JumbieRecords

Életfa's Long Lost Animated Movie

LinkTv has a large collection of videos. The video below (watch it here) is based on a track from Életfa's CD "Gyökereínk". I hadn't seen it for a long time, so I thought was a good time to share it again.

The Bluesmen's World shows us some love

It has been a couple years since Életfa released our CD Gyökereink (Our Roots), so we appreciate that the Bluesmen's World(Music) just blogged about it. I'd like to return the favor, so here is the link to the article. To keep up to date on the Bluesmen's World blog, click here.

Életfa in Los Angeles

Our dear friends at the Hajdu-Nemeth blog covered the Életfa tour of Los Angeles, with lots of lovely pictures. Here are the links:

• Our performance at the Disney Hall
   
• The táncház in Hawthorne
   
• March 15 commemoration and táncház in Balboa Park, San Diego

Enjoy!

Életfa, Alec Baldwin, Brahms, Boico & the NY Phil together at last

Last night was a great night. The NY Phil finally had a chance to play with Életfa, and they did good.

It was a groundbreaking way to look at the life and music of Brahms, and I am floating on air to have a chance to be part of such a historic (if that's the best word) performances right here in New York City.

The program delved into the story of the "other" Brahms- not the venerated bearded old man, but a younger composer and his influences. I had always assumed that he wrote those Hungarian Dances because Hungary was some alien, exotic land. But I never considered this: Brahms was born in 1833, and so the Hungarian revolution of 1848 came at a very formative age for him. A flood of refugees exposed him to the music, and even more importantly, his career got started by touring with a Hungarian violinist, Eduard Remenyi. 

That's all well and good, but what about Alec Baldwin?

Okay, okay, I was pretty star-struck by Alec Baldwin as well. I was curious if he would be a prima  donna, or if he would be some jokester. At our rehearsal with the NY Phil, he was extremely professional, and the writer/producer of the show, Joe Horowitz, gave him very direct criticism. He wrote his notes and we worked very efficiently.

The script included a VERY scratchy recording of Brahms made in 1889. It was barely audible, and it evoked snickers during the rehearsal. Alec asked if he could come up with some line, and Joe was fine with it. During the performance, the audience struggled to decipher the hiss with some music buried, and Alec said "Ahh, they don't make them like that any more." He hit the spot exactly.

 To tell the truth, Alec Baldwin was only a small part of the experience. Standing between the cello and viola section was a thrill for me, and one memorable moment was when the two sections were exchanging plucked phrases. Everyone was great- the orchestra was personally very warm and supportive. The conductor, Daniel Boico, was warm and really enjoyed what he was doing. As he said to us in passing, "If you're not having fun, why do it?"

Ultimately, the stars of the show for me were my bandmates in Életfa. Alex Fedoriouk played cimbalom, and he's one of my musical heroes. When we got on stage, I realized it was just another stage, and we needed to do what we do best: Enjoy ourselves. I was so glad when we started playing and Ildiko (our lead violin) broke out in one of her radiant smiles. Playing with Életfa is one of my greatest joys imaginable.

When we got back to our room, we not only had some home-made palinka, but the Phil left a bottle of Veuve Clicquot champagne. What a classy operation.

Hungarian Day '08 in New Brunswick: Hot Hungarian Culture!

Hungarians take over New Brunswick, NJ on the first Saturday of every June. This year brought yet another new crop of young dancers and musicians... it brought outrageously hot weather... and hot weather will do nothing to slow down Hungarian dance fanatics.

Here's a peek at the festivities by some of our great friends:

Photos by Lili Erdely:

Photos by Marta Fodor:
Életfa leading the way

Photos by Zsuzsi Tass:

The newest cimbalom master in New Jersey

Here are some videos:
youtube.com/tothpiroska

Video of Metró Folk in the studio

Our intrepid kontra player Aron Székely has posted new videos of Metró Hungarian folk. This is from our recording session in Brooklyn at Pete Fand's new studio:

For more, click here

http://youtube.com/watch?v=-6j2Ute3vf8

and

http://youtube.com/watch?v=KnpDcYCagyU&feature=related.

Naked models and Hungarian folk music for the benefit of children

Our new and newly renamed Hungarian folk band Metro Folk is not used to playing on Saturday morning. But the timing wasn't the only thing out of the ordinary for when we played at the Four Seasons restaurant in Midtown Manhattan. We played at the request of my old friend Spencer Tunick who was doing an art installation that consisted of photographing a hundred or so naked volunteers.

The photo above has been taken from Eater.com, and you can see the original context at
Four Seasons Gone Wild: Spencer Tunick Stops in for Lunch. Please don't watch this if you are offended by the naked body.

You can find more news coverage from the NY Post here. ABC News also published this video, which includes some of the funniest blurring of private parts that I have ever seen.

Hungarian folk creeps into the East Village, Brooklyn & YouTube

The ...Na Hungarian folk group has been all around town these days, and here are some videos that capture the funky Hungarian vibe.

Banjo Jim's:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wGT0Y2f2oIc

Vox Pop with Kata singing:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LDxm2xEKTIQ

And if that isn't enough to satisfy your Hungarian folk music video needs, you can go here:
http://www.cafetv.ro/kategoriak/nepmuveszet

Transylvanian folk dance hits the streets of Manhattan

Áron Székely has been instigating a new generations of Hungarian and Hungarian-sympathizers into bursting out into music and dance. These incidents have been witnessed around the streets of Manhattan and New Brunswick, NJ and on YouTube. Videographic proof is available here:

Further incriminating evidence can be found on his blog, located on the Internet at hungarianfolkdance.net.

Dreaming of Moldavia

I've been enjoying reading Bob Cohen's travel descriptions in his blog. Here's his post about travelling around the Csángó region in Carpathian mountains of Romania:

"Well... just wait here..." said one old lady, and sure enough, within a minute everybody had dived into their laundry chests and brought out the old dowry pieces. It used to be the custom in Csángó villages to make an entirely new set of dress costumes for each Easter, and then set it aside as a dowry. The younger generation wants more modern weddings, so most older woman have a chest full of weavings and embroidered costumes mothballed away. Old folks don't get many opportunities to pick up extra cash in these remote areas, so soon the street was full of old Csángó women trying to make a sale.

(This part of Romania is called Moldavia, not to be confused with the independent country with the same name, in case you were wondering.)