David Dorůžka was born on January 25, 1980 in Prague, Czechoslovakia (now Czech Republic). He took up the guitar at the age of ten and from the age of fourteen started performing with leading musicians on the Czech jazz scene. In 1995 he received the “Talent of the Year” award from the Czech Jazz Society. While still a teenager he performed of recordings of saxophonist Karel Růžička Jr, and bassist Jaromír Honzák. From 1999 until 2002 Dorůžka lived in Boston, USA, and studied composition and improvisation at Berklee College of Music; his teachers were Joe Lovano, Mick Goodrick, George Garzone, Greg Hopkins and Hal Crook among others. In 2000 Dorůžka was chosen by Pat Metheny to participate in the Aspen Snowmass Jazz Colony in Colorado, where he attended lessons and masterclasses led by Christian McBride, Joshua Redman, Brian Blade and Herbie Hancock among others. During summer 2002 Dorůžka took part in a tour with the European Jazz Youth Orchestra led by British pianist and composer Django Bates. After graduating from Berklee, Dorůžka lived in New York City in 2002 and 2003. At the end of 2003 Dorůžka moved back to Europe and since then has been leading his own groups in addition to extensive work as a sideman. In 2006 and 2007 Dorůžka lived in Paris, where he worked with musicians such as Karl Jannuska or Géraldine Laurent.
Dorůžka has performed in the USA, Canada, Israel, Morocco and in most European countries (Great Britain, France, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Spain, Portugal, Denmark, Sweden, the Netherlands, Greece, Poland, Ukraine, Slovakia, Hungary). The list of musicians he has worked with includes names such as Jorge Rossy, Chris Cheek, George Mraz, Django Bates, Perico Sambeat, Albert Sanz, Rodney Green, Nils Berg, Jon Fält, Aga Zaryan, Michal Tokaj, Piotr Wylezol, Slawomir Kurkiewicz and Michal Miskiewicz, as well as Iva Bittová, Ida Kelarová, Jaroslav Dušek, Martin Zbrožek and many others.
Dorůžka’s first CD Hidden Paths (with Massimo Biolcati on bass and Kendrick Scott on drums), was recorded in New York City in 2003. His second CD Silently Dawning came out in 2008 and features Josefine Lindstrand (voice), Michal Baranski (bass) and Lukasz Zyta (drums). Most of the music is set to poems by Emily Dickinson, Jiří Orten and lyrics by Josefine Lindstrand. Both CDs were awarded the “Anděl” prize in the Czech music academy awards as CDs of the year in Jazz&Blues category (in 2005 and 2009 respectively).
Dorůžka leads his own trio and quartet and can also be heard regularly as a sideman with saxophonist Cyrille Oswald, bassist Jaromír Honzák and the Polish vocal star Aga Zaryan, to whose repertoire he also contributes. He is also very active as a composer and apart from writing for small ensembles, he has composed big band and orchestra pieces. Dorůžka dedicates time as well to teaching at the Vyšší odborná škola at Jaroslav Ježek Conservatory in Prague and appears regularly as a teacher at various workshops.
Excerpts from reviews:
“[Dorůžka’s] CD emanates an astonishing freshness and distills a calm music…a lyricism delicately elegiac is expressed without haste or noise…a really beautiful discovery”
Vincent Bessières, Jazzman, France
“[Hidden Paths] is a beautiful and mature CD, a world-class recording“
Pawel Brodowski, JazzForum, Poland
“an exceptionally talented guitarist...the strong feeling, that David‘s music and playing now projects, repeatedly invokes amazement in the concentrated listener…”
Petra Konrádová, Lidové noviny, Czech Republic
“Dorůžka also presents himself as a thoughtful composer, quietly building moods inside the songs and avoiding cheap effects”
Milan Tesař, Reflex, Czech Republic
Ahoj, just came back from Prague. Tired but happy to help some people at least a bit :) How were the concerts with Pieronczyk and the rest of the guys? I will send you the mixes via mail. Will let you also know what's going on soon and hope we can plan some duo gigs in Prague this Autumn. We should talk about it. Take care and stay in touch, pa pa Aga P.S At last I looked in my space and put you in my top friends ;)
