Cookin' In Bonn

More than a year ago, we reported on the alliance between Václav Klaus, the president of the Czech Republic and the pianist Emil Viklický. Klaus established a series of jazz concerts at Prague Castle, the Czech equivalent of the White House, and chose Viklický to launch it. To read about that event, click here. Viklický is one of several veteran European jazz pianists, including the Italian Enrico Pieranunzi, the Austrian Fritz Pauer and the Frenchman Martial Solal, who are barely known in the United States despite their celebrity on the continent and in the British Isles. Viklický toured the US and Mexico in 1996 with the Ad Lib Moravia ensemble, but his appearances outside of Europe are rare. There has been talk of his touring North America with his Czech compatriot, the bassist George Mraz, on whose 2001 CD Moravá Viklický was featured.

In the meantime, Viklický continues to add to his considerable discography. His latest CD , Cookin' in Bonn, was recorded at a festival in Germany with his longtime trio mates, the jaw-dropping bassist František Uhlíř and drummer Laco Tropp, a specialist in quiet power. The All About Jazz web site has a new page featuring the album and providing a download of "Aspen Leaf," one of Viklický's compositions based on the music of his beloved Moravia. It is a way to sample a complete performance, not just one of the snippets usually available to web surfers. Full disclosure: I wrote liner notes for the CD, but stand to gain nothing from its sale. My fee was paid long ago, and liner note writers don't get royalties. Come to think of it, musicians rarely do. But that's a complicated subject for another time.

Try Viklický. He's worth hearing.