Jutro
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jutro (trans. "Morning") was a Sarajevo-based rock band most notable as the immediate predecessor to Bijelo dugme. It existed from late 1971 to the very end of 1973 when it transformed into probably the most popular rock band to come out of former Yugoslavia – Bijelo dugme.
Jutro was formed on the initiative by Ismet Arnautalić (formerly of Eho 61 and Indexi) who came to Goran Bregović in fall 1971 with an offer of putting together a new band. Bregović, recently back in town after gigging across Italy for a year as part of Kodeksi as well as Mića, Goran i Zoran, gladly accepted.
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[edit] Career
[edit] 1972
In January 1972, Bregović already had a few of his own songs along with a vision for a band that was currently missing a singer. He turned to old friend Željko Bebek, whom he hadn't spoken to in more than a year since their acrimonious split in Italy. Bebek was about to leave for the mandatory army stint, but accepted the offer and recorded a couple of early versions of "Patim, evo, deset dana".
Bebek went away to serve within a month, leaving Bregović and Arnautalić without a singer again, which is when the duo started butting heads over the band's future direction: Arnautalić wanted them to go the route of competitive pop schlager festivals in order to get noticed, whereas Bregović thought live club shows were the way to go about building an audience. After much wrangling they agreed on Zlatko Hodnik as the new temporary singer. They also brought in Zoran Redžić on bass and Gordan Matrak on drums.
Jutro's first live performance took place on April 15, 1972 at the Vas šlager sezone competitive festival. They performed a song "Ostajem tebi", which would later be included on their Radio Kruševac-released single "Ostajem tebi" / "Patim evo deset dana". The main prize that day was won by Pro Arte performing a Đorđe Novković-written song "Nemoj draga plakati".
In November 1972 Bebek got an army leave and came back to Sarajevo, where he recorded tracks "Kad bi' bio bijelo dugme", "Na vrh brda vrba mrda", "Hop cup", and "U subotu, mala", before going back to serve.
In the meantime drummer Gordan Matrak left the band. For a short period Perica Stojanović became the new drummer, but after he left too, Vladimir "Šento" Borovčanin came over from Pro arte, bringing desired stabilty.
However, nothing could repair the deteriorating Arnautalić-Bregović relationship. Bregović wanted the band to play tight hard rock with a particularly strong folk component, all of which didn't sit well with Arnautalić. Bregović won this standoff, mostly because the rest of the band supported his vision. Even Bebek chimed in from the army in support of Bregović's direction, and Arnautalić had no choice but to leave the band he founded.
[edit] 1973
In March 1973, Radio Kruševac released Jutro's second single "Kad bi' bio bijelo dugme" / "U subotu, mala" (two of the songs Bebek recorded during his previous army leave). Around the same time Bebek returned from the army for good and finally joined the band in earnest, however, not being quite convinced about the band's commercial potential he also got a regular job at the municipal social administration.
Soon after Arnautalić's departure, Bregović set about molding the band to his own preferences. One of his first moves was adding a keyboard player - a spot eventually filled by the somewhat established musician Vlado Pravdić. Two of them met in Gradac where Bregović was vacationing during the summer of 1973, while Pravdić played with Indexi in nearby Baška Voda. They jammed a lot together during their stay and templates for many of the future songs were created in that period (most of them eventually ended up on Bijelo dugme albums).
Meanwhile, Bregović managed to get into serious rows with Šento Borovčanin and Zoran Redžić, both of whom immediately departed, thus leaving Jutro without a rhythm section.
Borovčanin's replacement on drums was Ipe Ivandić whom Bregović met at Skenderija Hall after getting back from the seaside, while filling the bass player spot proved to be more difficult. Bregović heavily courted Ivica Vinković of Ambasadori who stayed behind in Sarajevo because of university obligations while his band was touring Soviet Union. For a while Vinković was serious about joining Jutro, however, once his Ambasadori bandmates returned from tour with pockets full of cash, he wanted no part of Jutro anymore, and immediately ended his episode with Bregović. Still, his brief stint with the band was noted on tracks "Top" and "Ove ću noći naći blues", which would also later become a part of Bijelo dugme repertoire. Jadranko Stanković became the new bassist.
As 1973 was nearing to a close, Jutro was constantly gigging but the income was low. Furthermore, with no album in sight their prospects for a sudden injection of cash were bleak.
The band also had a problem with access to recording studios in Sarajevo, which was Ismet Aranutalić's revenge to Bregović for phasing him out of the band. Ismet claimed ownership of the name "Jutro" and used the influence his older brother Esad Arnautalić wielded around Radio Sarajevo in order to place an unofficial ban on Jutro recording in their studios.
To try and get around this unfortunate situation the band enlisted its own connections as Vlado Pravdić's mother had a friend at Radio Sarajevo whom they called aunt Maca, but they didn't get anywhere until Bregović met composer Nikola Borota who happened to be employed at Radio Sarajevo as a sound engineer. The two cut a deal whereby Bregović would help out on tracks "Hop cup" and "Kameni cvijet" for singer Hamdija Ćustović in return for some studio time at the end of Ćustović's sessions.
Here's how Bregović described that bizzarre event in his career: "As soon as Borota finished his recording with Ćustović we rushed in with our equipement in order to use the remaining hour to record "Top" and "Ove ću noći naći blues". We had absolutely no permission and were particularly scared of Radio Sarajevo's producer Milan Stupar who had a habit of entering the studios unannounced. We recorded everything in such a rush before getting our stuff out of there even quicker and disappearing down the building corridors".
Still, Bregović had to admit Arnautalić was a powerful figure on a Sarajevo music scene at the time and that guerilla recording wasn't going to get the band anywhere. Since the band was about to enter their third year of exstence with very little to show for their musical engagement, something had to be done about the studio access.
As they were generally known by their song "Kad bi bilo bijelo dugme" and there was also another band named Jutro operating in Ljubljana, Bregović & co. decided to switch their name to Bijelo dugme. The change officially took effect on the night between December 31, 1973 and January 1, 1974 when they played at Skenderija Hall as Bijelo dugme for the very first time.
The name change took care of the studio access issue as Arnautalić finally put aside his grievances.
