[FA Worldmusic] Chalga - world music from Hungary

[Chalga]

Hello over there,

I am running a world music band called Chalga in Hungary. Check us at
www.chalga.hu or at www.myspace.com/chalgaband.
I am interested in contacting professionals and program managers for
concerts, festivals, etc.

Regards,
Tamas Zagyva
Chalga
+36 30 202 37 64
chalga at chalga.hu


"These days arts and especially music are about to find their own Babel:
crossing former boundaries seems to be the way for renewal. The music of
Chalga is a common denominator of musical forms to which an urban listener
is exposed to, so the best approach would be to call it "urban folklore".
Recycled tradition - folk music out of context, mainly inspired by
traditional music, although not being similar to it. It is not similar,
because folk music is only an inspiration: the motifs and melodies may
recall the original structures, but the orchestration is out of style,
contains heavy influences of jazz and rock, and a great amount of good taste
when mixing all the ingredients.

The ars poetica of the band is to bring the different musical traditions and
the big city life to a balance, and find harmony within the effects of
cosmopolitan lifestyle. The title Sabir wasn't a random choice for the
band's debut CD in 2006, it is a metaphor of their music. Sabir or "lingua
franca" was the common language used in the medieval ages for communication
trough the shores of the Mediterranean Sea. Mainly used by sailors,
merchants and travellers this effective means for communication contained
elements from Persian, Greek, Italian, French, Spanish, Catalan and Arabic.

Music of Chalga clears up the Babel of world-music as sabir did amongst the
medieval languages: it reuses only those elements which are inevitable for
accurate communication, presenting only those musical forms which is found
to be significant. It is not dance music (even if "chalga" means Bulgarian
folk-inspired urban wedding music), and it could hardly be dance music for
western audience, since it uses odd rhythms. In spite of being quite dashing
and swinging, it is something you would listen to as well. It is an
intellectual music, with fixed musical structures and some improvisation,
emphasizing the playful side of music. Their instruments include Arabic and
African percussions, guitar, fiddle, saxophone, bass, reusing popular and
less known motifs from the Bulgarian, Macedonian, Kurdish, Cretan, Laz,
Turkish, Tschango and Hungarian folk heritage.

The band is made up of Hungarian professionals, who earned reputation in
such well-known bands like Makam, Ghymes, Folkestra, Arasinda, Borago and
Nox.

The band:
        Anita Hornai lead vocals, flute
        Bori Varga saxophone, recorder
        Barbara Kuczera fiddle
        Tamas Zagyva guitars
        Attila Boros acoustic bass
        Csaba Szegedi derbuka, daf
        Sandor Bencze djembe, derbuka"