This is one for the musicologists, of which it would appear, from this recording, that Hungary has a few. Söndörgő take the sound of their native land on a world trip, such that, whilst their roots show through instruments of other countries inspire the shape and sound of the music. For added good measure there is the west meets east addition of Chris Potter to the mix.
It’s that meeting of minds that characterises the opening tune, Liras. It has what I, with my limited
knowledge, would regard as a typical Balkan opening section before Potter comes
in. His solo starts in the same region and follows it faithfully before he
pulls it westwards. As he ends the band take the piece forward, the tension
between band and soloist gives the piece its strength; subdued at first, the
band solidly rock forward up to a closing explosion. Spoon is a sharp edged waltz with brief, more frantic interjections,
which slows the pace to a steady prowl over which Potter blows strenuously whilst
the others move up on him from behind to create a furious wall of sound. And, a
point to note, it swings like a mommy-kisser.
wRap
is
built off an increasingly insistent drone and the steady tap of hand drums in
between which the various wind instruments course, ebbing and flowing until
they all solidify into a great wave. Laura
is a lush romantic ballad, a smooth, slow stepping dance, and Potter’s solo
fits in, wailing, beseeching, searching, perfectly framed by the others. Reba crosses continents and seas as
well. It starts in Hungary, has a brief spell in the country blues of America
before an energetic charge, romping back eastwards.
The nine-minutes plus of Hid
closes the album. It opens as a melancholic fugue. Alto sax and, then, trumpet
and tenor pierce the gloom flowed by various flutes. Potter plays a solo of
long notes before Benjamin Ederics’ trumpet cuts him off. After 3 minutes,
they’ve clearly had enough of the dirge and the energy level ramps up along
with the tempo. A tight, twisting tenor solo rides above the excitement until
brief percussive punctuation invites all the wind instruments into the melee.
It’s all good fun as the instruments inter mingle and challenge each other to
give more, even the accordion becomes a weapon of aggression and the sudden
stop leaves a hole in the room.
Of course it’s only right that we address the dancing elephant in the
room and ask “Is it jazz, though?” Well it has Chris Potter on it and Dávid
Eredics sometimes plays alto sax as well. I’m not sure that I would class it as
jazz. It’s a blistering, intense 47 minute listen, full of energy and
innovation. Gil Scott-Heron always suggested that his albums would be in the
box marked ‘miscellaneous’ and maybe that’s where this one should go. Söndörgő
are popular with Songlines magazine
so I suspect that they fall under the lazy category of ‘world’. I prefer the
Duke’s system for classifying music as either ‘Good’ or ‘Bad’ and this is,
definitely, the former. Dave Sayer
*A tapan is a double headed drum, a derbuka is a goblet shaped drum, a
tambura is a plucked instrument from India, a hulusi is a gourd flute of
Chinese origin, and a kaval is a type of flute, as is a frula.
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