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Dresch Quartett
Tul A Vizen (Over the Water)
Adyton Fono (Hungary)
Dresch Quartett
Riding the Wind
November Music (www.novembermusic.com)
The Dresch Quartett plays modern jazz that's sometimes based on or inspired by Eastern European folk music. Dresch Dudas Mihaly, who plays tenor and soprano saxes and composes most of the music, has a knack for getting inside a tune and spinning out all its possible variations. The compositions, some of them fairly long, are full of ideas and well thought out, sometimes straddling the crossroads of jazz and folk the way Charles Mingus or Ornette Coleman used to.
The other main soloist, Kovacs Ferenc on violin and sometimes trumpet, lends more of a traditional feel in some of his playing, while Dresch is primarily out of the modern tenor sax school. Bass and drums provide solid support, and the occasional cimbalom passage (also played by Dresch) keeps the ensemble grounded. With its folk roots giving way to quality jazz, this ensemble reminds me a bit of some of Arild Andersen's earlier work for ECM. This is high-quality jazz that is the equal to anything else out there today. - Joe Grossman
Audio: "On the banks of the Maros" from Tul a Vizen
Audio (p)(c)2001 Fono Records, Hungary, used by permission
Tul a Vizen available at cdRoots
Riding the Wind available at cdroots.com
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