Songs for Orchestra - Tomáš Sýkora - 2021 | Animal Music
Tomáš Sýkora: Songs for Orchestra
Tomáš Sýkora

Songs for Orchestra

Songs for Orchestra is a new album and the most extensive music project to date by jazz pianist and composer Tomáš Sýkora. It features a live recording of a concert performance in honour of Karel Růžička’s memory. Sýkora assembled the programme as a curator of the “New Horizons” concert series by the Prague Radio Symphony Orchestra which merges jazz and classical music in unique concert projects, just as is the case of the present album. Sýkora has been joined by three other jazz soloists on the recording – saxophonist David Fárek, double bassist Tomáš Liška and drummer Roman Vícha – and the Prague Radio Symphony Orchestra which performs under the baton of Štěpánka Balcarová who is best-known as the artistic director of the Concept Art Orchestra big band. Sýkora was Růžička’s student of many years, but also a close friend and an arranger of his compositions. The album comprises Růžička’s famous piece Lovebird, originally composed for a chamber ensemble and jazz quartet, which Sýkora scaled up with woodwinds and tympani. This is followed by Sýkora’s own suite, Hidden Songs, consisting of five movements in contrasting tempos, in which classical music alternates with jazz and improvised passages by the soloists and still manages to evoke various song forms. The album is concluded by arrangements of a selection of compositions from the latest album by Karel Růžička junior, Grace and Gratitude, which are combined into a single whole and culminate in one grand finale. 
The digital version of the album includes the concert encore - Ruzicka's "Celebration Blues". 

2021
ANI 093-2
10,50 €
Lovebird
(Karel Růžička)
Hidden Songs Suite: Miraculum
(Tomáš Sýkora)
Hidden Songs Suite: Ogden Point
(Tomáš Sýkora)
Hidden Songs Suite: Labyrinth
(Tomáš Sýkora)
Hidden Songs Suite: Pavane
(Tomáš Sýkora)
Hidden Songs Suite: In Memory of Time
(Tomáš Sýkora)
Grace & Gratitude Suite
(Karel Růžička Jr., arranged by Tomáš Sýkora)
Celebration Blues
(Karel Růžička)
Personnel and sound:

Tomáš Sýkora - piano

David Fárek - saxophone

Tomáš Liška - acoustic bass

Roman Vícha - drums

Prague Radio Symphony Orchestra

Štěpánka Balcarová - conductor

 

Recorded live by Roman Kolliner, Adam Karlík, Pavel Karlík (DOX+, Prague)

Mixed by Milan Cimfe, Petr Ostrouchov, Tomáš Sýkora, Adam Karlík (Sono Records, CZ)

Mastered by Pavel Karlík, Adam Karlík (Sono Records, CZ)

Press Release:
Photos (print quality)

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