Somewhere between folk, pop and jazz is a “place called MarZ” – the musical universe of singer, guitarist and songwriter Markéta Zdeňková. Her songs orbit themes ranging from confessional to lighthearted, cerebral to shamanic. She writes mostly in Czech and has a talent for beautiful melodies that remain true to the cadence of her native language.
Next to Markéta, at the core of MarZ is co-founder Štěpán Janoušek (trombone/backing vocals/arrangements), a musician on Prague’s new wave of young jazz instrumentalists in his own right. Their first album, Na rozcestí (Amplión Records, 2017) was a beautiful introduction to the unique MarZ soundscape. In 2018 the duo expanded to a quintet, bringing in Dalibor Hrubeš (guitar, lap steel), Miloš Klápště (bass guitar, synth) and Vítězslav Patočka (drums). This formation really bolstered the new songs that Markéta was writing, and took MarZ to “another dimension”. In March 2020, they released their eponymous album on Tranzistor Records.
