Prazsky vyber ( Prague Selection )
years active: 1976 - 2005
Originally an offspring of Prague Big Band, founded by Kocab; later a band of two strong individualities: vocalist and keyboardist Michaela Kocab and guitarist Michal Pavlicek. Never too creative but thanks to top instrumental skills of all musicians, always able to interprete current musical trends to the Czech listener, which was a rare opportunity because of the "Iron Curtain" that time. First period pure jazzrock, the album Zizen recorded with assistance of guests such as jazz keyboardist Martin Kratochvil and all members of the folkrock Marsyas band. In 1982, the band recorded a new wave album that was ready for distribution, originally named Straka v hrsti (Magpie In A Hand). Due to the Anti-New-Wave campaign, culminated in 1983 by the series of articles in the communist journal Tribuna, distribution of the record was prohibited and most of the new wave bands were prohibited. The album was released only 5 years later (this time named just Prazsky vyber) but meanwhile, the recordings were unofficially distributed among people on tapes and cassettes and became the most famous new wave album in the Czech Republic ever. The prohibition thus helped Kocab to become one of the most famous Czech musicians ever. The band was re-established just before the fall of the "iron curtain", this time named "Vyber"; they managed to record a new album in 1988 and one live album after the fall af communism, with Frank Zappa as a guest. Kocab's popularity brought him even to Czechoslovak Parliament after revolution. Even though he came back in the mid-90's, he had never achieved such a big success as with album 3. Prazsky vyber reunited several times for a few concerts but it was never permanent. In 2006, after conflicts with some of the original band members, Kocab founded his own band called Prazsky vyber II.
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