| Korni Grupa | |
|---|---|
| Background information | |
| Origin | Belgrade, Serbia, Yugoslavia |
| Genres | Rock, pop rock, folk rock, progressive rock, symphonic rock |
| Years active | 1968 – 1974 (Brief reunion: 1987) |
| Labels | PGP-RTB, Casa Ricordi, Philips Records, Jugoton, Komuna Belgrade |
| Associated acts | Indexi, Zlatni Dečaci, Elipse, Uragani, Dinamiti, Time, Ambasadori, Zlatni Akordi, YU grupa, Drago Mlinarec, R.M. Točak Band |
| Past members | |
| Kornelije Kovač Miroslava Kojadinović Borko Kacl Bojan Hreljac Vladimir Furduj Dušan Prelević Dalibor Brun Dado Topić Zdravko Čolić Zlatko Pejaković Josip Boček |
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Korni Grupa (Serbian Cyrillic: Корни група, meaning Korni Band) was a former Yugoslav rock band from Belgrade. Korni Grupa was one of the first former Yugoslav rock bands to achieve major mainstream popularity. The band's first releases were commercial pop-oriented songs. Korni Grupa later turned towards progressive rock, continuing, however, to record commercial pop rock songs. The band was led by Kornelije Kovač, and its various lineups included a number of famous musicians: Dado Topić, Zdravko Čolić, Zlatko Pejaković, and others.
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Korni Grupa was formed in September 1968 in Belgrade by a former Indexi keyboardist Kornelije Kovač. The first lineup of the band featured the guitarist Borko Kacl (a former Zlatni Dečaci member), the bass guitarist Bojan Hreljac (a former Elipse member), the drummer Vladimir "Furda" Furduj (a former Elipse member) and the female singer Miroslava "Seka" Kojadinović. The band had its first live appearance in Belgrade's Dom sindikata at the Sportsman of the Year Award ceremony, when they performed with female dancers. Soon afterwards the band was invited to perform in Radio Belgrade show Studio VI vam pruža šansu. Miroslava Kojadinović did not like the choice of the songs and she refused to sing, so for the band's appearance in the show Kovač provided the vocals. After this performance Miroslava Kojadinović was excluded from the band and soon after started a short-lasting solo career.
The new Korni Grupa vocalist became soul singer Dušan "Prele" Prelević. At the time Kovač was influenced by progressive rock, but as the audience expected simple and commercial songs, he wrote pop-oriented song "Cigu-ligu" which Korni Grupa performed at the 1968 Jugovizija festival in Zagreb. Prelević arrived drunk to the performance and went into an argument with Kovač, so soon afterwards he was excluded from the band. The new Korni Grupa singer became Dalibor Brun from Rijeka, a former Uragani and Bohemi member. With Brun Korni Grupa recorded their first hits "Magična ruka", "Sonata" and "Dzum-ram". The band appeared at the Singing Europe festival in Netherlands performing the folk-influenced song "Pastir i cvet", winning the Most Original Band Award. They held their first concert in Belgrade on November 6, 1969 in Dom omladine. The concert was titled "Uz malu pomoć naših frendova" (With A Little Help from Our Friends).
In 1969 Dalibor Brun left the band conventionally, and the band's new singer became a former Dinamiti member Dado Topić who soon after brought another former Dinamiti member, guitarist Josip Boček to the band. Kacl soon left the band, and retired from music (and died in a car accident in 1984). With Topić, Korni Grupa turned to more progressive-oriented sound, recording "Jedna žena", "Prvo svetlo u kući broj 4", classical music-inspired "Etida" and "Žena je luka a čovek brod". At the 1970 Zagreb music festival Korni Grupa won both audience and jury awards. The same year they recorded the music for Miša Radivojević's movie Bube u glavi. This project was followed by a number of hit songs: "Trla baba lan" (which would later be recorded in French by singer Dalida, and later on in several other different languages by a number of artists) and "Slika", among others.
In 1971 Korni Grupa recorded the musical poem "1941." on the lyrics of Branko Ćopić. Josipa Lisac made a guest appearance on the song. The band spent a month in Paris, playing at the fashion show which presented "Prokleta Jerina" line of clothing by fashion designer Aleksandar Joksimović. In 1971 Topić left the band and formed Time. The new Korni Grupa vocalist became a former Ambasadori member Zdravko Čolić, who remained the band's vocalist for only six months, recording the songs "Gospa Mica gazdarica", "Kukavica" and "Pogledaj u nebo". After leaving Korni Grupa he started a highly successful solo career.
A former Zlatni Akordi and Had member Zlatko Pejaković became the band's new singer. With Pejaković Korni Grupa recorded their first full-length album, Korni Grupa. At the time of the album release Korni Grupa was one of four former Yugoslav rock bands with a full-length album (Grupa 220, Žeteoci and Time being the other three), as the scene revolved mostly around 7" singles. The album featured complex songs "Put na Istok", "Bezglave Ja Ha horde", "Moj bol", "Glas sa obale boja". In 1972 the band performed at the Montreux Jazz Festival.
At the end of 1973 Korni Grupa recorded a symphonic rock-oriented English language album Not An Ordinary Life, which they released under the name The Cornelians. On the Yugoslav scene the band had huge success with songs "Oj, dodole", "Ivo Lola", "Znam za kim zvono zvoni" (which featured guest singer Ditka Haberl), "Divlje jagode", "Miris" (with lyrics from a Charles Baudelaire's poem) and "Praštanje" (with lyrics by poet Brana Crnčević, at the time considered a dissident). At the spring of 1974 they won first place at the festival in Opatija with the song "Moja generacija" and represented Yugoslavia at the 1974 Eurovision Song Contest. Single with "Moja generacija" and shortened version of "Jednoj ženi" was released in Italy. In the same year the music magazine Music Week declared Korni Grupa Yugoslav band of the year.
Disappointed with little success Not An Ordinary Life saw and the 12th place won at the Eurovision Song Contest, Kovač decided to disband Korni Grupa. They held two farewell concerts in Studio M in Novi Sad. Part of the concerts recording was released on the first former Yugoslav double album Mrtvo more (Dead Sea). One record featured their singles, representing commercial and more pop-oriented side of Korni Grupa, while the other featured live recordings, representing their progressive side. Various artists live album Randevu s muzikom released in 1977 featured Korni Grupa songs "I ne tako obićan život" and "Jedna žena" recorded at Novi Sad farewell concerts.
After Korni Grupa disbanded Kovač started a successful career as a composer, Pejaković turned towards pop music, Boček and Hreljac became studio musicians and Furduj started a jazz career.
The band reunited in 1987 with Dado Topić as the singer to perform, alongside Indexi, Time, YU grupa, Drago Mlinarec and R.M. Točak Band at the Legende YU Rocka (Legends of YU Rock) concert organized by Radio 101 at Zagreb's Dom Sportova. Korni Grupa song "Jedna žena" appeared on the double live album Legende YU Rocka. The same artists performed that same year in Belgrade's Sava Centar.
In 2010, in an interview, Dado Topić stated that there are plans of a Korni Grupa reunion tour during 2012, the year when Kornelije Kovač will celebrate his 70th birthday, featuring the band accompanied by a philharmonic orchestra and the performances would be more than four hours long.[1]
The band Električni Orgazam recorded a cover of Korni Grupa song "Magična ruka" ("Magical Hand") on their 1996 unplugged album Živo i akustično (Live and Acoustic).[2]
The book YU 100: najbolji albumi jugoslovenske rok i pop muzike (YU 100: The Best albums of Yugoslav pop and rock music), published in 1988, features two Korni Grupa albums: Korni Grupa (ranked #4) and 1941. (ranked #94).[3]
In 2011, the song "Etida" was polled, by the listeners of Radio 202, one of 60 greatest songs released by PGP-RTB/PGP-RTS.[4]
| Preceded by Zdravko Čolić |
Yugoslavia in the Eurovision Song Contest 1974 |
Succeeded by Pepel in Kri |
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