Jaroslav Ježek () (September 25, 1906 – January 1, 1942) was a

Czechoslovakia , rue, Чеськословеньско, , yi, טשעכאסלאוואקיי, , common_name = Czechoslovakia , life_span = 1918–19391945–1992 , p1 = Austria-Hungary , image_p1 ...

n composer, pianist and conductor, author of jazz, classical, incidental, and film music.

Life

Ježek was born in the

Prague Prague ( ; cs, Praha ; german: Prag, ; la, Praga) is the capital and largest city in the Czech Republic, and the historical capital of Bohemia. On the Vltava river, Prague is home to about 1.3 million people. The city has a temperate ...

quarter of

Žižkov Žižkov is a cadastral district of Prague, Czech Republic. Most of Žižkov lies in the municipal and administrative district of Prague 3, except for very small parts which are in Prague 8 and Prague 10. Prior to 1922, Žižkov was an indepen ...

to the family of a tailor. He was almost blind from a young age. He studied composition at the

Prague Conservatory The Prague Conservatory or Prague Conservatoire ( cs, Pražská konzervatoř) is a music school in Prague, Czech Republic, founded in 1808. Currently, Prague Conservatory offers four or six year study courses, which can be compared to the level ...

as a pupil of

Karel Boleslav Jirák Karel Boleslav Jirák (né Karel Bohuslav Jirák; January 28, 1891, Prague, Bohemia - January 30, 1972, Chicago, Illinois, U.S.) was a Czechoslovak composer and conductor. Jirák became a pupil of Josef Bohuslav Foerster and Vítězslav Novák ...

(1924–1927), at the master school of composition with Josef Suk (1927–1930), and shortly also with

Alois Hába Alois Hába (21 June 1893 – 18 November 1973) was a Czech composer, music theorist and teacher. He belongs to the important discoverers in modern classical music, and major composers of microtonal music, especially using the quarter-tone scal ...

(1927–1928). Ježek met the playwrights/comedians

Jan Werich Jan Werich (; 6 February 1905 – 31 October 1980) was a Czech actor, playwright and writer. Early life Between 1916 and 1924, Werich attended "reálné gymnasium" (equivalent to high school) in Křemencova Street in Prague (where his future bu ...

and

Jiří Voskovec Jiří Voskovec (), born Jiří Wachsmann and known in the United States as George Voskovec (June 19, 1905 – July 1, 1981) was a Czech actor, writer, dramatist, and director who became an American citizen in 1955. Throughout much of his career ...

(aka

George Voskovec Jiří Voskovec (), born Jiří Wachsmann and known in the United States as George Voskovec (June 19, 1905 – July 1, 1981) was a Czech actor, writer, dramatist, and director who became an American citizen in 1955. Throughout much of his career ...

), leaders of the ''

Osvobozené divadlo Osvobozené divadlo (1926–1938) (''Liberated Theatre'' or ''Prague Free Theatre'') was a Prague avant-garde theatre scene founded as the theatre section of an association of Czech avant-garde artists Devětsil (''Butterbur'') in 1926. The theatr ...

'' (Prague Liberated Theatre) in

, and took up the post of main composer and conductor for the theatre. During the next decade (from 1928 to 1939), he composed incidental music, songs, dances, and ballets for the comic and satirical plays of Voskovec and Werich. In 1934 he became a member of Czech Group of Surrealists. Forced to leave

Czechoslovakia , rue, Чеськословеньско, , yi, טשעכאסלאוואקיי, , common_name = Czechoslovakia , life_span = 1918–19391945–1992 , p1 = Austria-Hungary , image_p1 ...

following the

Nazi Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in ...

occupation, Ježek, Voskovec and Werich went into

exile Exile is primarily penal expulsion from one's native country, and secondarily expatriation or prolonged absence from one's homeland under either the compulsion of circumstance or the rigors of some high purpose. Usually persons and peoples suf ...

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

. He worked as a piano teacher and choirmaster there, and continued to work with Voskovec and Werich. In 1942, the long-ill Ježek died of chronic kidney disease in New York. On December 29, 1941, three days before his death, Ježek married Frances Bečáková. He collaborated with many

avant-garde The avant-garde (; In 'advance guard' or ' vanguard', literally 'fore-guard') is a person or work that is experimental, radical, or unorthodox with respect to art, culture, or society.John Picchione, The New Avant-garde in Italy: Theoretical ...

artists of pre-war Czechoslovakia, such as

Vítězslav Nezval Vítězslav Nezval (; 26 May 1900 – 6 April 1958) was a Czechs, Czech poet, writer and translator. He was one of the most prolific avant-garde Czech writers in the first half of the 20th century and a co-founder of the Surrealism, Surrealist ...

and E. F. Burian.

Music

His musical output is commonly divided into two parts.Vysloužil p. 234. The first part of his work consists of chamber, piano and concertant compositions, created first under the influence of

Stravinsky Igor Fyodorovich Stravinsky (6 April 1971) was a Russian composer, pianist and conductor, later of French (from 1934) and American (from 1945) citizenship. He is widely considered one of the most important and influential 20th-century clas ...

, of the Parisian

Les Six "Les Six" () is a name given to a group of six composers, five of them French and one Swiss, who lived and worked in Montparnasse. The name, inspired by Mily Balakirev's '' The Five'', originates in two 1920 articles by critic Henri Collet in '' ...

and of

Arnold Schönberg Arnold Schoenberg or Schönberg (, ; ; 13 September 187413 July 1951) was an Austrian-American composer, music theorist, teacher, writer, and painter. He is widely considered one of the most influential composers of the 20th century. He was as ...

. Later he found his own, specific and modern expression. He also became a popular jazz composer in pre-war

Czechoslovakia , rue, Чеськословеньско, , yi, טשעכאסלאוואקיי, , common_name = Czechoslovakia , life_span = 1918–19391945–1992 , p1 = Austria-Hungary , image_p1 ...

. He composed songs and dances for the revue plays of the Prague Free Theatre (The Ass and the Shadow, Caesar, The Headsman and the Fool e.g.) and also for the films of Voskovec and Werich (Powder and Petrol, The World Is Ours, Heave Ho!). His innovative melodies are well known in the Czech Republic to this day. Ježek was also evidently fascinated by American

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, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a major ...

. Between 1929 and 1936, possibly earlier, he organized and conducted an orchestra featuring his original jazz compositions and arrangements. Billed variously as "Ježek's Jazz" and "Ježkův swingband" they recorded for the Czech ''Ultraphon'' label, making some of the most original music in Europe. A few of these recordings deserve special mention. "Bugatti Step" (1930; Ultraphone A10166) is an up-tempo number for piano and jazz orchestra, enjoying enduring popularity as a hot jazz piano solo. "Teď ještě ne" (Not Yet) (1931; Ultraphon A10217) is rousing dance music in the

Jean Goldkette John Jean Goldkette (March 18, 1893 – March 24, 1962) was a jazz pianist and bandleader. Life Goldkette was reportedly born on March 18, 1893 in Valenciennes, France,Russel B. Nye (1976). Music in the Twenties: The Jean Goldkette Orchestra ...

Coon-Sanders' Nighthawks Coon-Sanders Original Nighthawk Orchestra was the first Kansas City jazz band to achieve national recognition, which it acquired through national radio broadcasts. It was founded in 1918, as the Coon-Sanders Novelty Orchestra, by drummer Carleto ...

style. "Rubbish Heap Blues" (1937; Ultraphon A11421) shows that Ježek not only listened to

Duke Ellington Edward Kennedy "Duke" Ellington (April 29, 1899 – May 24, 1974) was an American jazz pianist, composer, and leader of his eponymous jazz orchestra from 1923 through the rest of his life. Born and raised in Washington, D.C., Ellington was based ...

's records, but was keeping up with Duke's very latest work. "Rubbish Heap" features a

Johnny Hodges Cornelius "Johnny" Hodges (July 25, 1907 – May 11, 1970) was an American alto saxophonist, best known for solo work with Duke Ellington's big band. He played lead alto in the saxophone section for many years. Hodges was also featured on soprano ...

-like alto sax and a

Cootie Williams Charles Melvin "Cootie" Williams (July 10, 1911 – September 15, 1985) was an American jazz, jump blues, and rhythm and blues trumpeter. Biography Born in Mobile, Alabama, Williams began his professional career at the age of 14 with the Yo ...

-like growl trumpet, plus a three-trombone section to complement the three trumpets. Ježek's composition titled simply "Polonaisa" (1931; Ultraphon A10355) is a traditional

Polonaise The polonaise (, ; pl, polonez ) is a dance of Polish origin, one of the five Polish national dances in time. Its name is French for "Polish" adjective feminine/"Polish woman"/"girl". The original Polish name of the dance is Chodzony, meani ...

clothed in modern instrumentation, harmony and textures. It is as if Chopin and Gershwin had collaborated, the Polish dance rhythms mingling easily with hot

syncopation In music, syncopation is a variety of rhythms played together to make a piece of music, making part or all of a tune or piece of music off-beat. More simply, syncopation is "a disturbance or interruption of the regular flow of rhythm": a "place ...

. Ježek also turned the boys loose in records of his arrangements of well-known hot jazz standards, such as "Tiger Rag," "Dinah" and "Chinatown, My Chinatown." These recordings, very few of which could have survived the

occupation and

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, are almost completely unknown, at least in the United States. A seven-volume CD retrospective of Voskovec and Werich's work for the Liberated Theater (1929–1938) containing the items mentioned above and dozens of others was issued by the Czech Supraphon label in 1994 (and reissued in 2007).

Selected works

Orchestral *Concert for Piano and Orchestra (1927) *Fantasy for Piano and Orchestra (1930) *Concert for Violin and Orchestra (1930) *Symphonic Poem (1936) Chamber *Serenade for Wind Quartet (1929) *Wind Quintet (1931) *String Quartet No. 1. (1932) *Sonata for Violin and Piano (1933) *Duo for 2 Violins (1934) *String Quartet No. 2. (1941) Piano *Suite for Quarter-tone Piano (1927) *Sonatina (1928) *Petite Suite (1928) *Capriccio (1932) *Etuda (1933) *Bagatelles (1933) *Rhapsodie (1938) *Toccata (1939) *Grande valse brillante (1939) *Sonata (1941)

Notes

References

*Vysloužil, Jiří: ''Hudební slovník pro každého II.'' Vizovice: Lípa, 1998. *Holzknecht, Václav: ''Jaroslav Ježek a Osvobozené divadlo''. Prague: Arsci, 2007.

External links

Short biography at Czech radio site
{{DEFAULTSORT:Jezek, Jaroslav 1906 births 1942 deaths Musicians from Prague Czechoslovak exiles Czech classical composers Czech male classical composers 20th-century classical composers Microtonal musicians Czech jazz musicians Prague Conservatory alumni Blind classical musicians Recipients of Medal of Merit (Czech Republic) Czechoslovak expatriates in the United States 20th-century Czech male musicians Male jazz musicians Deaths from kidney disease

Life

Music

Selected works

See also

Notes

References

External links