Mozes

Oct 8, 2023

October 7, 2023 The Hungarian Jazz Day was started following the idea of ​​Béla Zsoldos, a percussion instructor at the Liszt Ferenc University of Music, and its first venue was the Sziget festival, where jazz played for 14 hours with two hundred performers. Since then, the event has toured the country, this year is the 15th time the festive concert series is being held, which is hosted by the House of Hungarian Music. The purpose of the event is to bring the most successful, best domestic and international artists and soloists of the genre to a wider audience, to introduce themselves to the thousands of spectators of the festivals, as opposed to the specific performance of the club concerts, which is typical of the genre and is based on the relationship between the artist and the audience. The eight- to ten-hour concert, with sixty to eighty performers every year, is one of the biggest domestic events of the genre. The Sunday program series ends with Studio 11 celebrating its 60th anniversary at the House of Hungarian Music. Photo: House of Hungarian Music In previous years, thousands of spectators could hear the Budapest Jazz Orchestra and George Duke, In Line and Dennis Chambers, László Attila Band and Tommy Campbell, Morgan Workshop and Billy Cobham, Modern Art Orchestra, Dresch Quartet, Balázs Elemér Group and concerts of many other excellent jazz formations. With this event, the genre is independently represented at the largest domestic festivals, and thus draws attention to the values ​​of jazz and the significant artistic activity of domestic performers and composers. The originator, Béla Zsoldos, previously stated that this event is important because many of the spectators get closer to jazz at such a festival. Jazz Festival at the House of Hungarian Music The festive concert series takes over the House of Hungarian Music again this year. The program will be opened by Symbiosis 5 concerts, which mainly play instrumental jazz. Its members met during their studies at the Liszt Ferenc University of Music and the Béla Bartók Conservatory, and are now all active contributors to the Hungarian jazz scene. Since their establishment in 2020, they have been performing concerts in domestic and foreign venues, and have also won the main prize of many international competitions. Their music is strongly imbued with modal and contemporary jazz, but they also like to use many other musical elements in their self-composed songs. Then the Mozes & Kaltenecker duo, whose joint album was released in the fall of 2022 under the title Futurized, under the care of BMC Records. In their show, jazz and improvisation meet electronic sounds reminiscent of Kraftwerk, Pink Floyd’s psychedelic dream world, or even an Elton John cover, which can generally be described as progressive chamber music art pop. Mozes & Kaltenecker won the Band of the Year award and their record the Album of the Year award at the Jazzma public vote in December 2022. They are followed by Fusio Group, which celebrated its 30th anniversary last year. The band leader Péter Szendőfi’s own compositions can be classified as fusion jazz. In 2005, they received an eMeRton award as jazz ensemble of the year. They had countless domestic concert series and participated in many foreign festivals. After the concert of the Geröly Space Sextet, formed around the drummer and percussionist Tamás Geröly, Szőke Nikoletta Jazzplosion will take the stage, and Studio 11, which is celebrating its 60th anniversary, will close the program series. Nikoletta Szőke: The popularity of jazz is fluctuating, now it is not at its peak Szőke Nikoletta, winner of the Montreux jazz singing competition and winner of the Junior Prima prize, is one of the most popular jazz performers in the country. In addition to domestic concert halls, he has also performed in New York, Tokyo, London and Berlin, singing with Bobby McFerrin, Kurt Elling and Gregory Hutchinson, among others. So far, he has released seven solo albums, the last one, released under the title Moonglow, was produced by Grammy award winner Helik Hadar. His new formation (Kornél Fekete-Kovács – trumpet, Attila László – guitar, József Barcza Horváth – double bass, Elemér Balázs – drums) is a real supergroup, all of its members are among the defining personalities of Hungarian jazz. With this formation, the singer will take the stage of the House of Hungarian Music on Hungarian Jazz Day. According to the singer Nikoletta Szőke, jazz is starting to go in a less consumable direction. Photo: Árpád Oláh Tzumo Before the concert, we asked Nikoletta Szőke about, among other things, the reputation of jazz in Hungary today. – I see that the popularity of jazz is fluctuating, and now I don’t feel that we are at the peak, there were even stronger eras. On the one hand, compared to twenty years ago, when I started learning to sing, musical sophistication and musical education are at a much lower level, and meanwhile jazz is starting to go in a much less consumable direction. There are a lot of bands that don’t play audience-friendly music, said the singer. As he said, there are artists – he includes himself here – such as Péter Sárik, who play for the public. He considers this very important, since the ultimate goal is for as many people as possible to go to the concerts and have fun. According to him, the fact that a performer fulfills himself on stage is obvious, since this is their life, that’s what they mean, but it’s secondary. Good and high-level music is useless if people don’t listen to it, if there’s no one to accept it. It is essential to be open. It’s not demanding for me, because I’ve always liked lighter genres. I come from a gypsy musical dynasty, it was natural for my whole family to entertain with music. Is jazz limited to entertaining the elite and the music industry? – I don’t like elitism. I think the really great ones are able to realize both at the same time, so that they can appeal to many people in addition to the professional level. This was achieved by Chick Corea with the song “Spain” and his other Latin compositions, with which he returned to his roots, but Herbie Hancock also succeeded with Cantaloupe Island or Bobby McFerrin with Don’t Worry Be Happy. Here we are not talking about mediocre musicians, but about those whose role in jazz is unquestionable, yet they were able to do something that simultaneously achieves both: entertainment and a high professional level. This is my goal as well. – said the Junior Prima award-winning singer, when we asked what she thought about jazz being an elite genre, adding, “from the moment we step on stage, we simply don’t play for ourselves, but for the audience”. Szőke Nikoletta recently formed her new formation, the Szőke Nikoletta Jazzplosion, with such great musicians as Kornél Fekete-Kovács, Attila László, József Barcza-Horváth and Elemér Balázs. He told us about where the idea of ​​founding the new band came from: – I have been writing more popular songs in Hungarian for about six years, we also played these and earlier jazz standards at the concerts, and somehow I felt that the two were starting to separate from each other, that my own compositions did not fit so well next to traditional mainstream jazz. New doors have opened, I really enjoy creating, and I don’t limit myself in terms of genre either, because I listen to many kinds of music, a lot of things inspire me, and they all appear in some form in my own songs. His own numerous bands are made up of pop musicians, and Jazzplosion is made up of jazz musicians. With the latter, as he said, the goal was not to be accompanied by session musicians, it was important that everyone add their own individuality and world. In this formation, chamber music is performed, with high-profile performers. I wanted a different kind of voice – I sang with piano accompaniment for a long time – a more pregnant, powerful sound, so the guitar became one of the main characters. It is very honorable that the members said yes, since they really only undertake what they believe in and what they can do with all their heart and soul.