Showing posts with label Hungary. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Hungary. Show all posts
Friday, 1 September 2023
Jazz Fusion Review Round-Up
First published in Songlines Magazine issue 191, October 2023.
Nowadays, the line separating jazz from instrumental hip-hop can be incredibly fine, given the amount of influence that has passed back and forth over the past 50 years. Budapest-based trio Jazzbois embrace this permeability with their third album, Higher Dimension Waiting Room (Blunt Shelter Records, 34 mins). Here, the hip-hop and jazz are completely entwined, from the dreamy, lo-fi synths and fluttery piano to the broken beats and funky bass. It’s light and fun with a sci-fi edge, chilled-out but with enough groove to keep you dancing. Special props to Tamás Czirják, whose drumming consistently brings the fireworks.
Production duo Abderraouf B. Grissa & Dan Drohan also sail the jazz-hip-hop continuum with their first collaboration RBGxDD (Uno Loop, 41 mins). Together they make a dance-oriented jazz that isn’t afraid of venturing ‘out there’. Live instruments and samples merge seamlessly, guiding us through different zones – from rolling blues grooves to dubwise spacescapes to Latin psychedelia to a sound effects record – without ever losing the carefully-curated unifying vibe based on those two home styles. This musical journey hits more like an exploratory mixtape than your usual jazz album, and is none the worse for it.
Another album that hops between genres at will is the reissue of Ambiance II Fusion’s 1985 record Come Touch Tomorrow (Freestyle Records, 39 mins). The ensemble revolves around Nigerian-born saxophonist Daoud Abubakar Balewa, whose classic instrumental soul-funk absolutely oozes 80s production, with its heavy reverb, gated snares and ultra-smooth sax. Strangely enough, this album sounds like tracks from several different albums stitched together. Some tracks are live (or live-sounding) and others are studio recordings; some tracks seem to bear little stylistic resemblance to those around them – sometimes there’s reggae, or bossa, or even pure synthwave with no saxophone to be heard. It’s as if the album itself is a little unsure of what it wants to be.
New York-based Greek vibraphonist, electronicist and drummer Christos Rafalides makes an ode to lockdown in Home (Emarel Music, 50 mins), recorded in improvised home studios across the world in the spring of 2021. Each of the seven tracks features a guest musician, and each bring their own slant on Rafalides’ malleable jazz, whether that’s Middle Eastern from outi (Greek oud) player Thomas Konstantinou, light Latin from pianist Giovanni Mirabassi or space-age Caribbean from steelpan player Victor Provost. The latter is a particular highlight, providing a real complement to the vibraphone. Not all the collaborations work as well as that, but Rafalides’ musicianship shines throughout.
But if you only have enough space in your ears for one jazz fusion album this month, make it Peter Somuah’s Letter to the Universe (ACT Music, 41 mins). The young Ghanaian trumpeter’s second album takes a celestial, spiritual approach, creating a cosmic jazz with elements of bebop and post-bop, big band, jazz-rock, highlife and, of course, hip-hop. Miles Davis is an ever-present reference, and there are guest turns from Ghanaian stars such as highlife legend Gyedu-Bley Ambolley and up-and-coming Frafra kologo player and singer Stevo Atambire of Alostmen. From the superb trumpet playing to the intelligent compositions and arrangements, this is a brilliant album – there’s surely more great things to come from Peter Somuah.
Wednesday, 21 October 2020
Mónika Lakatos - WOMEX 20 Artist Award
First published online as part of the WOMEX – World Music Expo 2020 Awards announcement.
When Mónika Lakatos was crowned the winner of the Hungarian TV talent show Ki Mit Tud? in 1996, she wasn’t blasting out pop covers to pre-recorded backing tracks. Instead, she sang the traditional music of her own community, the Olah Romani people. The strength and passion of her voice made her a stand-out performer, and the win provided her first big break. Thus began an impressive professional career, championing the people and culture of the Olah every step of the way.
Within Hungary, the Olah Romani are a minority of a minority, with only around 30,000 people still practicing their language and way of life. Mónika has her roots in Nagyecsed, a village famous for its music, at the heart of the Olah community in north-eastern Hungary. With music and songs all around her, she has been singing for as long as she can remember, allowing her to imbue her own work with heartfelt emotion.
Now the leader of prominent ensembles including The Gipsy Voices and Romengo, Mónika always keeps her family’s vast repertoire of lyrical hallgató and danceable pergető songs to the fore. Within a very traditional setting, she pushes boundaries, celebrating the voices and experiences of women in a society often focused on the masculine, and providing space for Romani youths to make themselves heard, too.
It is for her commitment to the Olah people and their music, for her mission to ensure that female Romani voices can be heard on the world stage and for her highest personal artistry as a performer that Mónika Lakatos is presented with the WOMEX 20 Artist Award.
Photo: Mónika Lakatos and this Gipsy Voices, by András Farkas.
When Mónika Lakatos was crowned the winner of the Hungarian TV talent show Ki Mit Tud? in 1996, she wasn’t blasting out pop covers to pre-recorded backing tracks. Instead, she sang the traditional music of her own community, the Olah Romani people. The strength and passion of her voice made her a stand-out performer, and the win provided her first big break. Thus began an impressive professional career, championing the people and culture of the Olah every step of the way.
Within Hungary, the Olah Romani are a minority of a minority, with only around 30,000 people still practicing their language and way of life. Mónika has her roots in Nagyecsed, a village famous for its music, at the heart of the Olah community in north-eastern Hungary. With music and songs all around her, she has been singing for as long as she can remember, allowing her to imbue her own work with heartfelt emotion.
Now the leader of prominent ensembles including The Gipsy Voices and Romengo, Mónika always keeps her family’s vast repertoire of lyrical hallgató and danceable pergető songs to the fore. Within a very traditional setting, she pushes boundaries, celebrating the voices and experiences of women in a society often focused on the masculine, and providing space for Romani youths to make themselves heard, too.
It is for her commitment to the Olah people and their music, for her mission to ensure that female Romani voices can be heard on the world stage and for her highest personal artistry as a performer that Mónika Lakatos is presented with the WOMEX 20 Artist Award.
Photo: Mónika Lakatos and this Gipsy Voices, by András Farkas.
Friday, 19 June 2020
Spotlight: Kerekes Band
First published in Songlines Magazine issue 159, July 2020.
A lot can change in 25 years. For Kerekes Band, that means turning a tradition entirely on its head.
Back in 1995, they were Kerekes Ensemble, a true died-in-the-wool folkloric group from Eger in northern Hungary. Their music was of the táncház, the dance houses of the country’s rural villages. Completely acoustic, their set-up was built around shepherd’s flute player Zsombor Fehér’s journey to the deepest roots of the culture. “I learnt the music exactly as it was played by the village musicians. I was soaking everything up, not just the music, but the lifestyle. We tended the soil and cut the grass and harvested together. We wanted to get the whole vibe, how it all fits together.” And so it went, learning the old ways and playing the old music. But eventually the táncház started to grow suffocating. So they invented. Maybe Csaba Námor would play an unexpected chord on the koboz lute, or Zsombor would add a bluesy lick on his flute – and then all bets were off.
Kerekes Ensemble were now Kerekes Band, and they went wild. The traditional gardon (a cello-like percussion instrument) became a drum kit, a bass guitar joined the viola and the koboz, and Zsombor took his shepherd’s flute to the next level, creating a one-of-a-kind chromatic version and adding any electronic effects he could – distortion, delay, wah-wah, chorus. They kept the repertoire the same, but their sound was now as much inspired by Jimi Hendrix, Rahsaan Roland Kirk and Kool & the Gang as by the fields and folk of Hungary. It wasn’t actually too much of a leap. Drummer (and Zsombor’s brother) Vikor Fehér felt the connections come naturally: “We realised that the energy in táncház is exactly the same as rock music. The way they beat the drum is the same way we beat the gardon, how we blow the flute has exactly the same strong energy. It has to be loud, and you have to dance!”
Like when Dylan went electric in ’66, people took some persuading. “Everyone was looking at us suspiciously,” says Zsombor. “The folk musicians said ‘what are you doing with our music?’ and on the other hand, the rockers were unsure too. We created a genre between genres. It gave our music a sort of outlaw feeling that we’re doing something very new and very different.” The gamble paid off: their first album as Kerekes Band, 2006’s Pimasz, was an explosion of funk, punk, disco and folk – and still a classic today. That spirit never left them. Now with 25 years and nine albums under their belts, Kerekes Band are one of Hungary’s most popular folk groups, and kings of their own flavour of ‘Ethno-funk.’
2020 was going to be an extravaganza year for the group. It started strong with a sold-out, career-spanning barnstormer in Budapest in January, and there were shows booked from Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan and Georgia to the Isle of Wight and a converted mill in the Hungarian countryside, before COVID-19 put paid to those best laid plans. No matter, though. Kerekes Band’s music is a colourful riot full of fun, flute and funk. After 25 years, there’s no slowing down; the celebrations will continue for a long time to come.
Photo: (l-r) Ákos Csarnó, Viktor Fehér and Zsombor Fehér of Kerekes Band live at Müpa Palace of Arts, Budapest, 2020, by Kotschy Gábor.
A lot can change in 25 years. For Kerekes Band, that means turning a tradition entirely on its head.
Back in 1995, they were Kerekes Ensemble, a true died-in-the-wool folkloric group from Eger in northern Hungary. Their music was of the táncház, the dance houses of the country’s rural villages. Completely acoustic, their set-up was built around shepherd’s flute player Zsombor Fehér’s journey to the deepest roots of the culture. “I learnt the music exactly as it was played by the village musicians. I was soaking everything up, not just the music, but the lifestyle. We tended the soil and cut the grass and harvested together. We wanted to get the whole vibe, how it all fits together.” And so it went, learning the old ways and playing the old music. But eventually the táncház started to grow suffocating. So they invented. Maybe Csaba Námor would play an unexpected chord on the koboz lute, or Zsombor would add a bluesy lick on his flute – and then all bets were off.
Kerekes Ensemble were now Kerekes Band, and they went wild. The traditional gardon (a cello-like percussion instrument) became a drum kit, a bass guitar joined the viola and the koboz, and Zsombor took his shepherd’s flute to the next level, creating a one-of-a-kind chromatic version and adding any electronic effects he could – distortion, delay, wah-wah, chorus. They kept the repertoire the same, but their sound was now as much inspired by Jimi Hendrix, Rahsaan Roland Kirk and Kool & the Gang as by the fields and folk of Hungary. It wasn’t actually too much of a leap. Drummer (and Zsombor’s brother) Vikor Fehér felt the connections come naturally: “We realised that the energy in táncház is exactly the same as rock music. The way they beat the drum is the same way we beat the gardon, how we blow the flute has exactly the same strong energy. It has to be loud, and you have to dance!”
Like when Dylan went electric in ’66, people took some persuading. “Everyone was looking at us suspiciously,” says Zsombor. “The folk musicians said ‘what are you doing with our music?’ and on the other hand, the rockers were unsure too. We created a genre between genres. It gave our music a sort of outlaw feeling that we’re doing something very new and very different.” The gamble paid off: their first album as Kerekes Band, 2006’s Pimasz, was an explosion of funk, punk, disco and folk – and still a classic today. That spirit never left them. Now with 25 years and nine albums under their belts, Kerekes Band are one of Hungary’s most popular folk groups, and kings of their own flavour of ‘Ethno-funk.’
2020 was going to be an extravaganza year for the group. It started strong with a sold-out, career-spanning barnstormer in Budapest in January, and there were shows booked from Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan and Georgia to the Isle of Wight and a converted mill in the Hungarian countryside, before COVID-19 put paid to those best laid plans. No matter, though. Kerekes Band’s music is a colourful riot full of fun, flute and funk. After 25 years, there’s no slowing down; the celebrations will continue for a long time to come.
Photo: (l-r) Ákos Csarnó, Viktor Fehér and Zsombor Fehér of Kerekes Band live at Müpa Palace of Arts, Budapest, 2020, by Kotschy Gábor.
Friday, 6 March 2020
Kerekes Band - Müpa Palace of Arts, Budapest, Hungary
First published in Songlines Magazine issue 156, April 2020.
Kerekes Band
Müpa Palace of Arts, Budapest, Hungary
12th January 2020
On a freezing January evening in Budapest, Kerekes Band certainly knew how raise the temperature. They should do, too – they’ve been going for 25 years. This was the first in a whole year of celebrations from Hungary’s premier ‘ethno-funk’ group, and it had been months in the planning. Across two hours, they presented music spanning every step of their career, from their beginnings as a traditional táncház band to the high-octane disco-roots that makes them stand out above the rest.
It started slow and acoustic, one instrument at a time, first with just end-blown shepherd’s flute, joined by viola and kobza lute and eventually bass guitar and drums to round off the quintet. From there, it just ramped up and up. Traditional melodies transformed into wild psychedelic headbangers, and covers from ‘Voodoo Child’ to ‘Jungle Boogie’ become folkified alongside pieces from Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan and Norway.
A particularly inspired addition to this anniversary concert were special guests PásztorHóra, doubling the size of the ensemble on stage. The young, all-acoustic folk group linked past and present, sometimes literally; the most exciting moments of the concert came when PásztorHóra’s jaunty, cimbalom-led pieces flowed seamlessly into Kerekes’ biggest hits.
The eternal problem with concert halls is that they’re seemingly designed to discourage dancing. It was the same tonight, with Kerekes Band playing music that practically screams for bodily movement in front of a happy but resolutely seated audience. Until the encore. For those last 20 minutes, the floodgates truly opened and I don’t reckon there was an occupied seat in the house. After 25 years, no audience can resist Kerekes Band’s deep grooves – they provided a heat that lasted long into the cold, foggy night ahead.
Photo: Kerekes Band with PásztorHóra live at Müpa Palace of Arts, Budapest, 2020, by Kotschy Gábor.
Kerekes Band
Müpa Palace of Arts, Budapest, Hungary
12th January 2020
On a freezing January evening in Budapest, Kerekes Band certainly knew how raise the temperature. They should do, too – they’ve been going for 25 years. This was the first in a whole year of celebrations from Hungary’s premier ‘ethno-funk’ group, and it had been months in the planning. Across two hours, they presented music spanning every step of their career, from their beginnings as a traditional táncház band to the high-octane disco-roots that makes them stand out above the rest.
It started slow and acoustic, one instrument at a time, first with just end-blown shepherd’s flute, joined by viola and kobza lute and eventually bass guitar and drums to round off the quintet. From there, it just ramped up and up. Traditional melodies transformed into wild psychedelic headbangers, and covers from ‘Voodoo Child’ to ‘Jungle Boogie’ become folkified alongside pieces from Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan and Norway.
A particularly inspired addition to this anniversary concert were special guests PásztorHóra, doubling the size of the ensemble on stage. The young, all-acoustic folk group linked past and present, sometimes literally; the most exciting moments of the concert came when PásztorHóra’s jaunty, cimbalom-led pieces flowed seamlessly into Kerekes’ biggest hits.
The eternal problem with concert halls is that they’re seemingly designed to discourage dancing. It was the same tonight, with Kerekes Band playing music that practically screams for bodily movement in front of a happy but resolutely seated audience. Until the encore. For those last 20 minutes, the floodgates truly opened and I don’t reckon there was an occupied seat in the house. After 25 years, no audience can resist Kerekes Band’s deep grooves – they provided a heat that lasted long into the cold, foggy night ahead.
Photo: Kerekes Band with PásztorHóra live at Müpa Palace of Arts, Budapest, 2020, by Kotschy Gábor.
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