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Who is George Mraz?

  George Mraz is a living bass legend - he might even be called the god of the jazz bass - and to Japanese pianist Hisayuki Terai, a musical big brother whom he has adored for many years.
Visitors to the Osaka jazz club OverSeas will remember George's big portrait at the bandstand, which was taken when Mraz played there for the first time on 1984 with Tommy Flanagan trio. (a photo above)

  George was born in the city of Pisek in South Bohemia in the present Czech Republic, a country renowned as the great empire of stringed musical instruments. He started the violin at the age of seven and he instantly became a prominent bassist in his school orchestra without formal training.
   As he was growing up George often listening to Voice of America shortwave radio broadcasts, which exposed him to jazz. He eventually studied bass formally at the venerable Prague Conservatory, where he had to play only on open strings for two whole months, and on gut strings for two years at the beginning. George readily admits that, despite being boring, this practice made him master his technical fundamentals. In fact, this kind of training similar to Hisayuki's piano teaching method.

   Even in the conservatory, he was already outstanding in the Czech jazz scene and toured Hamburg as a member of the Czechoslovak All Star Band! After finishing school, he moved to West Germany where his family resided and established himself as a top bassist. The name of young bass genius George Mraz soon became well known to jazzmen who came around or immigrated to Europe from the States. Before the roll of Soviet tanks put an end to the "Prague Spring", Mraz winged his way to the US as a prize student of Berklee College of Music.

  George Mraz's star career afterward has been smooth sailing as you all might know. At the age of only 25, he became a regular bassist for Oscar Peterson, played with Tommy Flanagan behind Ella Fitzgerald, played some with Bill Evans, but was too much sought-after to become Evan's regular bassist.

  Since the '70's, Mraz has often visited Japan. His associations are too numerous to list, but among the most notable are the Jones-Lewis Orchestra; "Quest", a group with his fellow young musicians; and a fascinatingly original "New York Jazz Quartet". I frequently attendant these concerts when I was a college girl - it seems that my pockets were always empty in those days, but making sacrifices to come up with Mraz concert money just helped me to buy jewels to put into the treasure chest of my heart. George's duo partners on piano at the time included Sir Roland Hanna, Walter Norris, and practically every other Detroit bopper back then. The list is quite familiar to us, isn't it?
  Thin, with a small handsome face, young bass virtuoso Mraz looked just like a prince of Eastern Europe to me.

  After Tommy Flanagan resigned from working with Ella Fitzgerald in '78, Mraz frequently appeared with Flanagan at clubs and concerts in New York and recorded classics like <Eclypso>, <Thelonica>, <Ballads & Blues> which are among Hisayuki's and my all-time favorite albums. Apart from Flanagan, from '92, top jazz artists never stop calling him from all over the world to ask him to play or join recordings. In Japan, Mraz is one of the most beloved bassists, hence he has visited Japan over fifty-five times, at least as far as he remembers.

 After the "Velvet Revolution" brought his home country its political independence in 1989 and Czechoslovakia split into the Czech Republic and Slovakia, Mraz's home country has regarded him as their musical hero and always welcomes him with an enthusiastic reception. This is only natural because, thanks to his country's string tradition, Mraz is a hero who has climbed the ladder of success up to the top of major league of jazz.
  Mraz has no time even to sleep whenever he goes back home: even the presidents call Mraz a friend. The current president, Mr. Vaclav Klaus, who is a jazz pianist himself, has produced an album of Mraz's 60th Birthday concert in Prague Castle.

George Mraz and Hisayuki Terai

　 My husband, Hisayuki Terai, has been an ardent fan of Mraz since he was a school kid in the '70s, when Mraz and Sir Roland Hanna made a lot of recordings. Back in 1984, Hisayuki personally saw his idol Mraz when he performed in a concert with the Tommy Flanagan trio for the first time at Hisayuki's OverSeas club. At the time in Japan, big jazz musicians from the US played nowhere but large concert halls or stadiums, so a Flanagan's small club appearance was quite an event. With George Mraz on bass and a great bebopper, Arthur Taylor, on drums, the performance included long medleys of Ellington and Monk tunes that you probably never heard on recordings, the concert was just amazing. I remember clearly Flanagan and Mraz played while wearing our club T-shirts!

  Since then, Hisayuki has revered him as a big brother and has kept a deep friendship with him. To me, he is a really like a big brother-in-law, always looking forward his visit to Osaka. Between pianist Hisayuki and bassist George, I find one thing in common: backaches. Although the two musician's policy for handling both instruments seems for some people to be "pain yourself", the truth is never torture your instrument , back pain can result from perfect control of the instruments. While Art Tatum and Tommy Flanagan are renowned as having the perfect soft touch on the piano - artists who never miss the fine points on each of the eighty-eight keys - George Mraz is the counterpart musician on the upright bass.

  As an aside, I would like to point out that I find an interview with Mraz on the Web in Slovakia in 2005 to be far more interesting than those I read in U.S and Japanese publications. In this interview, he mentioned the period with Flanagan as being one of his fondest memories, along with his gigs with the Thad Jones - Mel Lewis Orchestra and Stan Getz .

  Finally, when Hisayuki met Mraz a couple of months after Flanagan's death, Mraz thanked Hisayuki for the funeral flowers and gave Hisayuki a big hug. The scene is so clear to me, as if it were yesterday.

Hisayuki sent a messsage from the piano

Hisayuki(right)and Mraz on Mrach 2006 Mraz took a picture of himself and his portrait  taken over twelve years ago with his own camera.