Robert Balzar is a Czech jazz

Jazz

Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...

 bassist

Double bass

The double bass, also called the string bass, upright bass, standup bass or contrabass, is the largest and lowest-pitched bowed string instrument in the modern symphony orchestra, with strings usually tuned to E1, A1, D2 and G2...

 and composer

Composer

A composer is a person who creates music, either by musical notation or oral tradition, for interpretation and performance, or through direct manipulation of sonic material through electronic media...

 who was born in Náchod

Náchod

Náchod -History:Náchod was founded in 14th century by knight Hron of Načeradice, who founded a castle on a strategical place, where local trade road reaches the defile called Branka. The first written note dates back to 1254.-Castle:...

.

Robert Balzar studied bass at academy of music in Brno

Brno

Brno by population and area is the second largest city in the Czech Republic, the largest Moravian city, and the historical capital city of the Margraviate of Moravia. Brno is the administrative centre of the South Moravian Region where it forms a separate district Brno-City District...

. After working with various groups, he founded Robert Balzar Trio in 1996. The collaboration with American jazz guitar player John Abercrombie

John Abercrombie (guitarist)

John Abercrombie is an American jazz guitarist, whose work often explores jazz fusion and post bop. Abercrombie has played with Billy Cobham, Jack DeJohnette, Michael Brecker and Randy Brecker...

 brought him international attention.

He worked together with Joe Newman

Joe Newman (trumpeter)

Joseph Dwight Newman was an American jazz trumpeter, composer, and educator, best known for his time with Count Basie....

, Benny Bailey

Benny Bailey

Benny Bailey, born Ernest Harold Bailey , was an American bebop and hard-bop jazz trumpeter.-Biography:...

, Tony Scott

Tony Scott (musician)

Tony Scott was a jazz clarinetist known for an interest in folk music around the world...

, Benny Golson

Benny Golson

Benny Golson is an American bebop/hard bop jazz tenor saxophonist, composer, and arranger.-Biography:While in high school in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Golson played with several other promising young musicians, including John Coltrane, Red Garland, Jimmy Heath, Percy Heath, Philly Joe Jones, and...

, Wynton Marsalis

Wynton Marsalis

Wynton Learson Marsalis is a trumpeter, composer, bandleader, music educator, and Artistic Director of Jazz at Lincoln Center. Marsalis has promoted the appreciation of classical and jazz music often to young audiences...

, Lew Tabackin

Lew Tabackin

Lew Tabackin is a jazz flautist and a tenor saxophonist. He is married to Toshiko Akiyoshi, who is a jazz pianist and a composer/arranger.-Biography:...

, Tony Lakatos, Victor Lewis, the Hal Galper

Hal Galper

-Biography:He studied classical piano as a boy, but switched to jazz which he studied at the Berklee College of Music from 1955 to 1958. He hung out at Herb Pomeroy's club, The Stable, hearing local Boston musicians like Jackie Byard, Alan Dawson and Sam Rivers. Galper started sitting in and became...

 Trio, Craig Handy

Craig Handy

Craig Mitchell Handy is an American post-bop tenor saxophonist.Born in Oakland, California, Handy attended North Texas State University from 1981 to 1984, and following this played with Art Blakey, Wynton Marsalis, Roy Haynes, Abdullah Ibrahim, Elvin Jones, Joe Henderson, Betty Carter, George...

and others.

Awards

Robert Balzar and his Trio received several awards:

• 1998: Album Travelling, best Czech CD of the year during the Czech Radio Jazz Test
• 1999: Robert Balzar, best Czech bassist of the year
• 2000: Album Alone, best Czech CD of the year
• 2000: Robert Balzar Trio, best Czech group of the year

Discography of Robert Balzar Trio

• 1998: Travelling,
• 2000: Alone
• 2005: Overnight
• 2008: Tales, with John Abercrombie

External links

• Homepage of Robert Balzar
• Robert Balzar on allaboutjazz.com