1. Egos
2. Pictures From Home
3. Crazy age Children
4. West Balkan Tale
5. Budapest Anzix
6. Game with 6ths
7. Time Snake
8. Chest Pressure
9. Alteregos Coda
Kristof Bacso – Alto sax, soprano sax
Kornei Fakete-Kovacs – Trumpet, flugel
Martyas Szandal – Bass
Ferenc Nemeth – Drums
Arpad Olah Tzumo – Fender Rhodes (tracks 5, 8)
Balazs Kantor – Violoncello - (tracks 4, 8)
Recorded in Budapest - June 2008.
All Compositions by Kristof Bacso
“The challenge for me in this line-up was how the three voices (two
winds and the bass), combined with the groove of the drum, could create
an organic whole in which a full sound is born without a harmonic
instrument, with only melodies: as if the other part were an alter
ego”. - Kristof Bocso
The quote above sets the tone of the album for me. Although the standard
of musicianship is extremely high, for the most part, I didn’t understand
it. This could well be the fault of my own musical knowledge, but
the pyrotechnics of these very well educated and brilliant musicians,
lacks the soul of earlier generations of jazz musicians. Compared
to the Gerry Mulligan Quartet, this music is ten times as intricate
and less than half as pleasant to listen to. I fear for the future
of jazz if this is the direction the musical educators of our time
are driving the music along.
Don Mather