The leading figure of ethno jazz in Hungary, Mihály Dresch, has only undertaken gradual changes of concept lately. Nowadays he likes to let his beautiful themes mature for longer before dressing them in new arrangements or tempi, and strings them together in new sets. The mesmerising intensity of his music derives from complete immersion in his work, from a rigorous inward searching bordering on obstinacy. The present collaboration is almost without precedent in the towering, forward-moving thirty-year career of the sax player, unless we count his duo with his greatest model, Archie Shepp, realised at several concerts and on CD in 2002.

The other thread of the story of the quartet here goes back to Mediawave. The musical profile of this festival in western Hungary, now twenty years old, has been defined by Dresch just as much as David Murray. During the Hungarian debut of his Black Saint quartet, which was awarded Concert of the Year, Lafayette Gilchrist played piano, and the drummer, Hamid Drake became a Mediawave regular, and later took part in workshops with William Parker. These occasions gave birth to the trio of the ambitious young Hungarian alto sax player Viktor Tóth, with Drake and the excellent bassist Mátyás Szandai, who has long been a member of Dresch’s working band. Jenő Hartyándi, director of the Mediawave festival, first thought of pairing Dresch and Gilchrist, in the meantime Szandai and Drake became friends. The final impulse came from BMC, a label that consciously puts Hungarian musicians into an international context. To cut a long story short, musically the most exciting event of this year’s Mediawave landed in a shed in the village of Őriszentpéter.

This concert resembled Dresch’s earlier performances rather than Murray’s memorable appearance in the Győr synagogue, despite the fact that Dresch was playing in a more “American” style than he usually does, witness his playing the theme All in – on the recorder! There is so much more to say about Gilchrist than the fact he is considered Monk’s true heir. He fronts a larger ensemble, The New Volcanoes, who won the best jazz album category in the Independent Music Awards last year, and he also tours and records with smaller bands. At the concert, Dresch was drawn into his rhythms conjuring up the lapping of waves on the beach, into his fascinating compositions, as to an old friend after many years apart, though it was the first time they played together. Dresch very rarely performs with a pianist, but Gilchrist injected a gospel feel to his songs, on top of the Hungarian-style rubatos. This is what made up the character of the quartet, their clinging together, as “Matyi and Hamid” moved together like a separate section, and certainly Mihály’s solos, which were soaring as ever; those of Lafayette being surprising and inscrutable. The shed where the notes of the Old House Ballad were played has become something of a cosy home for players and audience alike.

Kornél Zipernovszky
Translated by Richard Robinson