50TH ANNIVERSARY OF ZAGREB JAZZ QUARTET

Motif: Instruments used in Zagreb Jazz Quartet Boško Petrović founded a Quartet in 1959, with the following musicians: key-board Zlatko Kružić, contrabass Zdravko Šatrak and drums Ivica Gereg. Šatrak was replaced by Krešimir Remeta. At the end of 1959 the Quartet changed its name to Zagreb Jazz Quartet which up to the present time remains one of the most important ensembles in the history of Croatian Jazz. That same year Remeta and Gereg left the Quartet and were replaced by contrabassist Miljenko Prohasaka and drummer Silvije Glojnarić. Zagreb Jazz Quartet, was active until 1965 and after that year the ensemble played only on special occasions. The first Croatian jazz ensemble was uninterruptedly active on the jazz scene, performing jazz music on a high aesthetic level, executing it as an art form. The Quartet was well known by its distinctive approach, thanks in particular to the pieces of music composed by its members, often inspired by folk music. Pieces of music from their repertoire such as Petrović’s “With Pain I Was Born”, Prohaska’s “Intimate Mood”, Kajfeš’s “Ornaments” and numerous other compositions, shall remain a permanent value of the Croatian music inheritance. Zagreb Jazz Quartet was also globally famous, and the sole Croatian jazz ensemble which had a stipulated contract with a foreign promoter, a German company Lippman & Rau. Music performed by the Quartet and selected compositions satisfied in its entirety high standards of demanding music theory and had been accepted and highly praised by the public, by musicians and colleagues from the so called classic milieu. The Quartet participated at the Zagreb Biennale in 1961, along with the Zagreb String Quartet under the conductors Gunther Schuller and Boris Papandopulo, who particularly for that occasion composed a suite in three movements for String and Jazz Quartet. Later on, on several occasions, the Zagreb Jazz Quartet performed and made recordings together with Zagreb Soloists. As one of the best European Jazz ensembles of that time, Zagreb Jazz Quartet performed with globally known jazz musicians, to mention only few, the pianist John Lewis, singer Big Joe Turner, trumpeter Buck Clayton, tenor saxophonist Stan Getz and trombonist Albert Mangelsdorff. The Zagreb Jazz Quartet undertook numerous European tours, participated and played on numerous concerts and jazz festivals, and made recordings for Croatian but also for globally famous foreign record companies as Philips/Fontana and Atlantic achieving the richest discography opus in the field of jazz music in Croatia. The Zagreb Jazz Quartet made a recording on a compact disc “Zagreb Jazz Quartet in Concert” for Jazzette Records, and also a recording of their performance in Heidelberg in 1965 on a compiled compact disc “The Best of Zagreb Jazz Quartet” for Croatia Records, representing a selection of recorded compositions on different albums, and quadruple compact disc compilation “40 Years, Zagreb Jazz Quartet 1959 - 1999” for Croatia Records consisting of a selection of compositions recorded for domestic and foreign discography, and compositions recorded during their concerts and radio shows. After the Zagreb Jazz Quartet was no longer active, Boško Petrović, Miljenko Prohaska, Silvije Glojnarić, Ladislav Fidr and a saxophonist Ozren Depolo and from time to time the American trumpeter Art Farmer performed under the name of Zagreb Jazz Quintet.