What is he doing today and what does singer Ivan Hlas look like? He overcame a serious illness and completely changed. Do you still recognize him?

A rich man of life

He will celebrate his seventieth birthday Ivan Hlas on May 10. He comes from Prague, trained as a bookseller, but changed over two dozen jobs. He worked as a stagehand and upholsterer at the National Theatre, selling vegetables as well as books. He added to the boiler, read the water, delivered the mail. He worked on construction sites as a laborer or contractor. But his guitar accompanied him everywhere.

He learned to play it from an early age, he graduated from the classical guitar department at LŠU. Your first band The Mice he founded the school at the age of fourteen, where he began composing. He embarked on a semi-professional career with his group Thirst (1971), which performed in clubs and festivals with its own repertoire in the style of urban blues. Before the first songs of another of his groups were heard on the stage Aloudplayed and sang alongside several well-known musicians.

You can watch the music video for one of his well-known songs and listen to it on the following video:

Currently, he has been performing with his valet for some time Ivan Voice Trio along with a guitarist and singer Norbi Kovács and Olin Nejezchleba, who plays the cello. The group performs Hlasov songs from pub blues and urban ballads to rock and roll and songs with an ethnic touch in beautiful arrangements and great playing of acoustic instruments.

You can listen to their Ticket to the Old Times in the following video:

After difficult months

Today, one of our musical legends, Hlas, was struggling with cancer. He was in danger of not being able to sing his songs anymore. Doctors found a tumor on his vocal cords in mid-2018 after he had trouble singing and speaking. They considered radiation, which could wreak havoc in his throat. They decided to operate on the tumor and the procedure went well. For five months he had to keep his voice completely quiet. He was hardly allowed to speak, let alone sing. For a while he still had trouble speaking, but singing was much better.

A septuagenarian

On the occasion of his seventieth birthday, Hlas prepared for his fans a concert tour in the Czech Republic and Slovakia, which he named after last year’s successful album A trickle of time. He started it at the beginning of April in Malostranská beseda, where he also christened the vinyl 2LP of the same name. Sixteen songs from the original album are supplemented by four new compositions. It offers a course through the creation of five decades.

As part of the concerts, the trio also plans small surprises. The director made a film about Ivan Hlas Alena Činčerová a feature-length documentary that CT Art broadcasts in May. All that remains is to wish the best for a successful tour and good health.

Resources: www.blesk.cz, www.ivanhlas.cz, www.idnes.cz, www.blesk.cz, www.idnes.cz, www.ahaonline.cz