Jazz Department

The undergraduate three-year course of study includes all the common and less common instruments of jazz practice and singing. In addition to playing an instrument or singing, the student takes an in-depth look at harmony, intonation and rhythm, composition and arranging, improvisation, playing in big band and small ensembles, jazz history, studio work, and notation programs. Emphasis is placed on a balance of mastery of tradition, jazz teaching methodology, and student openness and creativity. Students’ extracurricular artistic activities are also encouraged. Cooperation with students from other departments (classical performance, multimedia, musical) is also developed.

The follow-up two-year master’s degree offers two profiles – instrumental and composition-arranging.

Among the graduates of the Department of Jazz Performance at JAMU are prominent jazz musicians such as Jaromír Honzák, Libor Šmoldas, Lukáš Oravec, Radek Zapadlo, Michal Wróblewski, Peter Korman, Martin Konvička, Jiří Kotača and Marek Kotača.

The undergraduate three-year course of study includes all the common and less common instruments of jazz practice and singing. In addition to playing an instrument or singing, the student takes an in-depth look at harmony, intonation and rhythm, composition and arranging, improvisation, playing in big band and small ensembles, jazz history, studio work, and notation programs. Emphasis is placed on a balance of mastery of tradition, jazz teaching methodology, and student openness and creativity. Students’ extracurricular artistic activities are also encouraged. Cooperation with students from other departments (classical performance, multimedia, musical) is also developed.

The follow-up two-year master’s degree offers two profiles – instrumental and composition-arranging.

Among the graduates of the Department of Jazz Performance at JAMU are prominent jazz musicians such as Jaromír Honzák, Libor Šmoldas, Lukáš Oravec, Radek Zapadlo, Michal Wróblewski, Peter Korman, Martin Konvička, Jiří Kotača and Marek Kotača.

• Rez Abbasi
• Jim Black
• Brian Blade
• Richard Bona
• Roland Dahinden
• Eddie Daniels
• Chris Dave
• Frank Gratkowski
• Franz Hautzinger
• John Hébert
• Gilad Hekselman
• Lionel Loueke
• Lage Lund
• Shai Maestro
• Linda Oh
• Ziv Ravitz
• Jorge Roeder
• Kurt Rosenwinkel
• Harry Sokal
• Will Vinson
• Peter Weniger

Guitarist, active on the Czech jazz scene since 1994. The formerly successful projects Four Elements and KSZ Trio have now been completely superseded by the bands Two-Generation Trio, Vincenc Kummer Quartet and Vilém Spilka Quartet. He also teaches at the jazz department of the JAMU in Brno.

What are you most proud of during your time as an artist?

To being able to play music that I enjoy and find fulfilling and at the same time someone wants to listen to it.

Where do you look for a source of motivation and inspiration?

In the people and events around you.

If you had to give one piece of advice to students, what would it be?

Do anything, but do it with love.

What does JAMU mean to you personally?

A place where I first experienced my first big job in reconstruction in the nineties, then studying and finally returning as a teacher who values the space for dialogue with the students of our department.

Often referred to as one of the leading figures of the Czech jazz scene, David Dorůžka has been an active professional musician since the age of fourteen and has performed all over the world, collaborating with a number of international names and enjoying long stays in the metropolises of New York and Paris. David Dorůžka will release his latest original CD, Andromeda’s Mystery, in June 2022 with Polish pianist Piotr Wylezole and American drumming legend Jeff Ballard. In addition, Dorůžka has participated in many other international projects, tours and recordings in recent years, including Sara with Aga Zaryan and Szymon Mika, The Multiverse: Knowing with Scott McLemore, Komeda Unknown 1967 with Piotr Schmidt, Homeland with Piotr Budniak, and guest appearances with American vocal star Lizz Wright. David Dorůžka’s previous CD Autumn Tales (2016) was rated “the best Czech jazz album of 2016” by Český rozhlas Jazz, “a masterpiece” by lidovky.cz and was awarded the Anděl prize for CD of the year in the Jazz&Blues category. Dorůžka, 33, began working on the Czech jazz scene as a teenager. He then studied composition and improvisation at Berklee College of Music in Boston with professors such as Joe Lovano, Mick Goodrick and George Garzone, and also had the opportunity to study with musicians such as Herbie Hancock, Brian Blade, Joshua Redman and Christian McBride. Dorůžka is the recipient of three Angel Awards for Jazz Album of the Year (Autumn Tales, 2016, Silently Dawning, 2008, Hidden Paths, 2004); he also received the same award in 2012 for his CD Light Year in collaboration with the quintet Inner Spaces. Dorůžka has performed at countless prestigious festivals and clubs around the world and has contributed to dozens of recordings. He has performed with such names as Jeff Ballard, Lizz Wright, Kendrick Scott, Dan Tepfer, George Mraz, Jorge Rossy, Chris Cheek, Arild Andersen, Django Bates, Bill McHenry, Jon Fält, Marcin Wasilewski, Aga Zaryan, Hilmar Jensson, Rodney Green, Brian Charette, Daniele di Bonaventura, Tiburtina Ensemble, Jiří Suchý, Oldřich Janota, Iva Bittová, Ewa Farna, Marta Topferová and many others.

What are you most proud of during your time as an artist?

For every moment when my music really touches someone.

Where do you look for a source of motivation and inspiration?

In all the everyday things that may seem ordinary and obvious to a person, but often are not at all.

If you had to give one piece of advice to students, what would it be?

Never forget what brings you real joy.

What does JAMU mean to you personally?

JAMU is an excellent and unique institution with a positive and friendly environment, which I have enjoyed working at for many years.

Jiří Slavík (1986) was born and grew up in the eastern part of the Czech Republic. At the age of 14 he moved to Rome, where he simultaneously attended the double bass class of Italian virtuoso Massimo Giorgi at the “Santa Cecilia Conservatoire” and the St. In 2004, he graduated from both institutions with “summa cum laude” honors (Santa Cecilia, a seven-year program that took him three years) and the highest score in the International Baccalaureate (St. Stephen’s).
After being offered a full scholarship by the Royal Academy of Music, Jiří moved to London where he continued his studies in classical double bass with Duncan McTier and then jazz composition with Barak Schmool. During these years he was principal double bassist in the Academy’s concert orchestra under Sir Colin Davis, or a featured soloist at the Academy’s Paganini Festival (2005). After three years he graduated from the four-year BMus programme with first class honours (2007).
Among the prizes Jiří has won during his lifetime are the 1st prize of the Jazz Competition at the International Double Bass Convention “Bass 2008” (Paris), the 2nd prize of the “Premio Valentino Bucchi” (Rome, 2005) and the Silver Medal of the Italian President Carlo Azeglio Ciampi (2005). As a soloist he has performed in the largest hall of the new auditorium “Parco della musica” in Rome and in the Czech National Television programme “Concert on the Courts”. He also performed Bach’s St. Matthew Passion at Notre Dame and played at the Théâtre des Champs-Elysees as a guest of the Ensemble Orchestral de Paris.
Jiří currently lives in Paris, where he works as a freelance musician and composer. Recently, he has had the opportunity to play his own music in venues around the world, from the Forbidden City Hall in Beijing, China to the Alexandria Center for the Arts in Egypt and the Czech National Hall in New York. His music has been broadcast by Czech Radio, for which he has made three live recordings to date, by Radio France Culture, and used in the German independent film production “Oury Jalloh” (www.ouryjalloh-derfilm.de), which won the German Film Prize for Human Rights in the Amateur Film category in 2008.
Since 2010 Jiří has been supporting d’Addario Zyex strings.

What are you most proud of during your time as an artist?

I was most pleased with a project called The Path of Light, on which I collaborated with musicians and singers from the VUS Ondráš in Brno. Here we managed to connect more than thirty people across generations with a unified vision and a huge enthusiasm, which is quite unique in the professional music world to this extent. In addition, everyone involved also became singers, which for me took the whole project to an exceptional and almost unrepeatable level. Here, for the first time ever, I was able to hear young children, including my own son, as part of my music.

Where do you look for a source of motivation and inspiration?

Inspiration can come at any time and anywhere – what is important is to be open to it and to be able to understand and capture it in the moment.

If you had to give one piece of advice to students, what would it be?

What you don’t learn and understand on your own, you won’t actually be able to do.

What does JAMU mean to you personally?

A music lab where I learned a lot thanks to my students.

Bartoš, Juraj, trumpeter, born 22. 8. 1967, Bratislava.

He graduated from the Conservatory (1981-86) and the Academy of Performing Arts (1986-92) in trumpet with Kamil Rošek in Bratislava. He is an important performer of classical and jazz music in Slovakia and the Czech Republic. During his studies he was a member of several big bands. He was a member of the Bratislava Big Band (1980-88) and the Bratislava Conservatory Big Band (1986-90). In 1988-93 he played in the Emil Viklicky Quartet on the domestic scene. In 1990, the Bratislava Hot Serenaders orchestra was founded, focusing on jazz music of the 1920s and 1930s, where Juraj Bartoš now serves as leader and artistic director. He has also performed in jam sessions with trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie and flutist Jiří Stivín in Prague. He participated in the Brass Meeting courses in Grieskirchen and won first place in the Repetition New-Orleans Jazz competition in Saint-Raphael, France (1994). In 1995 he became a soloist of the European Broadcasting Union international big band in Prague. In 1996 he joined the Gustav Brom Orchestra and completed his postgraduate studies in trumpet at the Academy of Performing Arts in Bratislava. In 1999 he founded the be-bop group Hot House. In addition to jazz, he is also a classical musician, and has performed solo with the Slovak Philharmonic Orchestra, the Košice State Philharmonic Orchestra, the Slovak Radio Symphony Orchestra and the Bohuslav Martinů Philharmonic Orchestra in Zlín.