Libor Šmoldas is a Prague-based jazz guitarist and composer. Besides top Czech and European musicians he has worked, toured and recorded with international stars such as George Mraz, Jeff Ballard, Sam Yahel, Bobby Watson, Adam Nussbaum, Brian Charette, Jay Anderson, Stephen Keogh and more.

 

Libor has released multiple albums as a leader (“Dreamtime” 2013, “Intuition” 2013, “18 Days, 2000 Miles” 2012, “In New York on time” 2010, “Live at Jazz Dock” 2010, “On the Playground” 2007). He has worked and recorded on numerous occasions as a sideman for Skip Wilkins, Bob Montgomery, Ingrid James, Bill Warfield, Yvonne Sanchez, Zeuritia, Robert Balzar, Jan Korinek. While playing with Ondrej Pivec and his Organic Quartet, the band was awarded with Andel award for best jazz recording of the year.  He is also featured on “Czech Dreams,” with Skip Wilkins.

 

Through awarded a scholarship to Berklee School of Music in 2005, he chose stay in the Czech republic and study in the Advanced Secondary Studies department of the Ježek Conservatory of Jazz and later at the Janáček Academy of Music and Performing Arts in Brno. He toured the USA with his Czech quartet in 2011 and made appearances in New York (Smalls), Washington D.C., Richmond, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and more. While in the United States, Libor recorded with Adam Nussbaum, Jay Anderson, George Mraz, Jeff Ballard, Sam Yahel and studied with Peter Bernstein, Lage Lund, Steve Cardenas and Paul Bollenback.

 

Libor’s concert activities include four continents and cities like New York, Washington, Denver, Sydney, Brisbane, Beijing, Istanbul, Milan and London. As an educator Libor visited the United States, Australia, Germany, England, Greece and Poland.

 

Libor’s quartet plays mostly original music and is very well established in Czech jazz clubs as well as internationally. His group often collaborates with legendary saxophonist Bobby Watson. They have toured together and recorded an album entitled Intuition.

 

In 2014 Libor lived in Australia for three months, teaching and performing Sydney, Brisbane, Wollongong, Mount Gambier, Port Macquarie, Cairns, Sunshine Coast, Ipswich and more.

 

Still so young, Libor is widely considered to be one of the best jazz musicians in the Czech Republic and a leading representative of his generation.