Söndörgö with special guest Chris Potter – “Gyezz” – London Jazz News

June 28, 2024

Söndörgö with special guest Chris Potter – Gyezz
(GroundUP Music. Review by Peter Slavid)

The band Söndörgő is often described as a world music band and has indeed won numerous awards in this category. For me, they stand firmly in the tradition of modern European jazz. They combine deep ethnic Balkan roots with exciting improvisation. If that wasn’t clear on their previous albums, the inclusion of saxophonist Chris Potter supplements these credentials

The band has existed for almost 30 years and consists of three brothers, Aaron, Benjamin And Salamon Eredics, and cousin David Eredics And Ábel Dénes, the only one who is not part of the family, on bass.

All family members are multi-instrumentalists. They all play various sizes of tambura – a mandolin-like instrument probably of Turkish origin and played by the South Slavic (Serbian and Croatian) communities in Hungary. In addition, Áron Eredics plays an excellent darbuka (a goblet drum), Benjamin Eredics plays trumpet, Dávid Eredics plays clarinet, saxophone and kaval (a longitudinal flute) and is also the first tabura player. Salamon Eredics plays hulusi (a Chinese flute), bass drum and accordion.

The music can be fast and wild, with incredible precision of the tamburas, it can mix rock with Balkan bluegrass, with references to classical composers like Bartok, who himself used folk music. They can also play a cheesy ballad, as in their version of Laura where Potter and others float over the glittering tamburas.

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The press release is helpful and describes the opening track “Liras” as follows:

“The musical material of the composition consists of three layers: motif music based on asymmetrically rhythmicized dances of the Balkans, a Greek 7/16 serra dance originally played with a lyre, and improvisation. Interestingly, some motifs from one of Rachmaninov’s liturgical choral works appear in the music.” Most of the other pieces feature a similar mix of improvisation and folk music.

I liked the cheekily named, trumpet-led Sketches by spoonand the two arrangements of Bartok pieces. The final track sums up the whole style. It starts slow and lyrical, with short improvisations by saxophone, trumpet and flute over rhythmic percussion. Then, about three minutes into the nine-minute track, the speed suddenly triples and becomes a dance rhythm with wild solos by saxophone, accordion and others over a constant driving rhythm of the percussion.

The whole album is great fun and stays true to its local roots, but is still full of exciting improvisations – definitely a jazz album – and great fun at that!