Concert: Martin Kratochvil/Toni Ackerman Duo

A concert of the legendary duo of Czech pianist Martin Kratochvíl and American guitarist Tony Ackerman. Their unique sound fuses two acoustic instruments and a wealth of world music styles in the cauldron of jazz improvisation, tempered by the easy familiarity of half a lifetime of playing together.

The duo of Martin Kratochvíl (piano) and Tony Ackerman (guitar) has been a staple of the Czech jazz scene for over 30 years. In the early 1970’s, Kratochvíl was the first musician to bring jazz-rock behind the Iron Curtain; his fusion group Jazz Q Praha still draws big crowds today. He was also the first Czech to attend the Berklee College of Music in Boston. He now divides his time between live music and his recording studio, trekking in the Himalayas, and making films of his adventurous journeys.

Ackerman was immersed in all the American guitar styles — blues, ragtime, bluegrass — as a teenager in the Boston area in the 1960’s, and honed his guitar skills with several years of classical study. His 7-string guitar provides a rounded, natural sound to complement the grand piano. Besides the duo and solo performing, Ackerman now heads the music department at the Prague campus of New York University.

The two first played together in an impromptu meeting at a Prague club in 1985, when Ackerman was on an IREX fellowship researching Czech contemporary music. It was “love at first chord”. Thirty three years and thousands of concerts later, a typical Ackerman/Kratochvíl evening will take you from lush original melodies and harmonies to explosive percussive free-for-alls. It has often been said of the duo that you can’t tell who is “soloing” and who is “accompanying”, or where the written material stops and the improvisation begins. Because their music springs from so many world music roots, it has a way of speaking to people of all ages and musical tastes. As a duo they have recorded nine albums and played at festivals and concerts all over Europe, as well as in Israel and the U.S..

Free and open to the public. Seats are limited, on first-come, first-served basis. For more information and to reserve your seat, please visit www.czechcenter.com.