Jiri Slavik - Interview and Performance

Interview and Performance with Jiri Slavik

In this video, I meet one of the European bass scene's most exciting artists, Jiri Slavik. A student of the Italian virtuoso Massimo Giorgi (1953 - 2020), Jiri is a classically trained improviser with strong roots in traditional Czech music. I've seen Jiri perform live as a solo artist twice and each concert was a masterclass in double bass performance. His playing was exhilarating as he took the whole audience with him on his sonic exploration and masterful improvisation. Jiri's music has stuck with me, so when I heard he was visiting London in July 2022 I jumped at the opportunity to meet up and discuss all things double bass. In our discussion, we reference renowned contemporary bassists such as Barre Phillips, Mark Dresser, Dave Holland, Peter Herbert, Clayton Thomas, John Eckhardt, and Sebastian Gramss. Please join us in the comments on YouTube to highlight other bassists in the contemporary music world - it would be great to celebrate and share their music.

At the end of the video, Jiri performs a moving rendition of Deep River, an anonymous African-American spiritual that was performed by Charlie Haden and Hank Jones on their album, Come Sunday.

Many thanks to Jiri Slavik for sharing so much and I hope you enjoy this discussion as much as I did.

- Geoff Chalmers (DDB Host & Founder)

TIMECODES:

00:00 Introduction
01:05 ISB Convention performances
04:43 Mark Dresser, Barre Phillips & more
08:32 Barre Phillip's Crossbows
09:30 Five-string double bass
11:12 Influences
13:02 Deep Tones for Peace
15:36 Solo bass performance
23:08 Samuel Beckett quote
25:07 Solo performance