American Jazz Night. Big Band Composition Contest with Jiří Kotača

American Jazz Night is a concert series launched by the Latvian Radio Big Band, where the audience is invited to look back on the “golden heritage” of the big band genre and the most important jazz figures both in Latvia and worldwide.

Award-winning Czech composer and trumpeter Jiří Kotača founded the “Cotatcha Orchestra” (featuring musicians from the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Bulgaria) about ten years ago with the vision of performing unusual and original big band music. Their repertoire ranges from works by world-renowned composers, such as Igor Stravinsky and Gil Evans, to contemporary Czech compositions for big band, as well as collaborations with outstanding international guest artists such as Ilya Reijngoud, Marc Vilaseca, Mirna Bogdanović and Daniel Kača.
The orchestra’s album Bigband Electronics, in which the world of large jazz ensembles meets electronic music, was nominated for a Czech Grammy and received the Czech Jazz Album of the Year award.
Alongside the finalist works of the 5th Latvian Radio Big Band and Latvian Music Academy’s Big Band Composition Competition, Jiří Kotača, together with the Latvian Radio Big Band, will perform his original compositions, highlighting current trends in contemporary big band composition.