The František Kop Quartet was formed at the beginning of 1995 for a performance at the Prague Spring festival and is one of the longest-running line-ups on the Czech jazz scene. It is led by the saxophonist, flautist and bass clarinettist František Kop, joined by Petr Malásek (piano, synthesizers), the bass guitarist Martin Lehký and the drummer Pavel Zbořil. The repertoire is built on Kop’s and Malásek’s own compositions, which draw on blues, funk, Latin music and free jazz and bear traces of classic jazz-rock; the quartet does not shy away from standards and pieces by John Coltrane, Wayne Shorter or Thelonious Monk either. In 2020 Amplión Records released the album News of the Past, on which the guitarist Lukáš Martínek guests. More at kopfrantisek.com.
