly famous for having hosted an impromptu saxophone performance by American president

Bill Clinton William Jefferson Clinton (né Blythe III; born August 19, 1946) is an American politician and lawyer who was the 42nd president of the United States from 1993 to 2001. A member of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party, ...

in 1994. Reduta is the oldest jazz club in Prague. Dorůžka (2002), p. 69

History

The club was established in 1957 by the

bassist A bassist (also known as a bass player or bass guitarist) is a musician who plays a bass instrument such as a double bass (upright bass, contrabass, wood bass), bass guitar (electric bass, acoustic bass), keyboard bass (synth bass) or a low br ...

Jan Arnet and took its name from a term for centres of fun and music, '' Reduta''. Its early existence was associated with the activities of the ''Accord Club'', an institute which played an important role in formation of "small stage theatres", influencing the development of theatre and music in the country in this era. At that time (early 1960s), Reduta supported small theatre ensembles such as ''

Jára Cimrman Jára Cimrman or Jára da Cimrman (officially Jaroslav Cimrman) (), also known as "the Master", is a fictional Czech polymath, created by Ladislav Smoljak, and Zdeněk Svěrák. The fictional personality is presented as a universal genius, and o ...

Theatre'' and ''Lyra Pragensis''. The club also attempted to promote

jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Its roots are in blues, ragtime, European harmony, African rhythmic rituals, spirituals, h ...

from the very beginning in the 1950s, at the time when this genre was condemned by the ruling

Communist regime A communist state, also known as a Marxist–Leninist state, is a one-party state in which the totality of the power belongs to a party adhering to some form of Marxism–Leninism, a branch of the communist ideology. Marxism–Leninism was ...

. The premiere concert of the renowned jazz ensemble ''Studio 5'' took place in Reduta on 2 June 1958; the line up included important exponents of the Czech jazz, such as

Karel Velebný Karel Velebný (17 March 1931 – 7 March 1989, Prague) was a Czechs, Czech jazz musician, composer, arranger, actor, writer and music pedagogue. Velebný was one of the founders of modern Czech jazz in the second half of the 20th century. Biog ...

and

Luděk Hulan Luděk Hulan (11 October 1929, in Prague – 22 February 1979, in Prague) was a Czech jazz double-bassist and musical organiser. He was an important exponent of Czech jazz in the second half of the 20th century. Biography Hulan started his ...

. Artists performing at Reduta include jazz performers from around the world. Names like

Wynton Marsalis Wynton Learson Marsalis (born October 18, 1961) is an American trumpeter, composer, and music instructor, who is currently the artistic director of Jazz at Lincoln Center. He has been active in promoting classical and jazz music, often to young ...

Dave Brubeck David Warren Brubeck (; December 6, 1920 – December 5, 2012) was an American jazz pianist and composer. Often regarded as a foremost exponent of cool jazz, Brubeck's work is characterized by unusual time signatures and superimposing contrasti ...

and

Chick Corea Armando Anthony "Chick" Corea (June 12, 1941 – February 9, 2021) was an American jazz pianist, composer, bandleader and occasional percussionist. His compositions "Spain (instrumental), Spain", "500 Miles High", "La Fiesta", "Armando's Rhumba" ...

performed at the club. Czech artists such as

Vlasta Průchová Vlasta Průchová (12 July 1926, Ružomberok – 16 June 2006, Prague) was a Czech jazz singer. From the second half of the 1940s, she gradually built up her leading position in the Czech jazz scene. Průchová was the mother of the renowned Czech- ...

Karel Krautgartner Karel Krautgartner (July 20, 1922 – September 20, 1982) was a Czech jazz and classical clarinetist, saxophonist, arranger, composer, conductor and teacher. Life He was born in Mikulov, Moravia, in the family of a postmaster. His family we ...

Miroslav Vitouš Miroslav Ladislav Vitouš (born 6 December 1947) is a Czech jazz bassist. He is known as a founding member of the ensemble Weather Report, and for working as a bandleader and alongside Chick Corea, Jack DeJohnette and others. Biography E ...

, Jiří Jelínek and

Jiří Stivín Jiří Stivín (born 23 November 1942 in Prague) is a Czech flute player and composer. Biography He graduated from the Film Faculty of the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague (FAMU). He also studied composition at the Royal Academy of Music a ...

regularly played in the club as well. The club also actively participated in organizing of the

Prague International Jazz Festival Prague International Jazz Festival () is a traditional jazz festival held annually in Reduta Jazz Club, in Prague, Czech Republic established in 1964. History Prague International Jazz Festival is the oldest music festival in the Czech Republi ...

, since 1964. At the end of the 1980s, Reduta Jazz Club became one of the centres of the

Velvet Revolution The Velvet Revolution () or Gentle Revolution () was a non-violent transition of power in what was then Czechoslovakia, occurring from 17 November to 28 November 1989. Popular demonstrations against the one-party government of the Communist Pa ...

. It managed to retain its appeal after the end of the Communist regime. American president

played the saxophone—a gift from the Czech president

Václav Havel Václav Havel (; 5 October 193618 December 2011) was a Czech statesman, author, poet, playwright, and dissident. Havel served as the last List of presidents of Czechoslovakia, president of Czechoslovakia from 1989 until 1992, prior to the dissol ...

—in a traditional

jam session A jam session is a relatively informal musical event, process, or activity where musicians, typically instrumentalists, play improvised solos and vamp over tunes, drones, songs, and chord progressions. To "jam" is to improvise music without ...

at Reduta in 1994, during his presidential term. Nowadays Reduta focuses on fusing jazz with modern progressive styles. Their programmes throughout the year include swing,

Dixieland Dixieland jazz, also referred to as traditional jazz, hot jazz, or simply Dixieland, is a style of jazz based on the music that developed in New Orleans at the start of the 20th century. The 1917 recordings by the Original Dixieland Jass Band ( ...

, mainstream and modern

, also

big band A big band or jazz orchestra is a type of musical ensemble of jazz music that usually consists of ten or more musicians with four sections: saxophones, trumpets, trombones, and a rhythm section. Big bands originated during the early 1910s and ...

compositions,

blues Blues is a music genre and musical form that originated among African Americans in the Deep South of the United States around the 1860s. Blues has incorporated spiritual (music), spirituals, work songs, field hollers, Ring shout, shouts, cha ...

funky Funk is a music genre that originated in African-American communities in the mid-1960s when musicians created a rhythmic, danceable new form of music through a mixture of various music genres that were popular among African-Americans in the mi ...

, bossa nova and

jazz pop Jazz fusion (also known as jazz rock, jazz-rock fusion, or simply fusion) is a popular music genre that developed in the late 1960s when musicians combined jazz harmony and improvisation with rock music, funk, and rhythm and blues. Electric gui ...

. Reduta includes a

black light theatre Black light theatre (in Czech ''černé divadlo'') or simply black theatre, is a theatrical performance style characterized by the use of black box theatre augmented by black light illusion. This form of theatre originated from Asia and can be f ...

, mime theatre and new performances of young theatre groups from Prague. In the March 9th,

when visiting Prague visited the Reduta club.

Notes

References

External links

* {{Authority control Music venues in Prague Jazz clubs in the Czech Republic Theatres in Prague 1957 establishments in Czechoslovakia Music venues completed in 1957 Theatres completed in 1957