Match point, Deuce, Tiebreak or Grand Slam are all track titles on a newly released album – appropriately named Tennis. Despite the names, the record does not feature the sounds of tennis balls hitting the court or grunting players. Instead, it presents the first release of music recorded in 1986 by the legendary band Jazz Q.
Photo: GAD Records
The group Jazz Q has played a prominent role on the Czech music scene since its founding in 1967. It began with a focus on jazz but shifted toward a more rock-oriented sound in the early 1970s. Since then, its style can be best described as a jazz-rock fusion. Rather miraculously, the band continued to perform throughout the 1970s, when many more purely rock bands were banned by the communist regime in Czechoslovakia. During this period (around 1972–1975), the group toured extensively across Europe and, above all, throughout Czechoslovakia, as their concerts became a symbol of defiance against the communist regime and the soundtrack of a generation.
In the 1980s, the band performed less frequently as its members focused on other projects. Martin Kratochvíl, inseparably linked with Jazz Q and one of its key founders, devoted much of his energy to film music. The music on newly released CD comes from this period and was created for a Czech–British documentary about sport stars of the day, including Czech tennis legends of the era.
Martin Kratochvíl & Jazz Q|Photo: Harold, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0 Unported
The music was composed and recorded in a single day during an intense, spontaneous session with top Czech and Slovak musicians. As Kratochvíl later admitted, he felt a bit like Miles Davis recording the soundtrack for Elevator to the Gallows.
The result is a rich piece of musical fusion that flows organically, with some extended solo passages by Martin Kratochvíl and Luboš Andršt, who passed away a few years ago.
The recordings on the album Tennis come from the original tapes, carefully preserved by Martin Kratochvíl. He and Jazz Q continue to perform to this day, having released numerous albums – from their first in 1970 to their most recent in 2023.