Rozhlasový Big Band Gustava Broma
Jan Smigmator
Tonya Graves
Vlado Valovič – conductor
Program:
Quincy Jones Rat Race
Jerry Gray Pennsylvania 6500
Benny Goodman Air Mail Special - solo clarinet Jan Fečo
Joe Garland In the Mood
Duke Ellington In aSentimental Mood - solo trombone Přemek Tomšíček
Duke Ellington Satin Doll
Billy Strayhorn Take the "A" Train
Tonya Graves Just to Be MeJolene
Tonya Graves Dog
Tonya Graves Keep in Mind
Break
Richard Šanda The Blues in Bop Shade
Xxxx Feeling GoodCome Fly With Me Murphy's Law You Are Mine A i Zet Watch What Happens How Do You Keep the Music Playing I´ve Got You Under My Skin Moon River New York State of Mind
Duet Tonya Graves & Jan Smigmator
Gustav Brom Radio Big Band
The Gustav Brom Orchestra celebrates eighty years on the scene in 2020. In America, it was once ranked among the 10 best big bands in the world. The orchestra, which still plays with the best musicians and performers today, has retained its mastery and brand strength across several generations. The orchestra was founded in June 1940 by famed bandleader Gustav Brom, and at the time no one believed it would play under his leadership until 1995. From its inception, the band gained a worldwide reputation, and in the 1960s the orchestra was joined by the greatest jazz and pop stars such as Dizzy Gillespie, Maynard Ferguson, Edmund Hall, Diana Ross, The Supremes, Ray Charles, Liza Minnelli and others. News of one of Europe's finest big bands spread around the world. The orchestra was invited to the biggest jazz festivals, performed in Sweden, Norway, Great Britain, Switzerland, France, Holland, India, Cuba, etc. It regularly filmed TV show programmes in Poland, GDR, NSR and hundreds of programmes for Czechoslovak Television. The orchestra's discography contains around 600 records.
In 1995 Gustav Brom handed over the conductor's baton and the orchestra's leadership to his successor Vlad Valovic. He continues the tradition of world-class quality and collaborates with outstanding jazz soloists such as James Morrison, Jiggs Whigham, New York Voices, Roberta Gambarini, Alex Sipiagin and others. For seven years the big band has been featured on major TV shows on German and Polish television, and is not missing from domestic TV projects. In 2012, the Big Band became the resident orchestra of Czech Radio and changed its name to the Gustav Brom Radio Big Band.
Jan Smigmator (born in 1986) is a jazz and swing singer who embodies the legacy of swing kings such as Frank Sinatra, Sammy Davis Jr., Dean Martin, Bobby Darin, Mel Tormé, Karel Hála and the still fantastic Tony Bennett on the 21st century music scene with his own refinement. His voice, style, phrasing and love of jazz and swing make him one of the leading performers of the genre in Europe. In 2008, he successfully graduated from the Prague Conservatory of Music with a degree in singing in the department of popular music and jazz in the class of jazz singer Eva Svobodová and musical singer Josef Štágra. During his studies he performed with leading Czech jazz musicians and orchestras. In 2005, he became a soloist of the Václav Hybš Orchestra, with whom he has performed more than 250 concerts throughout the Czech Republic.Currently, he most often performs with his accompanying sextet or his own big band. Jan Smigmator has five solo albums to his credit. In 2018, he released an album with great international participation on the occasion of the 120th anniversary of George Gershwin's birth. His latest album "Murphy's Law", which is the only one entirely in Czech, was recorded with his new big band. Since 2011, Jan Smigmator has also been a presenter on Czech Radio Dvojka, on whose airwaves he broadcasts together with singer Dasha his original music programme Klub Evergreen, which focuses on promoting the Great American Songbook, jazz, swing, evergreens and especially its performers. In April 2023, he made his solo concert debut at New York's legendary Carnegie Hall, where he was accompanied by the Czech-American band The New York Sextet, primarily composed of members of Tony Bennett's backing quartet.
Tonya Graves is an American multi-genre singer who dominates the R'n'B, soul and jazz genres. She is a woman of many faces - not only a gifted musician, but also an occasional actress and presenter. She has participated in the dance competition StarDance and was a judge in the international Eurovision Song Contest. She has won several Anděl music awards.
In her nearly 30-year music career, she has collaborated with many successful musical groups such as Monkey Business, Liquid Harmony and Luboš Andršt.
Since 2016 she has been performing solo with backing band and vocalists. Since 2011 she has released the CD "I'm the Only Me", a CD called "Back to Blues" (2015), the single "Just to be me" (2022) and this year the latest single "Tinder", which she recorded at Tropical Sounds studio in Panama.
Vladimír Valovič was born in Slovakia, and after graduating he began his career as a music director for Czechoslovak Radio in Brno and Bratislava. It was also in Brno that he first met the leading Czech conductor Gustav Brom and began working with his orchestra.
In 1974 he founded his own band, VV System, which focused on jazz and popular music and with which he participated in many jazz festivals throughout Europe and Latin America.
In 1983 he became conductor of the Czechoslovak Radio Big Band in Bratislava.
In 1994 he accepted Gustav Brom's offer to work with his orchestra as a conductor. After his death, he became the chief conductor of the Big Band, with which he has since regularly participated in concerts throughout Europe and has appeared on Czech, Slovak, Polish and German television programmes.
