Hungarian, Serbia-based violist-double bass player-composer-improviser Szilárd Mezei recorded two studio albums with his new quartet – Mezei on viola, vibes player-percussionist Ivan Burka, double bass player Ervin Malina, drummer-percussionist István Csík, all are long-time associates of Mezei and Malina and Csík played in Mezei Trio since 2000, at Studio Fluid & Antirfiz Film in Novi Sad, Serbia in January 2023. The first album, Old Book for Quartet, is dedicated to percussionist-composer Ross Aftel, who contributed liner notes to a few albums of Mezei, including one of these albums. Both albums enjoy the cover artworks of Mezei’s mother, graphic artist Erzsébet Mezei.
The title of Old Book for Quartet suggests that the music was inspired by folk music, but the music sounds timeless and flows and is articulated in a modern, dramatic and passionate, free-improvised manner. This chamber quartet explores its unique instrumentation, its gentle-resonant, melodic-harmonic and rhythmic possibilities as well as the exquisite, timbral qualities of the acoustic instruments and its own way of sketching Mezei’s, nuanced story-like textures. «Áldozat / Sacrifice» and «Hetedik / Seventh» bring the quartet to its most propulsive, cathartic mode that cements its poetic gifts. Mezei is the obvious leader of this quartet and the eight pieces he composed for this album enjoy the strong rapport of these long-time comrades and are packed with restless ideas that drive the quartet in open and playful dynamics to color and expand them. But, as in all projects of Mezei, he always opts for patient and attentive, collective dynamics.
The second album of the new quartet, Jaguar-Flower, is dedicated to graphic artist Zoltán Bicskei, who did a few cover artworks for Mezei’s mentor, Hungarian free jazz pianist György Szabados. The atmosphere of this album is more introspective and retrospective as the quartet visits Mezei’s old pieces that were recorded before in live settings but, now, in their studio adaptations, are dressed with the vibe of a powerful free jazz quartet. The quartet opens with a 29-minute version of «Hep 35», part of Mezei’s «Hep» series of compositions that explore strong melodies played in unison and large segments of improvisation, which was originally recorded live by the new quartet in 2019 in a shorter version (Hep 191030 M (part 1) (2021). The following «Jaguár / Jaguar» was originally recorded live by Mezei Quintet in 2005 (Cerkno, Leo, 2007), the folky ballad «Sárgabarackvirág / Apricot Flower» was recorded live by Mezei’s The Identity Dream Quartet in 2013 (Sárgabarackvirág, 2013) and the last piece «100 tű hossza / Length Of 100 Needles» was recorded live by Mezei Septet, with Malina and Csík (100 tű hossza, SLAM, 2012) and in Live at BMC Opus Jazz Club (2018).
Mezei offers an unconventional chamber trio on To Whom It May Concern, and features himself on the viola, with flutist Svetlana Novaković (who has played before in Mezei’s ensembles) and guitarist Maja Radovanlija. This is the sophomore album by this trio, following Fehér Virág (White Flower in Hungarian, SLAM, 2016), and it was recorded in August 2021 in Zenta/Senta, Serbia, and, again, enjoys, a cover artwork of Erzsébet Mezei. The trio plays seven compositions of Mezei, all highlight the collective, improvised dynamics of this trio and the patient development of its folk-tinged, delicate and emotional melodic themes, as they breathe and blossom. The unique instrumentation of this trio perfectly counterpoints each other without dominating the personal voices and always stresses the trio’s collective-attentive dynamics.
The pieces evoke old music, and, obviously, the legacy of Hungarian folk music, and the works of modern Hungarian composers like Béla Bartók and Zoltán Kodály, and Nezei’s mentor, Szabados, but sound fresh, sensual and untimely, and flow naturally with their evocative, conversational improvisations. The title piece is dedicated to Mezei’s father, and «Második kóan / Second Koan» is dedicated to Hungarian cellist Albert Márkos, a close associate of Mezei, and these are the most touching, melancholic but beautiful pieces here, but this album ends with a hopeful note with the playful «Május volt / It Was May».
Eyal Hareuveni
Szilárd Mezei (viola), Ivan Burka (vibraphone, percussion), Ervin Malina (double bass), István Csík (drums, percussion), Svetlana Novaković (flute, alto flute), Maja Radovanlija (acoustic guitar)
