MILAN SVOBODA
QUARTET

modern jazz group

Personnel: Milan Krajic - tenor and soprano sax  Milan Svoboda - piano, keyboards Filip Spaleny - bass Ivan Audes - drums                       photos!  MILAN SVOBODA QUARTET, founded in 1979. Modern mainstream combining jazz with elements of contemporary serious music, rock and folklore elements and very often grouping individual themes into larger musical units of a suite character. Concerts all over Europe, in the U.S.A., and in India. In June 1991 selected to participate in the First European Jazz Night - a TV concert of European jazz personalities transmitted from Vienna to 24 countries. CD Albums: "Open The Window Wide", "Dedication", "The Boston Concert" , "Tonight-Tomorrow Morning", Milan Svoboda Q & Tony Lakatos, "Sign of Sagittarius", "Live at the Castle" and new one in 2010 "Moment´s Notice": New CD!   MSQ Albums:                        MSQ partitipation on int. jazz festivals: (see complete list)     Leverkusen Jazz Days, Konstanzer Jazz Herbst, Münster,  Europische Wochen Passau,  Jazzbühne Berlin, Orgeltage Burghausen, Lindau, Husum, Göttingen, Leipziger Jazz Tage,  Trier, Jazz Meeting Berlin, Jazztage Görliz, Jazz Rally Düsseldorf, Chemnitz, Jazz Weekend Regensburg, Jazz in Hamburg, Jazz T(w)oday Trostberg , Jazz auf dem Burg Burgthann (Germany) - Eurojazz Mexico City, Morelia Jazz Festival, Zacatecas (Mexico) - Paris, Bedarieux, Marvejoles, Jazz a toute heure Saint Remy de Chevreuse, Les ranez-vous de l´erdre Nantes (France) - European Jazz Night Vienna, Bad Ischl, Linz (Austria) -  Jazz in Olten (Switzerland) - Brosella (Belgium) - Limasol, Nicosia (Cyprus)     Jazz Jamboree Warszaw,  Piano Jazz Festival Kalisz, Jazz  Odra Wroclaw (Poland)  -  Jazz e dintorni Assisi (Italy) - San Sebastian, Villena (Spain) -  Sibiu (Romania) - Bratislava Jazz Days (Slovakia)  and all importand festivals in Czech Republic.

CD: "Milan Svoboda Quartet & Tony Lakatos" (PJ Music 1998)
Jazzreview from the internet Jazz Magazine:
http://www.jazzreview.com/cdreview.cfm?ID=1251

Featured Artist: Milan Svoboda Quartet featuring Tony Lakatos CD 
Title: Milan Svoboda Quartet featuring Tony Lakatos
Year: 1998 
Record Label: Pyly Jazz 
Genre: Contemporary Jazz 
Musicians:
 Review: This disc of talented musicians primarily from the Czech Republic: Michal Gera, trumpet, flugelhorn; Milan Svoboda, piano; Martin Lehky, bass guitar; Ivan Audes, drums, and featuring Hungarian tenor saxophonist, Tony Lakatos, deliver great combinations of uptempo jazz, sophisticated rock and a little blues. This session has something that many of us miss with regard to contemporary jazz. The opening track, “Bluff” sounds like a mixture of Eddie Harris, Horace Silver and Donald Byrd in the sixties and seventies. Svoboda swings on piano beneath Lakatos’ tough and tender sax. Gera’s trumpet swings hard like his bandmates in a jam reminiscent of Eddie Harris’ “Freedom Jazz Dance.” “Mud/Bahno” injects straight-ahead into fusion. Lakatos sax workout here is similar to Dexter Gordon’s soulful interpretations. After a lively workout, it cools down to Gera’s trumpet performance worthy of the highest praise. “Shadows/Stiny” waxes an intellectual groove, but has a sensual quality as well. 

The band knows a smokin’ groove, as evident in “Body and Soul,” and they play the right balance of both. “Hot Coffee” has a “big city” sound with Gera’s trumpet telling a story in the midst of “neon lights and fast movers.” It changes gears and settles down to Lehky’s bass guitar and Lakatos tenor holding a conversation. Audes swings the drums harder here than on any other track. “View From the Window” is not “cocktail,” but it's what lounge music hoped to be. The solos are strong and it starts out with high-energy but cools to a low boil. Milan Svoboda composed all tracks, except “Body and Soul”. This disc should be quite welcome to a wide audience. This is some really great contemporary jazz and hopefully more like it will spring forth. 
Rating: Four Stars
Reviewed by: Denai Burbank 

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Germany, Cham, 6.1.2011

Germany, Wangen - Allgäuer Jazz Tage, 14.10.2004

Germany, Hamm, Jazz Club, 23.1.2004

France, Nantes, Randez-vous de l´Erdre, 31.8.2002:

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Hailbronn, Jazz Club CAVE, September 24th, 2002