The voice of Czech jazz: Celebrating Ondřej Havelka’s seventieth birthday
Today’s Sunday Music Show showcases the music of renowned jazz singer Ondřej Havelka, who turns seventy on October 10th. Havelka has been the singer of the group The Melody Makers since 1995, prior to which he was the vocalist for the Original Prague Syncopated Orchestra from 1976. The Melody Makers have charmed listeners with their faithful recreations of classic jazz, reviving both the instruments and the performance style of 1920s music.
Born in Prague in 1954, Ondřej Havelka came from an artistic background, the son of an actor mother and a conductor father. He joined the Original Prague Syncopated Orchestra two years after its founding, bringing the number of its members up to twelve. The group’s fidelity to the sound of 1920s jazz also meant fidelity to the typical language of the genre: English. Throughout the 1980s, the group could not play their English-language repertoire on radio or television, only in clubs and music halls. The hits of the fifteen-member Melody Makers include Mě to tady nebaví (I don’t like it here), Isn’t this a lovely day! and Nebe na Zemi (Heaven on Earth).
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