Ch. ASA: Live 1975 - CD

Surprisingly, the term jazz rock, known in Czechoslovakia, did not find as fertile ground in the South Moravian metropolis as in Prague. Of course, there was also a tendency to create one' s own variant of this fusing, mostly instrumental music. For example, the renowned Gustav Brom Orchestra sometimes separated a smaller association led by guitarist Igor Vavrda and presented its form of fusion music, from the point of view of jazz rock rockers, the group Nucleus presented it for some time, but the group Ch. A. S. A.

Its prototype could be partially traced in the group of bizarre name: Šuchra-Luf Band, formed by Antonín Stříž (then still an electric guitar), Ivo Albrecht: bass guitar (studying at the Faculty of Electrical Engineering) and Miroslav “Kyseláč“ Veselý: drums. The group emphasized the expressive conception of their own compositions and performed from 1970 to 1971. They performed in Medlánky, Lesná (Horizont club), Panton Club (Rooseveltova ul. ) and the famous Šelepka. After the departure of “Kyseláč“, Stříž “retrained“ on percussion instruments for two years and a new musical community was slowly born on the horizon.

The group was formed at the beginning of 1973, when the conditions for founding new rock bands, let alone bands experimenting with various musical forms, were very difficult in Czechoslovakia. Their rehearsal room was the jazz club under the House of Arts on Malinovského náměstí. Then the band moved to the northern outskirts of Brno to Řečkovice to the garden of the drummer' s family house, to the former laundry.

Name of the group (Ch. A. S. A. ) in individual letters represented the surnames of the members of the band that began to play in the cast: Pavel Chmelař (baritone saxophone, soprano saxophone, Flute, piccolo), Ivo Albrecht (bass guitar), Antonín Stříž (percussion) and Jiří Adam (electric guitar). Ivan Havlíček (percussion) then joined the group.

In the club at Šelepka, the band discovered singer with guitar Mirka Křivánková (formerly a member of the Premier group), who interestingly used a demanding jazz scat and, moreover, in an unprecedented range of four octaves. Her voice became an integral part of their distinctive sound. There weren' t many jazz singers in our country, and even more so Ch. A. S. A. she attracted attention. Křivánková consistently respected jazz form and improvisation, and in her speech, partly inspired by Polish singer Urszula Dudziak and Brazilian singer based in California - Flora Purim, it meant a significant difference from standard singing, where the voice as a vocal instrument often took on the role of a “musical“ instrument. By not singing text songs, Křivánková avoided examining the textual concept of self-proclaimed cultural trustees during music plays, who searched for ambiguous hidden messages and decided on the suitability or unsuitability of the sung text.

Playlist

Hospitality “ U Střížů ” / Brazilian brass band / Lamb to see / Untitled / To Newport far / To the other bank / Santiago / Unexpected letter / Chasablanca