Jarolslav Jezek Orchestra Bugatti Step 1931

Jaroslav Jezek was born in Prague 1906 and studied at the Prague Conservatory, graduating in 1927. He studied music during the period of the new freedom with its' influence of American jazz and dance on Czech composers which can certainly be seen in Jezek's works. From '28-38, Jezek composed music for 20 plays and revues performed at the Liberated Theater where absurdities of the times-moral hypocrisy, the mistakes of democracies and the inanities of totalitarianism-especially of the Nazis, were humorously skewered. He composed waltzes, tangos, charlestons, rhumbas, and jazz for his admiring Czech audiences. During WWII he moved to New York, possibly because his past criticisms of the Nazi Party would have landed him in prison. He continued to compose there in 1939-41. He died in New York in 1942.

The Bugatti Step was written to commemorate Czech racing car driver Eliska Junkova's 2nd place finish in a Swiss mountain race in '27 in her huge Bugatti touring car, seen at 2:08 in this vid.
Thanks to former yt contributor KSPM who originally uploaded this music and introduced me to Jezek.

Category:

Music

Tags:

• Jaroslav
• Jezek
• Prague
• Czechoslovakia
• Bugatti
• Step
• jazz
• 1920s

[PetrK]

Once I was on a concert of Ondřej Havelka (a Czech musician who covers old swing)

He said that at the day they recorded this song, Jezek wasn't suddenly able to play the melody correctly. He always made some mistakes and it was impossible to record. (It was usual to record with all instruments together and without breaks, everything had to work) So Jezek had to ask some musician to play the melody for the left hand with him.

In the only original version the song is not played only by Jezek :)

[preservationhall01]

@PetrK Jezek was primarily a composer and director. He did not play an instrument in this recording, but he did compose and direct this music. The piano was played by Harry von Noe, later exposed as a Nazi spy. Jezek was almost totally blind from an early age, was very sickly all of his life and did not live a long life.

[JanaSklibova]

1:05 co je to za auto, prosím? :-)

[preservationhall01]

@JanaSklibova I think you are asking what is this auto at 1:05-it is a 1939 Bugatti T57C Cabriolet presented to the Shah of Iran by the French Government as a wedding gift.

[AyameChan139]

Milujem túto skladbu...A Oh keď som ju naživo dva razy počula na koncerte Bratislava Hot Serenaders tak to bolo niečo...Proste úplne mi to doháže rozprúdiť krv v žilách :D

A o čo viac by mi prúdila kebyže ju počujem naživo v tej dobe , ktorá zostane navždy najkrajšia aká kedy bola a bude

[preservationhall01]

Dekuji!!!

[curleyQ01]

1931! The Czechs were certainly giving their American jazz counterparts a run for their money- and in a classy Bugatti to boot LOL. Prague must have been a great place to be in the 30s.

[Fronomikron]

The best period of our history:-)

[Kkosta]

@Posiman Sračky určitě ne. Pokud to je horší, tak je to z vélké části proto, že si neustále podkopáváme sebedůvěru. Jako např. teď.

[curleyQ01]

@MrBlueeffect But around 1905 to 1935, Prag must have had an amazing run. I've seen all of the beautiful art deco architecture myself. What a contrast to the ugly soviet style buildings interspersed between joy of old Prag.

[MrBlueeffect]

@curleyQ01 I agree :) wish to be there :-) but as you may know in the year 1939 it wasn't so nice :)

[MrRobbie159]

V úterý jsem to hrál na soupravu s Děčínským symfoňákem a musím říct že to byl ohromný zážitek. Tahle původní verze je má nejoblíbenější a opravdu skládám kloubouk před Jirkou Knottem, který to dokázal z odposlechu přepsat pro orchestr...

[TheLisztfan]

Love the instrumentation in this!

[siolaaduob]

@a4am I would be difficult for you to read more about it. I have books, biography of Jaroslav Ježek and all the plays, the Free Theater played until its end 1938. 5 books altogether. All in czech, were not translated. In one of them Mr Werich, the owner of the theater then, recalls : "Our pianist, Harry von Noe, (proper name Norberg Herrmann von Noe) was one of the most important agents of Henlein (leader of German Nazis in Czechoslovakia), even in our cellars Nazis had a secret weapon store."