Monday, November 21, 2016

USA/HUNGARY: Larry Grenadier, Eric Harland Miklos Lukacs- Cimbalom Unlimited (Bmc Records 2016)

Cimbalom-player Miklós Lukács is undoubtedly one of the most outstanding figures among Hungarian musicians. His unparalleled musicality and virtuoso playing on an instrument seldom used in jazz, makes him a much sought-after musician worldwide. He played together live and on records with the likes of Charles Lloyd, Archie Shepp, Chris Potter, Steve Coleman, Herbie Mann, Uri Caine or Chico Freeman, just to name a few. Jazz is as much of an inspiration for Lukács as classical and contemporary music and is able he to combine almost every genres of music even in one bar or sequence with such an obvious ease that it's impossible to foresee what would happen in the next moment. He is constantly exploring his unique instrument to reveal yet undiscovered sounds of it. For his new album he joined forces with two prominent American jazzmen, Eric Harland on drums and Larry Grenadier on upright bass. I was planning to create something together with Larry and Eric since a while. I knew both of them through Charles Lloyd, and have the pleasure to play with Eric continuously in the last 3 years at the performances of the Wild Man Dance Project. I was delighted when both of them happily said yes to my invitation! The repertoire is comprised mostly of new compositions of mine, specially written for this line-up, along with a few of my former pieces reinterpreted said Lukács on the new project.