Jaromír Nohavica
Encyclopedia
Ostrava
Ostrava is the third largest city in the Czech Republic and the second largest urban agglomeration after Prague. Located close to the Polish border, it is also the administrative center of the Moravian-Silesian Region and of the Municipality with Extended Competence. Ostrava was candidate for the...
) is a Czech songwriter
Songwriter
A songwriter is an individual who writes both the lyrics and music to a song. Someone who solely writes lyrics may be called a lyricist, and someone who only writes music may be called a composer...
, lyricist
Lyricist
A lyricist is a songwriter who specializes in lyrics. A singer who writes the lyrics to songs is a singer-lyricist. This differentiates from a singer-composer, who composes the song's melody.-Collaboration:...
, and poet
Poet
A poet is a person who writes poetry. A poet's work can be literal, meaning that his work is derived from a specific event, or metaphorical, meaning that his work can take on many meanings and forms. Poets have existed since antiquity, in nearly all languages, and have produced works that vary...
.
He was born in Ostrava
Ostrava
Ostrava is the third largest city in the Czech Republic and the second largest urban agglomeration after Prague. Located close to the Polish border, it is also the administrative center of the Moravian-Silesian Region and of the Municipality with Extended Competence. Ostrava was candidate for the...
and has played guitar since he was 13. He began studying at the Technical University of Ostrava
Technical University of Ostrava
The Technical University of Ostrava , is a university located in the city of Ostrava, Moravian-Silesian Region, Czech Republic....
but eventually left the school. He tried various jobs and eventually ended up working as a freelance lyricist. He gained fame with his first song for Marie Rottrová, Lásko, voníš deštěm (You Smell of Rain, My Love; actually a cover version of the song She's Gone by Black Sabbath
Black Sabbath
Black Sabbath are an English heavy metal band, formed in Aston, Birmingham in 1969 by Ozzy Osbourne , Tony Iommi , Geezer Butler , and Bill Ward . The band has since experienced multiple line-up changes, with Tony Iommi the only constant presence in the band through the years. A total of 22...
). He lives in Ostrava
Ostrava
Ostrava is the third largest city in the Czech Republic and the second largest urban agglomeration after Prague. Located close to the Polish border, it is also the administrative center of the Moravian-Silesian Region and of the Municipality with Extended Competence. Ostrava was candidate for the...
with his wife and two children.
In 1982 he started performing in public, a sound decision in that a number of his songs gained wide popularity. His first album, Darmoděj (Aimless), released in 1988, sold out immediately. An aura of myth arose around Nohavica which survived even the crisis period of his treatment for alcoholism
Alcoholism
Alcoholism is a broad term for problems with alcohol, and is generally used to mean compulsive and uncontrolled consumption of alcoholic beverages, usually to the detriment of the drinker's health, personal relationships, and social standing...
. He subsequently released the lovely, slightly pessimistic Mikymauzoleum (Mickey Mausoleum), an album of mainly melancholy songs. In 1994 he recorded a live album, Tři čuníci (Three Piglets), intended for children, with humoristic songs.
In 1996 Nohavica released Divné století (Strange Century). He and his producer employed new instruments and voices for the new songs on the album, and it became a huge success. Two years later the Jaromir Nohavica and Kapela (i.e. the Band) came out with Koncert (Concert), a record featuring Nohavica playing with a band, and this fact recognizably changed his music. The album contains mainly older material, but the new treatment gave it a new appeal. His studio album from 2000, Moje smutné srdce (My Sad Heart), contains mostly sad songs about love.
Nohavica also starred in Petr Zelenka
Petr Zelenka
Petr Zelenka is an award-winning Czech playwright and director of theatre and film. His films have been recognized at international festivals in Moscow and Rotterdam...
's movie Rok Ďábla (Year of The Devil
Year of The Devil
Year of the Devil is a 2002 Czech film directed by Petr Zelenka. It stars musicians who act as themselves: Czech folk music band Čechomor, musicians and poets Jaromír Nohavica, Karel Plihal and British musician and composer Jaz Coleman...
), which was awarded the main prize at the 37th Karlovy Vary International Film Festival
Karlovy Vary International Film Festival
The Karlovy Vary International Film Festival is a film festival held annually in July in Karlovy Vary , Czech Republic. The Karlovy Vary Festival gained worldwide recognition over the past years and has become one of Europe's major film events....
in 2002 and several other international film festival
Film festival
A film festival is an organised, extended presentation of films in one or more movie theaters or screening venues, usually in a single locality. More and more often film festivals show part of their films to the public by adding outdoor movie screenings...
s. He translated Polish musical Painted on Glass for Divadlo Na Fidlovačce
Divadlo Na Fidlovacce
Divadlo na Fidlovačce is a private theatre based in Prague.The theatre is in a building located in Nusle, that has been built as Thyl Theatre 1921. Several enesembles performed in the theatre, that had itself several names. In 1978 the building was closed and started to deteriorate. In January 1995...
and poeticized Mozart's opera Così fan tutte
Così fan tutte
Così fan tutte, ossia La scuola degli amanti K. 588, is an opera buffa by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart first performed in 1790. The libretto was written by Lorenzo Da Ponte....
for The National Moravian-Silesian Theatre.
Apart from his native Czech Republic, he also enjoys popularity in neighbouring Poland
Poland
Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...
and Slovakia
Slovakia
The Slovak Republic is a landlocked state in Central Europe. It has a population of over five million and an area of about . Slovakia is bordered by the Czech Republic and Austria to the west, Poland to the north, Ukraine to the east and Hungary to the south...
.
Extended play records
- Cesty (Roads) (EP, Panton 1985)
- Písně pro V. V. (Songs for V. V.) (2 EPs, Panton 1988)
Albums
- Darmoděj (Aimless) (Panton 1988)
- Osmá barva duhy (The Eighth Color of the Rainbow) (Panton 1989, Monitor 1994)
- V tom roce pitomém (In That Stupid Year) (Panton 1990)
- Mikymauzoleum (Mickeymousoleum) (Monitor 1993)
- Tři čuníci (Three Piglets) (Monitor 1994)
- Darmoděj a další (Aimless and others) (Monitor 1995)
- Divné století (A Strange Century) (Monitor-EMI 1996)
- Koncert (The Concert) (Monitor-EMI, 1998)
- Moje smutné srdce (My Sad Heart) (BMG Ariola, 2000)
- Babylon (Sony Music / BontonBontonBonton Music was a record label in Czech Republic and Slovakia. The name is a pun: bon ton means "etiquette" in French , but also may be understood as "good sound" and alliterates with Panton, another Czech label.In 1998 the Czech Bonton was merged with Sony Music Czech Republic and continued as...
, 2003) - Pražská pálená (Prague Brandy / Burned) (Jaromír Nohavica, free download on his page: http://www.nohavica.cz/praha2006/prazska_palena.htm 2005)
- Doma (At Home) DVD, CD (Jaromír Nohavica, 2006)
- Ikarus (2008)
- On the road (2008) (available for free download on nohavica.cz)
- V Lucerně CD+DVD (2009)
- Virtuálky (2009) (available as free download on nohavica.cz)
- Virtuálky 2 (2010) (available as free download on nohavica.cz)
- Virtuálky 3 (2011) (available as free download on nohavica.cz)
External links
- http://www.nohavica.cz/ (Czech, English, Polish)
- Discography with texts
- Short biography and discography
- Pictures from a concert in American Czech-Slovak Cultural Club in June 2003
- Photo from the Moscow concert in Central House of Artist on 7 May 2010