Rendhagyo Primastalalkozo

In Hungarian, primás usually refers to the lead fiddler of a band, but other instrumentalists, such as the cimbalom player, could equally be the lead musician. Assembled for Primás Parade is a supergroup of musicians drawn from the folk, jazz, rock and classical scenes with a common root in traditional music. An entire primás group does conjure up an Orwellian paradox: everyone is a primás but some are more primás than others. In fact the result is splendidly democratic with Balázs Vizeli (fiddle), Kalman Balogh (cimbalom), Mihaly Dresch (sax) and Miklós Both (electric guitar) doing solo spots in a springy opening legenyes dance. Accompanying throughout the disc is a fabulous trio of violin, viola and double-bass. All the stars get a turn on subsequent tracks with music that's mainly from different parts of Transylvania. Dresch has a Romanian tune featuring furulya (wooden flute), Balogh a collection of cimbalom melodies and violinist Robert Lakatos a suite of dance tunes. Both, who plays in the band Napra, plays traditional tunes from Kalotaszeg on electric guitar to create the most extraordinary track on the album. Presumably also counted as primások (that's the plural) are vocalists Agnes Herczku and Eva Korpás. The latter sings the lovely ‘Megy a Nap Lefele’ (Now the Sun Starts to Set) with electric guitar and sax (the final track on the Hungarian covermount CD on Songlines #66), and they join for a powerful vocal duet from the mountainous region of Gyimes. An inspired take on Hungarian traditional music by master musicians showing a new vitality on the scene.