All sorts of jazz, free jazz and improv. Never for money, always for love.
As You, from 2007, features only two long pieces played by a compact
quartet, plus two others which add tubaist Kornél Pápista. Mezei
obviously attracts players committed to his sounds.
With the five players broken up into duos and soloists, “Rain,
Rain, Rain” and “Thistles”, featuring Pápista are the rousing focal
points of As You. Fast-moving lines which weave panting and pumping
tuba blasts plus staccato bass and cello splashes, the former opens up
still further when Mezei, backed by flams, ruffs and opposite
sticking from Csik, sprays jiggling cross tones like a Magyar Billy
Bang. Switching to blunt rim shots, the drummer seconds a gruff,
growling Pápista solo, while the lower-pitched strings fragment the time
into abstractions. Finally speedy fiddle stops backed by cymbal
clink-clanks recap the head before taking the tune out.
“Thistles”
offers the tubaist an a capella showcase where he manipulates his
lines with the agility of an overweight gymnast on a parallel bar.
Comments on the theme arrive from portamento from the strings without
losing chromatic motion. Eventually a fire engine-like bell and
stop-time tuba blasts introduce Mezei’s fleet piercing solo on
end-blown kaval flute. Finally the theme variant is ripped apart as
each instrument goes its own way only to reassemble for the climax.
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