Připravil Ian Willoughby.
Hovoří Pavel Klusák.
Natočeno 2024. Premiéra 2. 12. 2024 (ČRo Radio Prague, 22 min.).
Lit.: Willoughby, Ian: Pavel Klusák on Suchý, Šlitr and the explosion that was Semafor. In web ČRo Radio Prague, 2. 12. 2024 (článek + nahrávka k poslechu). – Cit.: Prague’s Semafor theatre was the most significant arts institution in 1960s Czechoslovakia, ushering in a new era against the backdrop of a slow political thaw in the communist country. Semafor was centred on the song-writing duo of Jiří Suchý and Jiří Šlitr and gave starts to a whole generation of enormous and enduring pop stars. Top Czech music writer Pavel Klusák explores the theatre’s great decade in his brand new book Suchý and Šlitr: Semafor 1959-1969 – and shared his insights at our studios in Vinohrady.
You’ve written this wonderful new book about Jiří Suchý and Jiří Šlitr. How did their partnership first begin? How did they get together?
“Their story is a part of the late ‘50s, when after 1956 the atmosphere in our country, both political and social, got warmer.
“The rigid Stalinist times were over, but very freshly over, so people like Jiří Suchý – and there were very few of them – wanted to amuse themselves and play music influenced by, as they say, American rhythms: soul, rhythm and blues, early rock’n’roll, jazz, swing.
“The jazz club Reduta was one of the very few venues in Prague. Music was played mostly in cafés and hotel bars, but Jiří Suchý and the band Akord Club played, without any permission, at Reduta. (…)