Jan Kubis
born in 1913 in Trebic district of Moravia (current Czechia). He fled Czechoslovakia during the II World War and got to Great Britain. He was trained there as a parachutist. He was dropped to Czechoslovakia to organise the Czechoslovak Resistance and to orchestrate the assassination of SS-Obergruppenfuhrer Reinhard Heydrich known as "The Butcher of Prague". On May 27th 1942 at approximately 10:30 am Jan Kubis and his commerades mounted an attack on Heydrich's car. As his commerade Sten gun failed to fire Jan Kubis hurled a grenade which exploded against the car. All assasins escaped although Jan was injured. Heavily injured Heydrich died 10 days later. The Gestapo offered 10,000,000 Crowns for information leading to the arrest of the assassins, and eventually the parachutists were betrayed by two of their own team. Jan Kubis and others took refuge at the Church of St Cyril and Methodius (Karel Boromejsky) in Resslova Street, Prague. Nazis learned out about the place and on June 18th, 1942 surrounded the church. Trapped in the crypt parachutists fought untill down following day. The last alive Jan Kubis and Josef Gabcik used their last bullets on each other.
Terrible reprisals followed the assasination. A vilage of Lidice was completly destructed, all men killed, women taken to concentration camps and most of the children taken for adoption in German families. The village had nothing to do with any of the assasins.
Jan Kubis' girlfriend, Anna Malinova, was arrested in the aftermath of the assassination, and died in Mauthausen concentration camp.
Source: Prague : Heydrich Assassination 1942, Massacre at Lidice, assassinations and attempts (1900-61), Museum of Tolerance Multimedia Learning Center, Sightseeing - Prague In Your Pocket city guide, Nazi Lauck NSDAP-AO NS News Bulletin 105, Killing Abortionists: A Symposium, Reinhard Heydrich, Sudeten German Inferno: On-line book of atrocities against ... , Radio Prague: Current Affairs
Tom Kubis
born in 1951, Los Angeles, California, USA. After studying, Kubis began playing also, tenor and soprano saxophones with various bands. He also played piano for Bobby Vinton . However, Kubis's chief interest was in writing and his arrangements were in much demand, especially from big band leaders. He formed his own big band expressly to play his charts and this attracted the attention of Jack Sheldon who became an informal co-leader of the band. Apart from writing for the band, Kubis continues to provide charts for others, including Bill Watrous, the BBC Radio Big Band, and his work is also performed by youth and college bands in the USA and UK. His writing is always lively and entertaining, often difficult but never simply for the sake of being hard to play. His own recording career has been relatively meagre, beginning with Dimitri Pagalidis and only relatively recently has his own big band been heard and appreciated by fans of contemporary big band music around the world.
Recent albums:
Keep Swingin' Released: 1997 Formats: CD
Tom Kubis Big Band Plays Steve Allen Released: 1996 Formats: CD
Slightly Off The Ground Released: 1991 Formats: CD
Richard Broadie, Dan Snyder and Tommy Kubis on right. 1965
Source: TOM KUBIS, Tom Kubis - Biography
