SZILÁRD MEZEI FLUTE & STRINGS TRIO – Fehér Virág (White Flower)
SLAM Records – SLAMCD 569
Szilárd Mezei: viola, kaval; Svetlana Novakovic: flute; Maja Radovanlija: acoustic guitar; Guest drummer István Csík (Track 2)
Recorded at Studio Vilenjak, Novi Sad, Serbia, August 12th 2005
The kaval is a wooden flute, the kind that belongs to a pastoral tradition and is played all across Eastern Europe and Anatolia. The word itself is Turkish.
This writer reviewed Szilárd Mezei’s work (Karszt) with the International Improvisers’ Ensemble, back two years almost, in January 2014. His rapport with Anthony Braxton’s musical methods was remarked upon then and is noticed again here. He is yet another musician whose concern in studying the affiliation between composition and improvisation becomes more obvious the more one hears his works. He brings together elements from classical, folk and jazz music, balancing composition and improvisation and arriving at what he has named contemporary improvised music.
‘White Flower’ is very much in this genre and is a quite exhilarating musical work, the striking equilibrium only seemingly at odds with its multi-faceted nature.
Mezei’s ensemble play his compositions, pieces in which spontaneous improvisation plays a pivotal role, just as its members are as one in their pledge to improvisation as a methodology. There are, too, resilient inclinations to the folk music of Hungary, and to a plethora of contemporary classical and jazz sources such as Bartók, Braxton and Ligeti. Mezei himself plays with other foundations in improvised music and is committed to actively planning and arranging workshops and promotions in the genre.
Reviewed by Ken Cheetham
SLAM Records – SLAMCD 569
Szilárd Mezei: viola, kaval; Svetlana Novakovic: flute; Maja Radovanlija: acoustic guitar; Guest drummer István Csík (Track 2)
Recorded at Studio Vilenjak, Novi Sad, Serbia, August 12th 2005
The kaval is a wooden flute, the kind that belongs to a pastoral tradition and is played all across Eastern Europe and Anatolia. The word itself is Turkish.
This writer reviewed Szilárd Mezei’s work (Karszt) with the International Improvisers’ Ensemble, back two years almost, in January 2014. His rapport with Anthony Braxton’s musical methods was remarked upon then and is noticed again here. He is yet another musician whose concern in studying the affiliation between composition and improvisation becomes more obvious the more one hears his works. He brings together elements from classical, folk and jazz music, balancing composition and improvisation and arriving at what he has named contemporary improvised music.
‘White Flower’ is very much in this genre and is a quite exhilarating musical work, the striking equilibrium only seemingly at odds with its multi-faceted nature.
Mezei’s ensemble play his compositions, pieces in which spontaneous improvisation plays a pivotal role, just as its members are as one in their pledge to improvisation as a methodology. There are, too, resilient inclinations to the folk music of Hungary, and to a plethora of contemporary classical and jazz sources such as Bartók, Braxton and Ligeti. Mezei himself plays with other foundations in improvised music and is committed to actively planning and arranging workshops and promotions in the genre.
Reviewed by Ken Cheetham
