Biography

Drawing most of his inspiration from blues and jazz, Czech guitarist and composer Luboš Andršt is a versatile musician whose work incorporates the influences of European classical music as well as those of ethnic idiom.

At the beginning of his professional career he found himself facing a crossroads others had passed through before him: he could go his own way, maintaining artistic independence as much as possible – or take the easy way out by travelling the more popular road for greater profit in the steady, but less creative, circles of the local pop scene. Luckily for his audience, he chose the first path. Despite difficulties endured in an effort to perform both rock and jazz under the totalitarian regime of his youth, he persevered to follow his heart for more than 30 years, still keeping true to his ideals in support of artistic freedom.

    Throughout his career he has worked consistently with numerous Czechoslovak jazz and rock icons (Michal Prokop, Martin Kratochvíl, Jan Hrubý, Jiří Stivín, Peter Lipa, Rudolf Dašek, Emil Viklický, Milan Svoboda and many others) and has also collaborated with various notable musicians from abroad, performing on several occasions with world famous bluesman B.B. King, as well as Toto Blanke, Ignatz Netzer, Dana Gillespie, Tadeusz Nalepa, Paul Jones, Katie Webster and Tonya Graves.

    Luboš Andršt´s guitar mastery is documented over 37 albums, which showcase more than 80 of his original compositions. Currently, he performs primarily with the Luboš Andršt Blues Band, but also with his jazz quartet, the Luboš Andršt Group, and Michal Prokop´s projects “Friends” & “Unplugged”. Additionally, Luboš authored the musical textbook ‘Jazz, Rock, Blues’, which was published by Supraphon in 1988 and reissued by Muzikus in 1995. He has also authored the educational series “Guitar Clinic” for Czech Television and lectures at various guitar seminars.