Zdeněk Fišer – guitarist, composer

Zdeněk Fišer first appears in public at the age of fifteen as a singer with the rock group Rockwells. At the age of eighteen, he already plays the guitar in the rhythm and blues band called Harpagon’s Art Group. Here he meets the pianist Petr Špetlák, who helps him to discover the world of jazz music. He then joins the Labyrint Jazz Rock, a rhythm and blues band including a wind section whose members were, among others, the bass guitarist Richard Holický, the singer Milan Démon Vitouš and the saxophonist and arranger Pavel Komzák. Shortly after, Fišer is engaged by the group of Jindřich Dostál, which plays jazz mainstream. At the same time – a self-taught musician up to then – Fišer decides to improve his musical education and enrolls at the Music Conservatory (today, Jaroslav Ježek Conservatory), where he studies the classical guitar under the guidance of professor Milan Tesař (he completes his studies in 1975). In 1972, he is involved in the formation of the band Jazz Nova playing contemporary modern jazz. In 1975, together with Pavel Kostiuk, Michal Gera and Jaromír Helešic, Zdeněk Fišer co-founds Impuls, one of the best known jazzrock bands, with which he still performs today. At that time, he is also one of the co-founding members of Milan Svoboda’s Prague Big Band. His collaboration with Jiří Stivín starts in 1977. One year later, he shortly performs with Michal Kocáb’s Pražský výběr, at that time still playing jazz. In 1981, he starts performing with the trumpeter Laco Deczi, in whose formation Jazz Celula he continues appearing together with the bass guitarist Přemysl Faulkner and the drummer Vajco Deczi up until Deczi’s emigration to the USA in 1984. Today, Fišer is a regular guest of Celula New York at their frequent tours in the Czech Republic. Since 1982, he has played in Hana Hegerová’s accompanying band. In 1987, Zdeněk Fišer, bass-guitarist Zdeněk Wimpy Tichota and drummer Marcel Vlček found the band Fišergang, accompanying his wife Irena Fišerová and playing Latin American fusion repertoire. In 1989, Fišer, Julius Baroš and Vít Švec form the Jazz Unity band playing contemporary modern jazz. At that time, they often give concerts in Germany together with musicians from Cheb, lead by their creative spirit Zdeněk Paštika. Concurrently, Fišer appears in Karel Vejvoda and Evžen Jegorov’s big band. His occasional collaboration with Jana Koubková grew so intense that in 2001 to 2005, he becomes a regular member of her accompanying group.

Today, Fišer plays jazzrock with Martin Kratochvíl’s Jazz Q and jazz mainstream with Jazz Unity; he has also adapted a big part of the repertoire of Impuls, a band focused mostly on the interpretation of his own compositions, for his daughter Martina Fišerová, a singer and the band’s occasional guest. With Petr Malásek, Robert Balzar and František Kop, he continues to accompany Hana Hegerová; their concert DVD from 2006 has been highly acclaimed and received a multi-platinum record for sales.

Concurrently, Fišer devotes his time to pedagogical activities – in 1980, he was one of the first musicians to teach jazz improvisation outside the Jaroslav Ježek Conservatory. This was one of the reasons why, in 1985, he was invited as a lecturer to the second year of Karel Velebný’s Summer Jazz Workshop in Frýdlant, where he still teaches today.