Dežo Ursiny

Dezo Ursiny was born as Dezider Ursiny on October the fourth 1947 in Bratislava, Slovakia, then Czechoslovakia. He started playing guitar in his early teens. In 1963 he played in his first group FONTÁNA and at the end of the year 1964 he founded the group THE BEATMEN. Ursiny was the lead guitarist, lead singer and also composed own songs for the band, which was influenced by the Beatles. The group was immensely popular in Czechoslovakia and they released two singles in 1965. In 1966 they played in Munich, beeing the first rock group from behind the iron curtain to play in the west. Ursiny, however, grew unsatisfied with the group in the same year. In 1967, Ursiny founds the trio THE SOULMEN, which played covers of bands like Cream and also performed own material in that style. in December, the group won the first Czechoslovak beat festival in Praguie in the band category. in 1968, soon after the recording of their EP, THE SOULMEN split up. Ursiny creates the progressive rock band NEW SOULMEN. The group records three songs and disbands in 1969. In 1970, Ursiny founds another Progressive rock band called PROVISORIUM and they disband after only two concerts in 1971. Part of the material Ursiny played with the group gets recorded in 1972 for Ursiny´s first LP, released in 1973 under the title "Provisorium". After problems with communist estasblishment and writing music mostly for film documents, ursiny finally releases his second LP in 1978 and he would never quit recording for such a long time again until his death. All of his albums from that time on are sung in Slovak and the lyrics are written by Slovak poet Ivan Strpka. In 1978, Ursiny also creates the band BUR?IAK, with which he would record his next two albums. From 1983 he performed with what what would be his most stable band, called again PROVISORIUM, although in different line up than the one from 1970. In 1992, his group, under the same name, underwent major changes. The nucleus of this group would work with Ursiny until his untimely death on May, the second 1995 in Bratislava from cancer. URSINY was a vital part of the Slovakian progressive movement and was a prolific composer and producer.