Biography
Roland Kovac's existence unfolded against an improbable sonic backdrop of angelic Vienna Boys' Choir voices, the thunder of Nazi aerial attacks, and the searing whine of fuzzbox-driven psychedelic guitars. Echoes of The Sound of Music, Swing Kids, and Robinson Crusoe on Mars colored the atmosphere, yet these elements belonged to lived experience rather than any cinematic invention. Born into a Viennese musical household, Kovac grew up in a setting where, according to longstanding lore, only the family schnauzer lacked instrumental mastery. His profile resurfaced around 2002 through anthologies of rare groove material, marking at least the second occasion on which he had demonstrated Vienna's capacity to nurture expressions beyond formal classical traditions.
He established his reputation as a modern jazz performer in the period when that designation encompassed swing and bebop, coinciding with the height of the Second World War. Performances occurred clandestinely, a term whose original wartime sense implied concealment from the Gestapo and their network of informers alone. At these events Kovac produced his earliest arrangements alongside bandleader Paul von Beky, who sustained a sizable ensemble amid the surrounding chaos. Though still in his teens when he and his own groups began appearing publicly, Kovac's musical path had started much earlier, with piano instruction beginning at age six and clarinet study commencing at thirteen. Between 1935 and 1938 he sang with the Vienna Boys' Choir, a distinction shared by few instrumentalists catalogued in major international jazz reference sources.
Throughout the war years his audiences encompassed Jews in hiding, soldiers on both authorized and unauthorized leave, and residents alert to secret police surveillance. One fellow musician among the military swing contingent was saxophonist Hans Koller, whose allegiance lay with Lee Konitz rather than the Third Reich. Kovac and Koller collaborated closely, their dedication to unadulterated jazz conflicting with shifting popular preferences once Vienna resumed a semblance of peacetime routine.
Kovac accompanied Koller abroad in search of suitable work, locating openings in film scoring, radio, and live performance within Germany's more expansive jazz circuit. The MPS imprint, backed by one of the era's major tape producers, possessed ample means to record the subsequent evolution toward progressive styles, above all the electric jazz and fusion currents of the 1960s and 1970s. The 1964 release Trip to the Mars stands as Kovac's most singular project, issued under the Orchester Roland Kovac name and characterized by some listeners as science-fiction jazz. In the early 1970s the Roland Kovac New Set emerged as an alliance primarily between Kovac and guitarist Siegfried "Sigi" Schwab, whose fuzzbox efforts ultimately proved insufficient to overpower first drummer Charly Antolini and later Keith Fisher. Keyboardist Brian Auger participated on the ensemble's second recording. Kovac returned to the studio in 1981 for Piano Symphony -- Selected Sound 92 on the Deutsche Austrophon label.
He established his reputation as a modern jazz performer in the period when that designation encompassed swing and bebop, coinciding with the height of the Second World War. Performances occurred clandestinely, a term whose original wartime sense implied concealment from the Gestapo and their network of informers alone. At these events Kovac produced his earliest arrangements alongside bandleader Paul von Beky, who sustained a sizable ensemble amid the surrounding chaos. Though still in his teens when he and his own groups began appearing publicly, Kovac's musical path had started much earlier, with piano instruction beginning at age six and clarinet study commencing at thirteen. Between 1935 and 1938 he sang with the Vienna Boys' Choir, a distinction shared by few instrumentalists catalogued in major international jazz reference sources.
Throughout the war years his audiences encompassed Jews in hiding, soldiers on both authorized and unauthorized leave, and residents alert to secret police surveillance. One fellow musician among the military swing contingent was saxophonist Hans Koller, whose allegiance lay with Lee Konitz rather than the Third Reich. Kovac and Koller collaborated closely, their dedication to unadulterated jazz conflicting with shifting popular preferences once Vienna resumed a semblance of peacetime routine.
Kovac accompanied Koller abroad in search of suitable work, locating openings in film scoring, radio, and live performance within Germany's more expansive jazz circuit. The MPS imprint, backed by one of the era's major tape producers, possessed ample means to record the subsequent evolution toward progressive styles, above all the electric jazz and fusion currents of the 1960s and 1970s. The 1964 release Trip to the Mars stands as Kovac's most singular project, issued under the Orchester Roland Kovac name and characterized by some listeners as science-fiction jazz. In the early 1970s the Roland Kovac New Set emerged as an alliance primarily between Kovac and guitarist Siegfried "Sigi" Schwab, whose fuzzbox efforts ultimately proved insufficient to overpower first drummer Charly Antolini and later Keith Fisher. Keyboardist Brian Auger participated on the ensemble's second recording. Kovac returned to the studio in 1981 for Piano Symphony -- Selected Sound 92 on the Deutsche Austrophon label.
Albums
