Prague Journal

Wednesday, January 12, 2005.

After dinner this evening, Rick and Aditya and I went to the Svandovo theater to hear the Paradox Trio (which is, paradoxically, a quartet) which is billed as a klezmer band. It’s really a klezmer-style jazz improvisation group, featuring Balkan, Celtic, and Romany instrumentations – quite extraordinary, actually. The lead musician is Matt Darrian, a “multi-instrumentalist” from New York, best known as the reeds, flutes and woodwinds player in the Klezmatics. He also plays for the Recycled Waltz Orchestra, the Les Miserables Brass Band, the Celtic bands Whirligig and Smash the Windows, and the swing band Balling the Jack. This evening he played various sizes of clarinets, flutes (Irish and Balkan), saxophones, and a gaida (Bulgarian bagpipe). I’m not surprised that Jazziz magazine named Darriau one of the 150 most influential jazz musicians of the past 15 years. The Paradox Trio also includes cellist Rufus Cappadocia (who leads the Moroccan-inspired jazz ensemble Kif), percussionist Seido Salifoski (such amazing fingers and rhythms!!!) and guitarist Brad Shepik (who also performs with the Tiny Bell Trio and the Commuters).
The Svandovo theater is actually Prague’s third-oldest theater, on the opposite side of the river from the famed National and Estates theaters. This theater was originally built by Pavel Svanda in 1881 to accommodate his theater company in the dreary winter days when its outdoor venue was plagued by clouds and snow. It stayed in the family after Svanda's death and was improved with each generation: His son changed its large auditorium into a theater with a proper stage and 600 seats, and the next family member in line added a balcony built of concrete and iron, increasing the seating capacity to 800. When the communist regime came to power, it ousted the Svandas from their building, and the building was renamed the Realistic Theater. The post-communist government restituted the building to the Svanda family after the 1989 revolution, but the theater was sold to a private company that added adjacent building space and renamed the structure the Labyrint Theater. The building was neglected and fell into disrepair, and the City of Prague purchased it in 1997. In 1999, architect David Vavra was hired to lead a major renovation, and the theater was reopened on December 14, 2002. The main room (which hosted Vaclav Havel and Lou Reed on Monday) is now a large, modern acoustically designed theater space, with adjacent recording studios and control rooms. Adjacent to the tiled lobby there is a spiral staircase that leads down to the “studio” (where the Paradox Trio performed this evening), which is part of a long, narrow room in what looks like an old brick subway tunnel, complete with high curved red-brick ceiling. Unlike most of the cellar jazz clubs in Prague, the room was smoke-free, so we had a totally enjoyable evening listening to incredibly wonderful sounds.

posted by JWinn @ 10:10 PM