“A small boy is sitting down and listening to a transistor radio Hitachi; in the background, a rocket is flying across the night sky.”

This fictive image has inspired the new album of the double bassist and composer Jaromír Honzák who has his secure place in the Animal Music catalogue. The new album comprises a live recording of his suite in eight parts, “The Blues of a String Hanging in the Wind,” performed by the Prague Radio Symphony Orchestra and Honzák’s “all-stars” jazz quintet with its regular members David Dorůžka (guitar), Luboš Soukup (saxophone, clarinet), Vít Křišťan (piano) and Martin Novák (drums, percussion). The album was recorded in collaboration with the Czech Radio, as part of the New Horizons concert series which links jazz and symphonic music, and at the invitation of the series’ curator, pianist and composer Tomáš Sýkora. For the project, Honzák decided to return to his older piece from 2008, entitled “The Blues of a String Hanging in the Wind,” and expand it into an eight-movement suite, orchestrated by Tomáš Sýkora. Jaromír Honzák has a number of profile albums under his belt, many of which have been nominated or awarded the prestigious Anděl Award. He has collaborated with numerous colleagues and bands on stage and in the studio, but with the present project he ventures into the realm of symphonic music for the first time in his career. This is how he describes the composition’s gestation: “Never before was I tempted to work with such a large line-up; I’ve always been more drawn to chamber music. So what I decided to do here was to try and retain the “chamber mood” while working on a composition for a symphonic orchestra. My plan to take inspiration from similar works and to start by studying some scores died a quick death, and my usual working process, based on intuition, quickly set back in. The subsequent collaboration with Tomáš was very effective and pleasant. Tomáš is fantastic not only as an incredibly skilled and fast orchestrator, but as an empathic and helpful colleague, too.”