Adriena BARTOŠOVÁ - vocals, composition (1960)

Studied singing privately with František Tugenlieb and Mária Medvecká in Bratislava.

Adriena Bartošová´s music presents a synthesis of blues, jazz, rock, pop music, Latin-American and oriental elements. As for their form, the pieces lie on the dividing line between pop music songs and improvised jazz standards. Her alto voice has a dark colouring, her rendering is rich in dynamics, temperament and expressiveness. She is the first jazz woman singer in Slovakia to be a leader of her own band as well as to express composing ambition and the first to bring to the Slovak listeners music inspired by jazz not only in Slovak and English but also in Portuguese.

Adriena released five CDs, appeared at many music and jazz festivals, in television programmes, on concert stages not only in Slovakia but also in the Czech Republic, Austria, Poland, Germany, Finland, Great Britain and elsewhere. She captivates the audience by her beautiful rich and colourful voice as well as engaging and elegant presence.

She started her career by occasional guest appearances with the Demikát group and by works with with Ladislav Gerhardt Quintet, who showed her the way to jazz in the early 1980^th. In 1987, she founded the Scat band and made a debut at the Bratislava Jazz Days. Two years later, she won the first place in the “Song for a Star” author´s contest with her composition For the Town (music: Adriena Bartošová, lyrics: Monika Kozelová), she was ranked the 4^th in the opinion poll of the Czech magazine “Melodie” as the Talent of the Year and in 1992, she was a nominee of the “Melodie” magazine´s opinion poll for the Female Singer of the Year, and “Scat” was nominated for the band of the year as well. She is a holder of the the Ladislav Martoník Prize for the jazzman of the year 1994.

She has collaborated with a great number of well-known jazz musicians and bands including Jiří Stivín, Jana Koubková, Hannes Beckman, Wolfgang Lackerschmied, Gustav Brom Big Band Orchestra, the Austrian band Top Sound and others. She is not only an outstanding singer but also an acclaimed composer. Her band´s repertoire mostly consists of compositions by Bartošová. They also play pieces by Juraj Burian and world´s jazz standards music.

Discography:

CD Harmony of Rain, Adriena and Scat, Škvrna Rec. 1991

CD Blue Afternoon, H and V Jumbo Rec. 1993

CD Mais Que Nada, Opus 1996 (collaboration with the American saxophonist Shawn T. Loescher and Brazilian guitarist Mario Lima

CD Slovak Jazz 97, HF 1997

CD Adriena, EMI – Monitor 1998

CD The best of Adriena Bartošová – Confession, 2000

Juraj BURIAN - guitar, composing, arranging (1963)

studied guitar at the Conservatory in Bratislava (1987-91) and at Berklee College of Music in Boston (1992-95).He has been a member of several jazz formations and composed music for them. He has collaborated and released recordings with pop music bands and singers including Adriena Bartošová´ Scat, Gravis, Beata Dubasová, Vašo Patejdl, Dežo Ursíny, Pavol Hammel, Soňa Horňáková, Richard Müller, Lojzo band and others.

He took part in the Eurovision festival, in the Euro Song Contest in Oslo (Norway), where he conducted an orchestra performing his contest song “While we are with you”, (lyrics:Jozef Urban, vocals: Marcel Palonder, 1996, has performed at jazz and music festivals in Slovakia and abroad, toured Germany with the American saxophonist Peter Cardarelli and German guitarist Philipp van Endert.

He was awarded the Grand Prix of the Union of Authors and Performers as the best instrumentalist of the years 1991 and 2002.

Juraj Burian derives impulses for his music from the 1970´s jazz-rock. Building on fusion music (Pat Metheny, Michael Brecker, A. Holdsworth), he favours inventiveness, virtuosity and enjoyable atmosphere. His compositions make meet the elements of Latin-American music, jazz and rock.

Martin BREZNICKÝ - piano, keyboards, composing, arranging (1959)

studied playing the piano at the Public Conservatory in Bratislava, has collaborated with the band of Adriena Bartošová Scat and with many well-known Slovak musicians and singers as well.

Csaba CSENDES – drums and percussion (1968)

he is a self-taught percussion player, he also studied playing the guitar by taking private lessons. He has collaborated with many jazz musicians and orchestras in Slovakia and abroad, with Peter Lipa, Anton Jaro, Juraj Burian, Jiří Růžička, Peter Cardarelli just to mention some of them. He has also performed in musical productions in Austria (Vienna) and Germany.