A record that is both a spiritual journey and a musical research, Somewhere Else, the work of Hungarian drummer Balázs Bágyi is a work characterised by its intelligent choice of repertoire, meticulously arranged, and is performed with great professionalism and feeling. The line up consists of drums and double bass (played by Peter Oláh, the subject of our lesson) and a front line of Csaba Tűzkő on saxophones and János Hámori on trumpet and flugelhorn. There is no harmonic instrument but this is not missed on account of the repertoire being perfectly adapted to the sonorities the leader has in mind.
In Fire Jumping we hear the energy and enthusiasm with which the group is equipped, a triple time beat with a latin flavour in which the two soloists present an admirable improvisatory vocabulary.
Somewhere Else, the title track, is a dreamy number with the harmony sustained by bowed bass and sax, while Hámori's trumpet gives out a very refined theme. The sax solo which follows is truly inspired, and presents a great command of the instrument, with jazz phrasing in the American style, as we hear again in Sounds of Sukor? 1 , whose theme recalls commemorative marches in afro-american style, full of blue notes and phatos.
Quite rightly Bágyi reserves a little space for himself in Drumsolo no 2 which testifies to his considerable technical and expressive control, recalling, in a certain way, the percussion suites of Max Roach.
If Sounds of Sukor? 1 feeds off American phraseology, Sounds of Sukoro 2 plants its roots deeply in the Balkan tradition expressing its most delicious atmosphere in a brief portrait over a scalene tempo which progresses with admirable elegance.
Mosquito Dance is decidedly orientated towards the ethno side, letting one breathe in flowing balcanic sonorities from Tűzkő 's tireless saxophone, equally at ease in with oriental or jazz phrasing.
If Nagytétény is not easily translatable it is easy to understand the intention of the composition; that of throwing oneself headfirst into a blues worthy of the best afro-american traditions, of which the quartet seem to have absorbed all the aesthetic and linguistic details.
This Somewhere Else is worthy of consideration, and testifies to an intelligent coming together of languages which are never out of place or superficial.
Marcello Sebastiani ' s review for Guitar Club Magazine, translated by Geoff
Warren.
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