Mihály Dresch Quartet Árgyélus
I have the feeling that people today are missing a kind of organic musical culture based on a clear overview of a system, typical for example of traditional Indian music or the Transylvanian music of our ancestors. Yet it would seem that at present we are unable to create a new musical system at this level, so we try, piecemeal fashion, to tack together the systems we consider important. The result of this ‘piecing together’ is inevitably a fragmentary culture.
Mihály Dresch
Artists
Mihály Dresch - tenor and soprano saxophones, recorder, vocals
Miklós Lukács - cimbalom
Mátyás Szandai - double bass
István Baló - drums
Ferenc Kovács - violin (3, 5, 6)
About the album
All compositions by Mihály Dresch, except track 2 folk song arranged by Mihály Dresch; tracks 5 and 6 by Mihály Dresch using themes from folk songs; track 7 by Duke Ellington arranged by Mihály Dresch, Miklós Lukács and Mátyás Szandai
Recorded and mixed by Attila Kölcsényi at Tom-Tom Studio, Budapest 25-28/09/ 2006
Portrait photos: István Huszti
Cover art and Art-Smart by GABMER / Bachman
Produced by László Gőz
Executive producer: Tamás Bognár
The recording was sponsored by the National Cultural Fund of Hungary and the Artisjus Music Foundation
Reviews
Ken Waxman - Jazzword (en)
Stéphan Ollivier - Jazzman *** (fr)
Christian Bakonyi - Jazzzeit ***** (de)
Martin Schuster - Concerto **** (de)
Stephan Richter - Fono Forum (de)
AAJ Italy staff (Paolo Peviani) - All About Jazz **** (it)
Gonçalo Falcão - Jazz.pt (pt)
Michal Baláž - skJazz.sk (sk)
Turi Gábor - Gramofon ***** (hu)
Csont András - Revizor (hu)
Olasz Sándor - Rockinform (hu)
Márton Attila - Demokrata (hu)
Galamb Zoltán - Ekultura.hu (hu)
Czékus Mihály – Szabó Ildikó - Papiruszportál (hu)
Sinkovics Ferenc - Demokrata (hu)
Deák Endre - Igenhir.hu (hu)
Mihály Dresch Quartet: Árgyélus
The album is available in digital form at our retail partners
I have the feeling that people today are missing a kind of organic musical culture based on a clear overview of a system, typical for example of traditional Indian music or the Transylvanian music of our ancestors. Yet it would seem that at present we are unable to create a new musical system at this level, so we try, piecemeal fashion, to tack together the systems we consider important. The result of this ‘piecing together’ is inevitably a fragmentary culture.
Fragment – Part of one of my old compositions, released on the LP Gondolatok a régiekről in 1988, originally entitled Fragmentary Legend. I felt it was worth reworking it, making it a little more playful.
Soldiers’ farewell from Szék village – I first heard this song in composer László Lajtha’s collection from Szék on a release in the Pátria series. It was sung by György Szabó Varga Snr., whose son I later got to know personally, and who like his father was a marvellous singer.
Later I heard it again in György Szabados’ work Katonazene, and it made a deep impression on me. This song is important to me because we are all ‘soldiers of life’.
Heritage – This shows the influence of pentatonic music, twentieth-century Hungarian music and jazz.
Homeward bound – One of my childhood experiences, when every evening a young man passed in front of our house on his merry way home.
It forms a unit with the previous two pieces, and is in fact the closing part of a united composition.
Árgyélus – This is based on a Hungarian folk song which to me represents man’s frailty. (In folk tales and songs the árgyélus is a pure, angelic figure, who normally appears in the form of a prince or a bird.)
Tziganesque (for Archie) – A folk song from southern Hungary. The mood somehow reminded me of Archie Shepp. I am happy to have met him personally and to have played with him.
In a sentimental mood – Duke Ellington’s masterpiece is, I believe, our universal heritage. It’s a song with great strength: no matter how often I play it, it ‘speaks’ immediately.
Mihály Dresch
Translated by Richard Robinson