In autumn 2017, trumpeter Jakub Ševčík decided to found a young Dixieland band in Prague. The roots of this idea go back further. Born in Cheb in 1988, Ševčík began learning trumpet at the music school in Marienbad at the age of seven and played there in the Junior Dixieland. At fifteen, he went on to the Prague Conservatory. Today he also plays in Petr Kroutil's Original Vintage Orchestra and performs at the long-established Prague theatre Semafor.
The Prague Dixieland Society, known in Czech as Pražská dixielandová společnost and for short as PDS, gave its first concert in the Napa Bar & Gallery in the city centre. The venue became its base; the band played there once a month and gradually built up its own audience. It is now one of the regular guests in the Sunday Dixieland series at Jazz Dock on the Vltava.
Musically, PDS is modelled on the New Orleans jazz of the 1920s and 1930s. Trumpet, clarinet and trombone form the front line, while banjo and sousaphone provide the buoyant two-beat pulse and the drums supply the drive. Improvisation is the basis, and the classic interplay of the three horns thrives on listening closely to one another.
Particularly noteworthy is the family core. The siblings Eliška Masáčková and Martin Masáček play trombone and sousaphone, and a female trombonist in the front line is still rather rare in traditional jazz. Petra Ševčíková takes care of the vocals, Jakub Douda plays clarinet, Jan Brabec banjo and Petr Mikeš drums.
The debut album, released in 2020, shows how flexibly the band handles its instrumentation. A violin and a guitar broaden the sound, and Douda switches between clarinet and tenor saxophone. The track list ranges from the college song “Washington & Lee Swing” via “Ain't Misbehavin'” and “All Of Me” to Gershwin’s “Oh, Lady Be Good”. Several female singers share the vocal numbers.
Prague has a long Dixieland history, and the PDS picks up on it without sounding nostalgic. The musicians are young, the repertoire is around a hundred years old, and anyone who hears the collective chorus at the end of a tune can tell how much this generation enjoys the old forms.