In 2010, in the park situated in front of the municipal building, the Municipality of Škofljica erected a monument to Jože Privšek, who spent several years of his life in the town. At the unveiling of the memorial, designed by architect France Kvaternik, Mojmir Sepe gave a brief encomium.
The memorial bears a gilded inscription: “In memory of Jože Privšek, composer and conductor. The Municipality of Škofljica, 2010.”
Jože Privšek
Slovenian jazz composer Jože Privšek (1937–1998) went down in national music history primarily due to his arrangements of popular songs and jazz compositions, and as a pianist, vibraphonist and accomplished conductor. By leading the RTV Slovenia Big Band Privšek carved out an illustrious musical career which grew to include composing. His output consists of around 2000 compositions and arrangements, several of which have become Slovenian jazz standards and evergreen melodies. He scored some of them under the pseudonyms Jeff Conway and Simon Gale.
Privšek started to learn the accordion and piano at the age of six, and later on studied vibraphone and clarinet. For three years, he pursued undergraduate studies in composition under the classical composer Lucijan Marija Škerjanc. While studying music, Privšek was also playing piano and vibes with the Radio Ljubljana Dance Orchestra, an ensemble whose extensive repertoire had a decisive influence on his further development and notable achievements on the jazz scene. In 1961, Privšek took over the leadership of the Dance Orchestra, which focused on orchestral jazz and was renamed the RTV Slovenia Big Band.
He specialised in jazz composition at the Berklee College of Music in Boston with acknowledged jazz musician Herb Pomeroy, whose students included names as prominent as Quincy Jones, Arif Mardin and Mike Gibbs. In the 1960s and 70s, Privšek extensively recorded his new compositions, as well as arrangements of foreign hits and pop songs with the Big Band orchestra and smaller ensembles. Several of Privšek’s pop songs, made with some of the leading lyric writers and singers featured at the Slovenian Pop Song Festival, have become golden oldies in Slovenia, including Dan najlepših sanj (A Day of Finest Dreams), Nad mestom se dani (Dawn Above the City), Vozi me vlak v daljave (The Train Takes Me Far Away), and Silvestrski poljub (New Year’s Eve Kiss). Some of his finest jazz compositions are Porednež (The Naughty Man), Ognjemet (Fireworks), Zeleni pekel (Green Hell), Privid (Mirage), We Need Time, Rožnik (June) and That’s for Ending. One of Privšek’s most notable albums, Križanke reflects influences of jazz fusion in the style of Miles Davis.
Maia Juvanc
