The performers
Bohemia After Dark ()
Bohemia After Dark is a Prague-based jazz sextet dedicated to the bop era, from the bebop of the 1940s to the hard bop of the mid-1950s. It is an international project dedicated to classic recordings, but especially to neglected gems from the repertoire from the bebop revolution of the 1940s to the emergence of cool jazz and hard bop in the early 1950s, based on the career and discography of Kenny Clark, a pioneer of the modern style of drumming.
The Bohemia After Dark project features Benjamin Hague, Osian Roberts, Andy Schofield, Alice Bauer, Libor Šmolas and Taras Voloschuk.
Benjamin Hague ()
Benjamin Hague is a UK-born, Prague-based jazz drummer.
First active as a jazz musician during his UK university days, Ben has been associated with the Prague jazz scene as a guest drummer with various Czech jazz groups for over ten years (1995–98 and again since 2010), focusing on bop, swing, blues and straight-ahead styles.
Andy Schofield ()
Andy Schofield is a saxophonist/arranger from Manchester, UK (born in 1966). He lived in Berlin from 2009-13, and now lives in Prague.
Andy moved to Prague in 2013 after years in the UK and Europe, where he worked with such luminaries as Kenny Wheeler, Bill Frisell, Peter Erskine, John Taylor and Anthony Braxton. Andy's playing oozes joy and energy, combining technical prowess with a deep knowledge of the jazz tradition and an emotional charge. As an arranger he has worked with the BBC Bigband, Ronnie Scott's Jazz Club Orchestra, the Bulgarian Radio Big Band, the Czech Radio Big Band and most recently the fantastic Prague Jazz Dock Orchestra, which he co-directs and where he is the saxophone section leader. With his band, the Andy Schofield Sextet, he performs arrangements of compositions ranging from jazz standards from the 50s and 60s to contemporary compositions that include his own.
Osian Roberts ()
Osian Roberts is a tenor saxophonist from Wales. At the age of seventeen, immediately after graduating from the Royal Academy of Music in London, he won the Daily Telegraph’s Jazz Soloist Award.
Osian moved to the Czech Republic in 2010 after studying at the Royal Academy of Music in London and many years of performing on the British jazz scene. He is a bebop expert who has played and recorded with many of the world's leading players including Cedar Walton, Kirk Lightsey, George Mraz, Valery Ponomarev, George Freeman, Peter King, Peter Washington, Brian Charette, Jim Mullen and Kurt Elling. His big band affiliations include The Glenn Miller Memorial Orchestra, Ronnie Scott's All-Stars Big Band, Michael Bublé Orchestra, Gustav Brom Radio Orchestra and The Jazz Dock Orchestra. He has even played with former bandmates of both Kenny Clark (with organist Mike Carr) and Oscar Pettiford (with pianist Hode O'Brien). His Prague bebop trio, The Bopportunists, is dedicated to the legacy of Charlie Parker.
Alice Bauer ()
Alice Bauer graduated from the Jaroslav Ježek Conservatory, where, in addition to singing with Virginia Walterová, she also studied piano with Zdeněk Páleníček.
Libor Šmoldas ()
Libor Šmoldas is a leading Czech jazz guitarist. The Czech and international press agree on his high qualities and leading position among European jazz guitarists.
His concert activity spans four continents and world capitals New York, Washington, Sydney, Beijing, Istanbul, Vienna, Berlin, Denver, Milan, Philadelphia, Brisbane, Melbourne and London. With his quartet, he was the first Czech jazz band to tour the USA and regularly returns there, as well as on annual concert tours to Australia and other countries. Among the world clubs where he performs are the legendary Pizza express, Smalls, Iridium, Blue Note, Dear Head Inn and Bennetts Lane.
In the Czech Republic, he has played over two thousand club concerts, leading festivals such as Prague Spring, Prague Proms, Brno Jazz Fest, Bohemia Jazz Fest, Strings of Autumn and Janáček’s May, and collaborated with top Czech jazz artists including Ondřej Pivec, Robert Balzar and David Dorůžka. He has played and recorded with world-class musicians such as George Mraz, Jeff Ballard, Sam Yahel, Bobby Watson, Adam Nussbaum, Brian Charette and Jay Anderson. Libor has won many awards, such as the Best Jazz Composition of 2014 and the Angel Award for Jazz Record of the Year with the Organic Quartet. He teaches at the Jaroslav Ježek Conservatory in Prague and at international workshops in England, Germany, Greece, Italy and Australia. He has released nine albums under his own name and many more as a collaborator.
Taras Voloshchuk ()
Taras Voloshchuk is a classical violinist, jazz double bassist and emotional storyteller.
He is a graduate of the Kyiv State Music Lyceum of M. V. Lysenko and the National Music Academy of Ukraine of P. V. Lysenko. I. Tchaikovsky and in 1993 won the International Chamber Music Competition. He has over fifty classical recordings and dozens of jazz albums to his credit.
He has played with Čechomor, Limbo, Lenka Dusilová, but has also performed alongside world stars – Gerry Leonard, Doug Yowell, René Trossman's blues group, Yvonne Sanchez, Najponk Trio, Suzanne Vega, Bireli Lagrene, etc.
Stanislav Mácha ()
Stanislav Mácha is a pianist who has collaborated with star personalities of the domestic and international jazz scene (Dan Bárta, Robert Balzar, Felix Slováček, Yvonne Sanchez, Jaromír Honzák, Piotr Baron, John Abercrombie, Craig Handy, Nicolas Simion and many others). He is currently actively performing and lecturing.
