Brendan Foreman wrote this review.
As played by this fine ensemble, gypsy jazz is an high-spirited, infectious conglomeration of swing, klezmer and assorted Eastern European traditional musics with ample room for jazzy soloing and even the odd scat here and there. One moment, a tune may be slow and contemplative; the next, it’s barreling along at a breakneck pace. At all times, the musicians are clearly having a blast.
A champion and practitioner of many traditional Eastern European musical forms, Kalman Balogh is a recognized master of the cimbalom, the Eastern European version of the hammered dulcimer (those of you who have seen the movie “The Third Man” will know exactly what it sounds like). His instrument is ubiquitous on this CD; when Balogh isn’t maddeningly pushing the speed limit of his dulcimer mallets, he’s in the background providing constant staccato rhythm and counterpoint.
In the Gypsy Cimbalom Band, Balogh has assembled a crack team of fellow musicians. Sandor Kuti provides a jazz feel throughout the CD with a straight-to-the-beat rhythm guitar. Ferenc Kovacs plays an earthy, very Slavic-sounding trumpet, whereas both Sandor Budair and Laszlo Major are very comfortable combining the traditional sounds of Hungarian violin with the more jazzier styles of Stephen Grappelli. Finally, Csaba Novak ties the whole group together with a very tight double bass.
Opening with “Gypsy Colors,” which moves smoothly from style to style (almost a sampler of various Eastern European) while giving each of the members of the band to solo, Gypsy Jazz showcases a wide array of musical styles.
“Calusul Dance” is a nicely syncopated tune, provided with plenty of commentary from the band members. Astoundingly, Balogh suddenly triples the speed of the tune about half-way through, only to increase the tempo a few minutes later.
“Transylvania Suite” features the strange, often discordant yet beautiful harmonies of that area of Romania. Coursing through several pieces in a fairly laid-back fashion, this set of tunes is a nice counterbalance to the frenetic energy of “Calusul Dance.”
The next two tracks feature some traditional Jewish sounds. “Hora (F# Minor)” is a fast-paced violin-and-cimbalom dance tune. It is on this tune that Balogh’s tight, full throttle cimbalom-playing is most noticeable. A trio of violins (Ferenc Kovacs also joins in) backs Balogh with long rhythm strokes which complement the cimbalom’s staccato jabs excellently. The band slows down somewhat for “Klezmer Tunes,” a cluster of low tempo, high intensity pieces which emphasize the violin players.
It is in “Hora De La Bim-Bim” that Balogh and crew combine jazz most blatantly with the traditional. What begins as a fairly standard violin-and-trumpet hora turns unexpectantly yet unobtrusively into a jazzy scat of nonsense lyrics.
The other song on this CD, “A Csitari Hegyek Alatt,” (a few tracks later) also has a jazzy feel to it, although this song is much less frenetic, having a more sensual, latino spirit.
A couple of tracks are devoted to several of the members of the band. “Suite For Trumpet” demonstrates the many talents of Kovacs on his trumpet, as it darts from a slow, intense klezmer sound to a quick dance tune. Later, “The Lark” wildly demonstrates the various bird sounds that a violin can make when played properly. From the sound of it, the violin player (it’s unclear whether it’s Budai or Major soloing here) is barely ever on the board during this entire tune.
Playing the debouka (a East European drum, apparently related to the Greek drum called the dumbek), guest musician Geza Orczy joins in on the set of mysterious, Arabic-sounding marches called “Macedon Tunes.” He also helps out in the last track “Bolgar Gypsy Horo,” a beautiful, rousing closer that contains some of the finest ensemble work on the entire CD — including a gorgeous three-part harmony of violins.
Continuing a tradition which began way back in the Twenties when jazz first arrived in Eastern Europe and which was further developed by such luminaries as Django Reinhardt and Stefan Grappelli, Balogh and his band have crafted an imaginative, entertaining, slightly mysterious body of work with this delightful CD.
(Rounder, 1999)
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