Like Vienna, you can't walk down the streets of Prague without finding numerous opportunities to go hear live classical music every day. Indeed, on our first night there we attended an intimate concert by a string quartet in a small church of music by Mozart, Vivaldi, Bach, Handel, and Schubert. Another night we attended a program of Mozart and Strauss in a large concert hall with full orchestra (including brass for the Strauss numbers) accompanied by a pair of opera singers and pair of dancers (that our girls absolutely loved). Every bit as good as what we heard in Vienna. But...
In Prague there's also an incredibly active Jazz scene. Seems like
every other restaurant and club has a live Jazz combo playing -- usually playing
quite well. Walk down one of the many winding cobblestone streets in the
city core and you come across restaurants like Zlaty Dvur that advertise:
Jazz, Goulash & Beer
It's hard to beat that. :-)
At Zlaty Dvur we heard a tight combo with bass, guitar, and tenor/soprano elegantly playing tunes like Stan Getz/Gil Gilberto compositions, Autumn Leaves, Wonderful World, Night and Day, 'Til There Was You, and other standards. On another night there we heard a female jazz vocalist backed by George Benson-like guitar playing and sensitive upright bass, doing fresh renditions of Blue Moon, All of Me, and Samba tunes, with liberal use of skat and clear vocal influences from both Nat (King) and Natalie Cole. Transfixing!
Other vignettes... Walking around town, we heard: a Dixieland band in the town square (with a floating clarinet obligatos above a strong trumpet lead), an opera singer on a 500+ year old bridge over the river through town, a trumpet/alto duet playing Girl from Ipanema at a club beneath an approach to the same bridge, a singer of Czech folks songs accompanied by an accordion, a combo playing big-band standards, and possibly my favorite, a trio consisting of a tenor player, and clarinet player, and a "drum set" made of a washboard with a small cymbal and drum mounted to it (expertly played).
In a word, Bohemian. :-)
Now back from Prague, but part of with my heart still there...
-- Mike
July 15, 2002
If you haven't already read it, compare this to Musical Vienna, which was before Prague on our itinerary.