Home | Business News | Browse by Publication | C | Czech Music

David Doruzka: with my own band I want to play my own music.

Article Excerpt
Despite his young age, guitarist and composer David Doruzka is one of the leading musicians of the Czech jazz scene. In New York he recorded his first CD Hidden Paths, which was awarded the "Andel" prize in the Czech Music Academy Awards as "CD of the year 2004" in the Jazz & Blues category. He mostly performs with his own trio and also plays in a quartet with singer Josefine Lindstrand from Sweden.

When you started playing guitar, did you know from the beginning that it was going to be jazz you wanted to do?

At first I wasn't very interested in jazz. I started listening to rock'n'roll bands--a lot of music from the 60s. My parents bought me a guitar and I started taking classical guitar lessons. And then two years later they bought me an electric guitar and I started playing rock and blues, and then jazz one or two years later. But at the same time I always heard jazz music at home from my grandfather who is a jazz critic and who used to be an amateur musician.

After graduation from high school in Prague, you went to Berklee College of Music in Boston. There you studied guitar and composition. It seems to be a crucial moment in your career. How important was it in fact?

Yes, it was very important. Education was one thing but equally important was the chance to be around a lot of musicians from very different backgrounds. Berklee is like a small musical world. 3500 students study music there and come from many different places and different continents and they study different things. The age and level is mixed but I met some really incredible players from all over the world and many inspiring people, and I made lot of friends. I got to play with many people from the US, from different European countries, from South America and from Japan. I also met some composers and I got to play with some of the teachers too. When I think back on it now, this was the most important thing. But the education was also important. I mostly studied composition. Even though I'm much more a player than a composer, I had the chance to write for larger ensembles and to hear the music being played right away. That's an important experience definitely.

Which of those teachers were most important for you?

There was Joe Lovano, a very well-known saxophonist and composer....

View this article FREE - Now for a Limited Time, try Goliath Business News
Free for 3 Days!