Pruchova, Vlasta (*12.7.1926)

jazz woman singer, wife of a significant Czechoslovak jazz music personality, Jan Hammer sr., mother of even more significant musician Jan Hammer Jr. She sang jazz standards, step by step building her own Czech repertoir. Besides jazz music (together with her husband, K. Krautgartner Orchestra, also her son and his Junior Trio), she was also one of the pioneers of Czech pop song (again with her husband as songwriter, partly under pressure of official authorities that rejected jazz as a way of "western propaganda"). She sang with K.Gott, M.Chladil, E.Pilarova and others, at the same time helped young jazz musicians in their musical beginings (e.g. Emil Viklicky). With her husband she spent a year in the U.S.A. and sang there in the jazz clubs. After her son left to exile, her musical career was interrupted by the communists. She has returned into studios only in 1992 in her age of 66.

Discography

1. Docela vsedni obycejny den / 20x Vlasta Pruchova (Bonton 1997)

Sample1 (WMA): Vsechno je proste (1961, music by Jan Hammer jr., played by TOCR,  43", 261 kB)

Sample2 (MP3): The Man I Love (1965, music G.Gershwin, played by Junior Trio, 33", 200 kB)

Links: Jan Hammer, Jr.