FOUR IN BLUE ● FOUR IN BLUE

Blues for Magda (Radek Zapadlo)
Settings (Vladan Ronner)
Fried Egg (Radek Zapadlo)
One for J&J (Vilém Spilka)
44 (Vilém Spilka)
Dog’s Blues (Radek Zapadlo)
Just in Case (Vladan Ronner)
Pendolino (Vilém Spilka)

Total time • 45:03

Radek Zapadlo – tenor and alto saxophone
Petr Tureček – drums
Vladan Ronner – Hammond organ
Vilém Spilka – guitar

Earthy blues and soul jazz. The bandleader, saxophonist Radek Zapadlo (Vilém Spilka Quartet, Cotatcha Orchestra, Ondřej Ruml, Matej Benko, etc.) founded the quartet in 2017, inspired by the legendary recordings “Back at the Chicken Shack” and “Midnight Special” by the great “Hammond” player Jimmy Smith. Since then, the quartet has moved towards its own original music in the aesthetics of those recordings and styles. All members of the band, even the traditionalist Radek Zapadlo, a well-known jazz conservative, forced themselves to write compositions for this band. Therefore we will have a unique opportunity to hear Zapadlo´s future hits Dog´s Blues, Fried Egg or Blues for Magda.

Surprisingly early, the band has made it to their debut eponymous CD, which was born in pain in the infamous studio Jalovec in Babice nad Svitavou. Radek Zapadlo, playing tenor and alto saxophone in Four in Blue, surrounded himself with equally experienced players so that the band’s line up can pay respect to Smith’s original recordings – Petr Tureček (a rising jazz star from the Department of Jazz at the JAMU Brno) on drums, Vladan Ronner (Mulligang, Milan Kašuba Trio etc.) on Hammond organ and Vilém Spilka (Vilém Spilka Quartet etc.) on guitar. The band’s current repertoire is dominated by originals penned by all band members. You can check out the core of it on this CD.

PHOTOS

Produced by Radek Zapadlo, Vilém Spilka
Executive producers • Kristýna Nováková, Vilém Spilka, Roman Franc
Recorded and mixed by Jaroslav Panuš at Studio Jalovec, Babice, Czech Republic, August 23, 24 and 25, 2020
Mastered by Peter Beckmann at TechnologyWorks Mastering, London, UK, September 1, 2020