User:Martuherek

"Martin Uherek Quartet" is a musical formation consisting of young talented jazz players based in Slovakia, Europe. It has performed on renowned festival Bratislava Jazz Days in 2013 with project Remembering Monk.

Beginnings
Jazz formation Martin Uherek Quartet was founded at the beginning of 2008, as a group of young, promising musicians, gathering around top Slovak jazz pianist and teacher Klaudius Kováč. The original quartet consisted of following musicians: saxophone – Martin Uherek, guitar– Peter Palaj, double-bass – Róbert Ragan Jr, drums – Pavol Blaho. After some personal changes, the band settled with pianist Jakub Tököly replacing the guitarist. The band is currently functioning in this set-up: saxophone - Martin Uherek, piano – Jakub Tököly, double bass – Peter Korman, drums – Pavol Blaho Since its beginnings, the quartet has performed at many various occasions, such as club gigs, banquets, concerts, and festivals. Among the mentioned, the band has performed on the United Europe Jazz Festival, sharing the stage with Swedish guitar player Ulf Wakenius, who played for 10 years with the famous jazz pianist Oscar Peterson. The Quartet has performed on several jazz festivals in Slovakia, as well as festivals abroad, such as Jazz Showcase in Hungary and United Europe Jazz Festival in Poland.

Awards and prizes
Martin Uherek Quartet has participated in International Jazz Contest in Tarnow, Poland at the end of 2008, where this group achieved 2nd place in the younger category. In the same year, on a Slovak jazz contest called Jazz Christmas 2008, the quartet became the laureate of the competition and was awarded for stylistic interpretation of jazz tradition. On both of these competitions, several members of the quartet were also awarded prizes for best soloists. Members of Martin Uherek Quartet have also participated in a competition New Faces Of Slovak Jazz in 2010, where they were awarded for convincing instrumental performance in jazz spirit, with following judge commentary: „The music of this group shows deep respect to bebop jazz tradition and its language is very persuasive.“ The most recent achievement, with project Remembering Bud Powell, was winning the Competition of Young Talents on Bratislava Jazz Days 2012 – the Quartet won the first prize – the opportunity to be opening Bratislava Jazz Days 2013 on the main stage. On October 25, 2013 Martin Uherek Quartet opened the Bratislava Jazz Days festival on the main stage with its newest project Remembering Monk, as a tribute to the famous pianist and composer Thelonious Monk.

Present
Martin Uherek Quartet is a relatively stable and well-known group and is considered the new young Slovak jazz generation. The members, despite their young age, can be proud of cooperation with several prominent Slovak jazz musicians, both in Slovakia and abroad. Frequently, there are performances of the Quartet members with other musicians, as well as playing in trio settings. In the present the band can be most often seen as a regular house band in Jazz klub 12 in Banska Bystrica, Slovakia, where they started the tradition of playing regular Tuesday jam sessions. The quartet’s repertoire is wide, mainly relying on the orthodox jazz tradition – swing, bebop, jazz music of the 30’s, 40’s and 50’s.