Painting the Town

I’m from New Orleans – or Mississippi – depending on how you look at it, but either way, I’m from where jazz is from. So sometimes when I try to find good jazz places away from home, I feel like I’m looking for real ketchup in a French five star.

The way I found Jazz Time at Krakovská 19 was on a cold rainy night trudging up towards my apartment – the bright warm atmosphere and the faint sound of a beat from an upright bass pouring out onto the street literally dragged me in. What it has is what a lot of music venues in bigger cities lack – an informal, inexpensive and relaxed atmosphere where you can just drop in for a quick coffee or hang out for a couple hours over some beers and listen to some music. I decided to return to Jazz Time on a Friday night to see what they have to offer on a prime going out night.

Being sneaky - but you can see the bright spaciousness of the room

There is no cover for the top floor, where smaller bands are usually stationed in the corner. The feeling of the top floor is super open and bright, and the performance area is surrounded by low and high set tables and a full bar in the back, where drinks come at prices for the same if not less than most pubs. It has the aura of one of the nicer venues in New York or New Orleans with a cloud of smoke and the low murmurs of voices floating above the beat of a laid back music set. During set breaks, a pleasant selection of jazz greats plays on the sound system, which was an extremely pleasant surprise. On the walls are black and white photographs, and in the back a huge painting of a man resembling Louis Armstrong. The upstairs is also a restaurant, with an interesting menu that our food writer Claire Compton will review in the March 2 issue of The Prague Post.

So here comes the bad part – remember that band with the upright bass that first drew me to this club in the first place? Yeah, well they weren’t there. I was super disappointed when instead of actual musicians, the set upstairs on a busy Friday night was two British or American guys doing some stereotypically inane, awful covers – I mean, we’re talking worse than The Red Room open-mic here. I had a hard time convincing the people I had dragged along with me that this was not at all what I was expecting. Everything I loved about this place was pretty much outdone with how annoying the music was – covers of Rihanna, Lady Gaga, Maroon 5 – basically every song that would be featured in the high school open-mic night from hell, and on top of it, just slaughtered. There were music guts splattered all over the walls.

Video: Painting the Town brings you Jazz Time

Broken Glass Extet

As soon as we were done eating we escaped downstairs, and that’s when the night really started. For just 50 Kc, we got into the jazz club where the group Broken Glass Extet were tearing it up. Granted, it was not the best performance I’ve ever seen in my life – there were some issues with balancing out the sound, as most of the time the singer was totally drowned out by an over-enthusiastic keyboarder, but that’s me being critical on a whole other level. Because these guys were actually really great musicians – and very innovative and interesting at that. Their music had a great beat, and they weren’t scared to do toy with some pretty unique sounds and ideas.

The atmosphere downstairs was also really laid back, but much more energized than upstairs. It was dark and smokey with this interesting lighting that sort of made the red walls reflect out into the darkness. Drinks stayed cheap down there, another pleasant surprise considering that most of the time when there’s a cheap cover in New York City, it’s because the drinks costs triple the price. The musicians perform on an actual stage, and below the stage are tables and then an elevated platform in the back which gives a nice view when it starts getting crowded. And have no fear – there was indeed a little space for dancing, which people did take advantage of at the end of the night.