David Kleňha: the jazz and swing singer bringing jazz back to a younger generation

Jazz isn’t just for the old

Say jazz singer and many people picture a smoky club and an audience who remember Sinatra on the radio. David Kleňha disagrees — and proves it every time he performs. His motto is simple: jazz isn’t just for the old, young people can swing too.

He brings jazz and swing to the stage and the theatre in a modern style. He wants the genre to reach a generation that knows it from films rather than concerts, and he wants jazz to sound fresh, not like a museum piece. That is why he sounds just as natural in a large hall with a twenty-piece orchestra as in an intimate trio over dinner.

From Karlovy Vary to the jazz stage

David Kleňha was born in Karlovy Vary and music has been with him since childhood. He studied jazz singing for seven years with Stanislava Čiháková and jazz piano for eight years with Zdeněk Krám — today the bandleader of Big Band Karlovy Vary. The circle closes here: his piano teacher became the leader of the orchestra in which David now sings as a soloist.

His piano training shows in his singing. He understands harmony, phrases with a clear sense of what is happening under the melody and speaks the same language as the musicians accompanying him. For a swing singer that is a key advantage — swing is built on interplay, not on a soloist who merely stands in front of the band.

Soloist of Big Band Karlovy Vary

With Big Band Karlovy Vary, David sings at major concerts in the Karlovy Vary Municipal Theatre, at gala balls, balls and town festivals across the Karlovy Vary Region. Together with singer Mirka Lendělová he forms the soloist pair of the twenty-piece orchestra.

Singing with a full big band is a different discipline from singing with a trio. Behind you are trumpets, trombones and saxophones that can lift an entire hall out of its seats, and the voice has to carry over that mass of sound without forcing. The orchestra’s recordings — for example L-O-V-E, Somethin’ Stupid or That’s All — show how a jazz singer breathes together with a big band.

A regular at Jazz Club Reduta

Prague’s Reduta is the city’s oldest jazz club and a stage with a long tradition for Czech jazz musicians. David Kleňha performs there regularly, about three times a month, with two programmes:

• A Tribute to Tony Bennett — an evening of songs by one of the greatest jazz singers of all time, from romantic ballads to lively swing numbers.
• The Best-Known Duets — a joint programme with Elizabeth Panzo featuring famous jazz and swing duets.

Current concert dates at Reduta and elsewhere are on davidklenha.cz under Concerts.

Four line-ups, one singer

Outside the big band, David Kleňha leads his own band, sized to the event. He is always the singer — only the number of musicians changes. Each line-up has its own website, so it is clear at a glance what you are booking:

The line-ups play 100% live music with no backing tracks, bring their own professional sound system and travel across the Czech Republic, and by arrangement to Germany and Austria. An overview of all line-ups and contact details is on davidklenha.cz.

Who David plays with

In his line-ups he works with experienced jazz musicians. On piano is Jaroslav Bárta, who teaches jazz interpretation at the Jaroslav Ježek Conservatory, on double bass Jan Greifoner, on saxophone and clarinet Ruda Musil and on drums Branko Križek. Other musicians he performs with include pianists Luděk Havel, Jindřich Volf and Mikuláš Pokorný, bassist Antonín Šturma and trumpeter Martin Jůzl.

Where he has sung

Besides Reduta and the Karlovy Vary Municipal Theatre, David and his line-ups have performed at Prague hotels such as the Augustine, Le Palais Art Hotel and Fairmont Golden Prague, at corporate evenings for ČEZ and ČESMAD Bohemia, at a representative evening of the presidium of the Czech Chamber of Notaries, at Zbraslav Château and at Grand Casino Aš. He also plays regularly at representative town balls in Bohemia and Moravia.

Jazz isn’t just for the old — young people can swing too.

Repertoire: Sinatra, Bennett, Bublé and Czech evergreens

The core of the repertoire is jazz and swing standards — songs associated with Frank Sinatra, Nat King Cole, Tony Bennett, Ella Fitzgerald and Michael Bublé. Alongside them come chansons, Latin, Czech evergreens and tastefully arranged modern songs. For a wedding he will also learn a song on request, for example for the first dance.

When to choose the big band and when his own line-up

For a large ball, a gala or a concert in a theatre, where the music has to fill the hall and carry hundreds of people, there is Big Band Karlovy Vary — twenty musicians with both soloists. For a wedding, a corporate party or an intimate jazz evening, one of David’s own line-ups is the better fit. The singer stays the same; only the power and colour of the band change.

Frequently asked questions