JOE KUCERA Saxophone / Flute www.joe-kucera.com Joe Kucera, aka Saxophone Joe, Born in Prague, Czechoslovakia. After two years of teaching himself the clarinet, he won his first jazz awards with his first band REVIVAL BAND. Soon after that he switched to his favorite instrument: Soprano Saxophone. At the age of 24 he described himself as a vagabond and jazz-prostitute and discovered an affinity for Soul Music. In that time he also played baritone Sax with the best Czech soul singer Michael Prokop and his band Framus Five . One Year after PRAGUE SPRING in 1969, he escaped TO THE WEST and worked as a musician in Vienna, Frankfurt, and West Berlin. First in the musical HAIR, later as a freelancer, and when he met Jesse Ballard in the early 1970 s in London their encounter marked his first important access to American Rhythm and Blues. The years with Ballard in the Paradise Island Band turn out to be among the best of his life. It is to Ballard that Joe develops the strongest musical connection and they often perform together as a duo called JESSE BALLARD AND THE SENSATIONAL SAXOPHONE JOE. Joe has recorded and played with many known and unknown but great musicians: Alexis Korner, Tony Sheridan, Jackie Leven, and Czech legend Marta Kubisova , to name just a few. He also founded two music festivals. Between 1997 and 2007 he created and curated the highly acclaimed annual BERLIN JAZZ MEETING. He is now music director of the EUROPE BLUES TRAIN FESTIVAL. Over the years, working with Joe Kucera turned into something like a brand of quality for many musicians. He guests and plays in countless bands and formations, connects with more and more musical styles, and among all these influences he puts his one of a kind stamp on the music. NOBODY PLAYS LIKE JOE. In the end, it is all about the music, Joe Kucera turns into a sparkling fountain of notes when it comes to music. The inexhaustible ease and the immense diversity of his melodic sax improvisations are what set him apart. His is a musicality that remains a constant source of inspiration for his fellow musicians. .