Laco Deczi
The trumpeter, composer, bandleader and amateur painter Laco Deczi was born in 1938 in the village of Bernolákovo in Slovakia. In 1962 he left Bratislava for Prague where he remained until his emigration in 1985. After spending several months in West Germany he decided to settle in the United States where he lives to this day.
Music
His interest in playing the trumpet began while at primary school, in part inspired by his musical uncle. Involved with a number of musical
ensembles at high school, he subsequently moved to Prague to complete his military service, at the same time scoring guest appearances at Studio 5
and Jazz Studio. On finishing his military service, he decided to stay on in Prague and start working at the Rokoko theatre followed by the Jazz
Outsiders ensemble. He went on to work with Karel Velebný’s S+HQ and Reduta Quartet where he starred as frontman.
In 1967 he set up the Jazz
Celilla formation where he performed with the musicians Laco Troppe, Svatopluk Košvanec, Josef Vejvoda, Karel Růžička and Petr Král. At this time he
was selected to join the Czechoslovak All Star Band.
He became a member of the Czechoslovak Radio Jazz Orchestra (JOCR) as well as the
Czechoslovak Radio Dance Orchestra (TOCR) aged seventy. Over the years he has recorded several solo albums, the most well known of which has to be
“Sentimental Trumpet” accompanied by strings. As a soloist he was a member of the orchestra during the “Jazz Goes To Beat” recording by Václav
Zahradník as well as Studio A Jazz. On top of this he devoted a great deal of time to composing during this period. Prior to emigrating he also
recorded duets with the guitarist Zdeňek Šárka Dvořák plus wrote a huge amount of music for films, the most renowned of all being Věra Chytilová’s
Kalamita from 1981.
He has been living in the United States of America since 1986 where he is the frontman of Celula New York.
During his
time there he has performed with a whole host of great jazz musicians including Elvin Jones, Bill Watrous, Junior Cook, Dave Weckl and Sonny
Costanzo. Along with Celula New York, he gives regular concerts in and around the states of New York and Connecticut.
Laco has been coming back
to tour the Czech Republic and Slovakia twice a year ever since 1990. And he frequently also manages to squeeze in performances in Poland, Austria
and, above all, Germany. Laco regularly releases new studio or live records every one to two years. In recent years this has also included live
concert DVDs. He has more than twenty albums and video under his belt in total. The live album “Jazz at the Castle” came out in 2005 under the
auspices of Václav Klaus who also christened the album and wrote the foreword on the inside sleeve. In 2009 and 2010 he and the band performed at
the music festivals Rock for People, Colours of Ostrava and Sázavafest. In 2011 he was personally invited by Václav Klaus to perform at the Castle
again, this time as a guest trumpeter to Juraj Bartoš and the saxophonist Štěpán Markovič.
Awards
Laco has garnered several awards over the course of his career. In 1963 he was rated as the best national trumpet player by Jazz Bulletin magazine. In 1964 he picked up the Critics’ award and Melodie magazine Bronze Readers’ award going on to scoop up clear wins in both categories the following year. He was awarded the Czechoslovak Jazz Federation Award for his outstanding soloist work in 1966.
Books and paintings
Depicting Laco’s musical and personal life, his book “At Full Throttle” was published in 2003. It is written by Jiří Šebánek, one of the co-writers
of the Jára da Cimrmann books and stage productions.
Aside from music, Laco is also a skilled painter having produced dozens of works, mostly
oil paintings. The book “Truths” was published in 2005 depicting Laco’s painting work alongside stories to go with the individual pictures.
