Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
with a repertoire ranging from Gypsy tunes to Bach; the jazz guitarist
Ferenc Snétberger
;
andthewizardviolinist
RobyLakatos
,whotoursextensivelyaroundtheworldfromhisbase
in Brussels. A seventh-generation descendant of János Bihari (aka “King of the Gypsy Vi-
olinists”), Lakatos hails from the Romungro tradition of “Gypsy music” that you will see ad-
vertised at touristy restaurants, known in Hungarian as
Magyar nóta
. Consisting of a series
of mid-nineteenth-century Hungarian ballads traditionally played by Roma musicians, Mag-
yar nóta is usually performed by one or two violinists, a bass player and a guy on the cim-
balom. The more famous restaurants boast their own musical dynasties, such as the Lakatos
family, who have been performing this sort of music for over a century.
In recent years a decline in demand for Gypsy restaurant bands has sent younger Romungro
musicians in new directions, such as
Roma jazz
- look out for tenor saxophonist
Gábor
Bolla
in particular - or the cabaret-style music of
Budapest Bár,
led by Róbert Farkas.
Popular music and jazz
Budapest hasundergonea
popularmusic
revivalinthelastfewyears:radiostations andmu-
sic magazines have taken off and the city has become part of the international tour circuit -
the
Sziget Festival
each August is now one of the premier music gatherings on the continent.
This has all had a knock-on effect on local music.
Heaven Street Seven
call their version of
guitar pop Dunabeat, while
Quimby
's Tibor Kiss is the Hungarian equivalent of Tom Waits.
Two newer outfits on the circuit are the rapping
Anna and the Barbies
and the alternative
rock band
30Y
. The one-time underground local radio station
Tilos Rádió
has done much
to promote
DJs
, and there are now a host of them around the country - Palotai and Mango
do a lot of wild mixing using a mass of sources and sounds. Slam poetry is big in the city -
Akkezdet Phiai
is one of the more accessible acts.
A popular crossover style blends pop with Hungarian folk or Thirties swing:
MagyarVista
SocialClub
(a play on the name of the famous Cuban outfit - Magyar Vista is the Hungarian
name ofa village in Romania) and
TárkányMűvek
combine jazz, rock and folk. The bands
backing the gloriously clear voice of
Flóra Herczeg
combine folk, pop and jazz.
Jazz
has always had a devout, but small, following in the country and more and more clubs
and bars offer live jazz. Names worth checking out are
Béla Szakcsi Lakatos
, a jazz pianist
who frequently plays in Budapest clubs,
MihályDresch
, the saxophonist who draws on folk
traditions,
MiklósLukács
, a pupil of the cymbalomist Kálmán Balogh, and two fine singers,
Harcsa Veronika
and
Nikoletta Szőke
.
Discography
An excellent online source for all CDs is the Hangvető website (
hangveto.hu
). A full dis-
cographyoftheworksofLiszt,BartókandKodály,conductorslikeDohnányiandDoráti,and
contemporary Hungarian soloists and singers would fill a catalogue, but look out for the fol-
