Ultraphon Jazz Orchestr - Domeček lásky (A Little Home of Love)

The Ultraphon Jazz Orchestr was led by František Alois Tichý (1898-1971), a prolific composer of popular songs, pianist and conductor who stood at the beginning of the two Czech record companies Ultraphon and Esta. He composed music for the first Czech sound film "Když struny lkají" (1930), worked closely with the Czechoslovak branch of the Gramophone Company. He performed as an external conductor of a Czechoslovak Radiojournal orchestra and of Prague theatre orchestras. His also profusely recorded during the thirties. On discs of many labels have survived countless recordings crediting him as F.A. Tichý, either as the author of music and instrumentation, arranger, or as the leader of one of the numerous studio and theater orchestras. He also published songs under many pseudonyms like Zdeněk Vlk (a Prague publisher of notorious reputation): J. Volkov, Jan Chrudim, Jan Kovec, Smith Kwiet, Harry Brown, Jack Kahn and William Seymour. The orchestras he led are credited Ultraphon Jazz Orchestra (Ultraphon), Jazz Orchestra F.A. Tichý (Esta) F.A. Tichý & His Orchestra (Columbia) and New Dance Orchestra F.A. Tichý. This wonderful recording was made around 1930, featuring a vocal by Antonín Holzinger (1891-1953), Czech vocalist and actor. After graduating he became a clerk, but since his artistic ambitions prevailed, he soon he chose for an acting career. He played and sang smaller characters in opera and operetta sets at the Prague National Theatre, the Smíchov Operetta Theatre, the Rococo Theatre, Holešovice Urania (1922 - 1930), the United Operetta Theatre (1929-1945), as well as the Karlín Theatre (1945 - 1948). Moreover, he was active as the artistic director of the S.K. Neumann Theatre in Libeň (1948-1954). Holzinger was frequently cast in various smaller operetta roles as jovial character. From the start, these roles were somehow predestined by his rounded figure, good-natured face, efficient expression and trained voice. As a film actor, Holzinger came into contact with cinema in the late 1910 and 1920s in smaller characters, specifically in the films Píseň Lásky (1919, in which he played an Impresario) and Román boxera (1921). Exactly ten years later, he entered the sound period, playing episodic, very diverse parts. After the war, his career went on unchanged, till his last film, which was released in 1953. Holzinger has worked exceptionally well with the Czechoslovak Radio. Surprisingly, Hollinger's date of death is unknown. Most sources state that he died in Prague on 9 February 1954 at the age of sixty-three years old, but other sources mention that he died half a year earlier, thus on July 31, 1953 in Prague (equally at the age of sixty-three years).