alisonboston.com

The more I hear - and see - of Erzsi Kiss the more admiration and respect I have for her as an artist. This is a big step for one who did not like her the first time I heard her. That was during Budapest’s French festival along the banks of the Duna. Last year, or the year before? My how time flies when you are having fun.

I still didn’t like her when I heard her about a year later at Godor Klub. I felt she had a lot of technique, but no connection with me as an audience member and I could not figure why people think she is so special. I spoke with arts programmers who told me she used to do throat singing, and this show with the band was a later evolution in her career. Then I learned that she comes from a theater background and I started to view her differently.

When I heard her during Budapest’s autumn festival delivering a solo vocal accompaniment for a dancer, I started to appreciate her talent, creativity and artistry so when I saw her on the Trafo program this Christmas season I marked her concert as an act to see.

She did not disappoint.

Oh no, not with her vocal acrobatics used to deliver a nonsense language she has invented to front her band - but rather with a powerful acapella section delivered in the middle of the program when the musicians left the stage and she was joined with 3 other women vocalists (two of them actresses who sing while the third is Linda Kovacs who is a regular member of her band and has her own band now).

These four women breathed and sighed, hummed and chanted rhythmically and it was a joy to watch and hear in a country where the voices of female artists are always backed by a group of male musicians. For a short while they were joined by two men on percussion to create a collection of sounds befitting any magical moment. (It’s not surprising Erzsi haas composed film soundtracks.)

I like Erzsi so much in these paired down, simple presentations without the band. I will be waiting for news of more of these shows Erzsi calls theatrical performed with these three women. I admire and respect and like this female artist (who has a 20 year old daughter) very much. Bravo!