By general request, I upload this virtuosic piece by Jaroslav Ježek (1906-1942), played by his own band. He was a Czech composer. The almost blind Ježek studied composition under Josef Suk and Alois Hába at the Prague Conservatory. When Ježek met playwrights/comedians Jan Werich and Jiří Voskovec, leaders of the Osvobozené Divadlo (Liberated Theatre) in Prague, he took up the post as main composer and conductor. During the next decade, he composed incidental music, songs, dances, ballets for the grotesque political satirical plays of Voskovec and Werich. Many of his songs are still hugely popular in the Czech Republic. In addition to his other musical pursuits, Ježek evidently was fascinated by American jazz. Between 1929 and 1936, possibly earlier, he organized and conducted an orchestra featuring his original jazz compositions and arrangements. Billed variously as "Ježek's Jazz" and "Ježkův swingband" they recorded for the Czech Ultraphon label, making some of the most original hot music in Europe. The piece presented here is his best-known work. It was recorded in 1930, in a brilliant version by the composer's own jazz band. The virtuosic piano solo is by Harry von Noé.
