alisonboston.com

It is hard-core Hungarian chasonnier, with percussion, drums, guitar, bass, keyboards, trumpet and deep, gutteral - almost raspy - vocals.

The Budapest (Őszi) Autumn Festival, dedicated to showcasing avante garde art, has already presold 25% or double the number of tickets than last year.
I haven’t yet gone through the program to choose the events I want to see, but my first cursory glance has zeroed in on a sitar concert at Trafo.
The […]

The most provocative question of the evening came from Richard Swartz in asking how can responsibility be built up in a society where the individual was not allowed to be responsible

the text is rooted in a story about Austrian physicist Lise Meitner whose Nobel Prize winning research was attributed to one of her male colleagues!

P.S. I feel very privileged to receive so many wonderful poems from the Magyar Muse. I think it lives in the Danube because I find the Columbus Jazz Boat to be a particularily fertile spot, and have received one serendipitous poem while an Israeli musician was playing there.

Went to Joe Zawinul’s Birdland in Vienna last evening, and I was delighted. Joe and his band The Syndicate were playing. I was entranced from start to finish. A truly international group of musicians, the concert fused Zawinul’s music with the traditional native sounds of the individual players.
All the […]

…for 10 kilometers, for three hours - complete with a police escort. That’s incredible! Is that statistic correct? Where do we all come from?
The car drivers complained to the police: “How can they do that?”
It’s easy, we just get on our bikes and ride! Try it, you […]

…is today. I will be there. Will you?

She was wearing low cut jeans, with a belly top and a gold chain around her svelte, young midriff. She was first pawed by one man in a suit, then she was pawed and had her ass squeezed by another man.

she sent Peter a recording of her singing the songs with music put together by different producers. Peter played the recording for his ad-hoc band and they learned the music and after two rehearsals with Pat put on the show.

The sex is equally odd in its symbolism. Saurus < ?> has sex - in turn - with three boxes of geraniums, which had previously been watered by the three members of the chorus.

Weather permitting, I will give a reading/performance of my poetry this coming Saturday, September 24th, in Vienna at Theseus Temple as part of the Labyrinth Poetry in the Park series.
*L A B Y R I N T H*
Association of English-Language Poets in Vienna
presents
10th annual festival
*Poetry in the Park*
2 summer afternoons
of verse, music and song
featuring […]

Moving slowly, yet with determination, Paul Bley came on stage last night at the Festival Theater after a prolonged 45 minute intermission following the performance of his peer, Szabados György.
A long intermission was needed after the intensity of Szabados, who had played an abstract hour-long concert, that culminated with a comical vocal dialogue […]

A couple of week’s ago, I heard Pop Ivan play for the first time. Laszi played his parts from his wheel chair. The band sounded great even though they hadn’t rehearsed since the paralysis.

But my mind wanders back to the thoughtful music of the Oláh-Bacsó-Boisseau Trio and I hanker to hear it again. Their second piece of the evening, an improvisation called Hungarian Sketches conjures deep, mysterious images

Even with the asphyxiating smoke-filled air and the hopelessly inadequate technical - both Kárpáti Dodi’s trumpet and Vázsonyi János sax blowing simultaneously through one microphone, amped through a very unflattering speaker - I was hooked by the sound and had to tear myself away to continue to the next concert.

Not only did he wow me with that one song thrown in at the end of the concert he played with the Csik Gustztáv Trio, but he also tickled my ribs with what he told me is called ‘The Bobby Durham Special’, a tricky little cymbol technique he learned watching Philly Joe Jones (who he told me practiced in his kitchen when he was nine years old) and Max Roach.

I am already suffering from piano burnout at this festival that is focussing on the piano. And it’s only Day 2. And I love the piano! But after an evening of ivory keys, it sure was nice to stumble into Paris Texas coffee house for a late evening taste of Gyárfás István’s […]

The evening finished with the ‘out of tune’ Steinway being wheeled into centre stage and Szakcsi joining van’t Hof to play a duet - van’t Hof on one piano and Szaksci on the ‘out of tune’ Steinway.

…need I say more?
Béla Lakatos Szakcsi and Miklós Lukács started the Budapest Jazz Festival off with three minimalist pieces unlike anything I’ve ever heard either of them play. Although very, very good they were just a little teaser for Jason Moran and The Bandwagon from the States who blew us all […]

Go here to read how I learned to do this.

The Budapest Jazz Festival starts today. 47 concerts in 15 locations over 5 days. In addition to the late night concerts on Raday utca, there are sessions starting at 11pm today, tomorrow and Friday on the Columbus Jazz Boat, which is the home stage of the Hungarian Society of Jazz Artists
Kornél Horváth […]

I saw Cinderella Man tonight and it exhausted me. I am sure it will also inspire me.
If you want to be motivated to do something tough, go see that movie and be prepared for an onslaught of tension. I was alternately clutching my gut and covering my eyes - and dying […]

Essence of Life Art opened last Thursday (Sept.8) at the Ludwig.
When they say ‘works on paper’, they’re not kidding. One artist - Jusuf Hadzifejzovic - paints on small (35×55) brown paper bags, split and laid flat.
It’s not surprising that socio-political commentary runs throughout the exhibition, what is surprising is how some artists […]

The HVB Bank opened its touring exhibition ‘Europe in Art’ last week (Sept. 7) in Budapest.
Some of the strongest works in the exhibition are the photographs. One of my favorites is Ilse Haider’s Venus. When viewed from a distance the goddess’ face commands attention, while close up, the artist’s […]

I was chatting with Lantos Zoltan last evening about the a38 concert. It was the first time he had played with the trio, although he had previously played with the bassist Volkov. Apparently there was one number he was supposed to play with them, but he said: “They were playing so […]

Heard these guys tonight playing with Hungarian violinist Lantos Zoltán on the a38 concert boat. It was an awesome concert. The guitarist lost his glasses a couple of times - they literally flew off his face he was shaking his head so hard in time to the music. Not […]

Another of my favorite listens is Stuart Maconie’s Freak Zone on BBC’s 6Music.
I cannot express it any better than BBC: “For all things strange and beautiful…The quirky, unusual, weird, and wonderful.”
I especially like to listen to it when I am fed up with hearing my neighbor’s musical choices.

Another of my favorite BBC programs. I’ve heard some great, and rare live sessions on this program - including bassist Henry Grimes.
Check the Jazz on 3 link under the music sidebar to go straight to the BBC Jazz on 3 homepage where you can open the ‘listen again’ radio player.
Listen again […]

I’m an avid BBC ‘listen again’ listener. MIXING IT is a favorite. This week’s program is about the electro acoustic scene in Montreal, where I lived for 5 years.
For some reason, I didn’t get into the music scene when I lived in Montreal. It wasn’t until I came to Hungary […]

I started writing poetry when I was ten years old. The first poem I wrote was called “C”, and was about the ocean I had left when my family moved from Nova Scotia to New Brunswick. It started “Down by the sea, that’s where I long to be…”. I still have […]

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