From the age of 18 he played alongside with Ondřej Havelka in the Original Prague Syncopated Orchestra and at the age of 22 he co-founded the big band Prague Swing Orchestra, where he was a soloist and crooner for seven years.
In the US he accompanied the famous The Platters with Herb Reid, Marty Allen, Kenny James, Victor Mendoza’s Afro-Latin American Big Band, Joe Mareiny – a member of the Louis Armstrong All Stars Band and also PK performed alongside with phenomenal drummer Dave Weckl, Chris Minh Doky and Dean Brown from Brecker Brothers.
In 2004-2005 he lived and studied in Kathmandu (Nepal), where he played with the most famous Nepalese rock band 1974 A.D. With them he performed for tens of thousands of enthusiastic fans at stadiums across Darjeeling, Sikhim, Nepal and Bengal. He also founded his own very successful funk band The McTwisters, which was nominated for a Nepalese Grammy.
Petr Kroutil holds the B.E.S.T. Award Of Berklee College Of Music.
He was the only Czech player to play at the opening festival of the Olympics in London in 2012. For this purpose he made a music arrangement of the song Škoda lásky (Beer Barrel Polka) in swing style. The Trafalgar Square was attended by 25,000 people and the concert was broadcast by the BBC.
He occasionally performs with his pop jazz ensemble Petr Kroutil Orchestra, where top Prague jazzmen – Ondřej Kabrna, Vítek Švec, Imran Mussa Zangi and Michal Hejna perform.
In 2016 Petr Kroutil founded an ambitious big band based on jazz of the 20s and 30s of the Original Vintage Orchestra (OVO). This musical fusion proves to be very succesful and the big band regularly sells out its home scene at the Lávka Club in Prague. This year the famous Prague´s Lucerna Music Bar will also be heated up for the sixth time. In addition, the orchestra performs dozens of concerts and festivals throughout the country, such as the Grand opening concert Soundtrack Podebrady, Jazz Spring Festival Prague, Dvur Kralove, Havirov, Ceske Budejovice, Slany jazz days, Melnicke vinobraní, Slovakia Jazz Festival in Nove Mesto nad Vahom, etc.
