21st Century Fusion Music

Zenész (Musician) magazine, 2005

Police are out on the hunt, looking for a serial killer. The delinquent appears to pick exclusively senior managers in the music and record business as targets, and indulges in the habit of leaving the material of a yet unknown jazz album at each crime scene. It goes without saying that this 'evidence' is then subsequently broadcast on television and radio channels as corpus delicti. When at last the serial killer – who is no-one else but the composer of the music – is apprehended, it is discovered that the murderous deeds were committed just to show that a jazz album can indeed enter the realm of commercial media.

- The abstract above constitutes the background story to the latest release of the group called 9:30 Collective, issued under the title of Momentary Fame. Prior to going digging down among the details, here is an introduction to the band by lead artist Endre Huszár.

- The first album of 9:30 was released back in 1998," claims the leader of the group,
the composer of the majority of the tracks, drummer-keyboard player-programmer
Huszár. "From the current line-up, at the time I was already sided with János
Nagy (keyboard instruments), Sándor "Zsömi" Zsemlye (saxophone) and György Szappanos (bass guitar). The album turned out to be a success, everyone was happy, and eventually it worked its way where we ment it to be.

- Where exactly was that?

- It was not an assertive, 'proselitysing' piece of work, we just wanted those who may be interested in such musical genres to be aware of it. Now, this is by no means an easy achievement. We made it, and, even more, there may by now be a broader circle of people who know us.

- A couple of years later, I was idling in a record store checking out one of my earlier
albums, curious to find out how many copies it sold -joins in János Nagy. The storekeeper stepped up to me, stole a glimpse of what I was holding, and told me in conspirational
tones: 'Hmm, that one is by Johnny Nagy, you know, the one who played in 9:30, it is well worth buying...'

- How come that in spite of this the band lapsed into prolonged silence?

- I told the others up front that I planned to issue new releases every 7 years, that
seemed all I could manage -continues Endre Huszár. In the end, it turned out to be that way. In the first place, only a few concerts were organised and played, although if I had had my way, we would never have performed live. The opus was a priori difficult enough to set on
stage, in particular from the technical angle, and I had no desire to haggle over pitiful amounts of money with a bunch of dumb individuals. However, my bandmates proclaimed it as early as during the recording sessions that they preferred to embark on a concert tour. We quit the scene after a few gigs, although 9:30 never disbanded officially. Each year I wrote a single new song, and this brought us now to the publication of our new album. I never wanted to give up totally, espacially because - while we had never played at venues in the countryside – as I roamed around the country, accidentally in every town I kept bumping into people who asked me about when a potential next disc would be coming up and out to grab.

- In addition to the three musicians listed above, another eleven artists contributed to the music on the album, some of them with outstanding reputation, even from abroad. Who are they?

- Altogether four singers participated in recording the vocals. Kozma Orsi, Bea Tisza, Gábor Winand and Desney Baley. I had first heard the latter, an artist from the U. S. with grat renown, singing jazz standards in a trio line-up in Berlin, Germany. I was a bit nervous when I asked her to put in an appearance with us, as our case invloved something apart from traditional jazz, with a multitude of electronic elements, but she insisted that was not really a concern. She nevertheless hastily apologised for not having the time to discuss the matter any, further, as she was already rushing to another show, with DJ's waiting for her at some house party... So hearing our music did not scare her or make her frown. In fact, actually it was her who encouraged me to proceed, and prompted me to complete the album after all. I kept putting off the recording of her part, I even gave her a ring and told her not to come, for her songs were not ready yet. I think she finally had enough of this, so she calmly took out her calendar and told me she had two weeks free on her agenda in June (last year), she would come then, so I'd better be ready with the music by that time. This, then, put me into the obligation to finish the album. There were so many people contributing to it, I just could not tarry any longer.

- As it happened, also four musicians played the bass guitar on the album, quite incidentally. Norbert Marius, a good friend of mine from America, played and recorded his parts two years ago. I happened to work with Viktor Hárs in respect of another show piece, and I came to like one of his songs so much that I decided to rearrange it for our album. Also, in one of the tracks the score required a double bass, which he contributed happily. Finally, besides Gyuri Szappanos Krzysztof Scieranski, my one-time childhood favourite was the fourth bass gitarist. When I composed the corresponding theme, I had him on my mind. In Warsaw, I reminded him of a certain sound on one of his albums that I needed, and he immediately started playing in that mood. Percussions were handled by Sándor Födő and Tamás "Tobzi" Kovács, Frankie Látó played the violin, and Tamás Mohai added the guitar lines for the entire album. I wanted to work with him already on the first album, but it did not work out that way.

- It was a close thing, -recalled Tamás Mohai. I just failed to bring my amp and effects with me. Ok, in all honesty, I was unable to come up with anything interesting for the song in question.

- This is exactly what made me think of him in kindness, -put in Endre Huszár again. He simply said that he was not up to it, and suggested we found someone else as a surrogate. Which was far better than playing something as an alibi, just for the sake of it, with teeth gritted. Later on, we played together in Enikő Almási's band, and now at last he is here in 9:30.

- I was given a second chance. -smiled Tamás Mohai.

- To what extent is 9:30 Collective a band?

- What, or who, can be called a band these days? -riposted the band leader. Bands and groups comprising musicians, artists, performers all exist and work such that in parallel all members appear in other formations, too, each of them digging his/her own separate tunnel.

- Or grave... -interjected János Nagy.

- From time to time bands may still be formed by individuals joining on the basis of friendship or making gains, -picked up the thread of discussion Endre Huszár- but these are no longer bands in the true sense of the word. That is, they do not play two gigs a week or what. One in a month is already a small wonder. And indeed, it pleases us, as it looks like we will have that one montly occasion come to pass before the end of the year.

- Let me rephrase my question. Is 9:30 Collective your own project featuring contributing artists, or is it a band in its own right?

E. H. - At the outset, I kind of wrote my own compositions, but – as time passed – I increasingly insisted on receiving helpful input from others. To be more specific: I was eager to listen to their songs. Or, in other words, I never really completed my own works reported 100 % ready, just e.g., to enable Tomi to usher one specific track in a direction I could never have dreamt of myself. Zsömi, azaz ilyen szempontból zenekari a produkció. Mind you, having mentioned him, the album also boasts as co-author Viktor Hárs, not forgetting Desney Bailey, plus Jani Nagy, Norbert Marius and Zsömi, so, regarding this perspective the output is an orchestral band effort."

- Who actually play during the concerts? I guess you could hardly arrange for 15 performers on a single stage under any circumstances.

E. H. - The three musicians being present during this interview - Tomi, Jani and Zsömi are founding core members. It was not a random choice that their musical instruments were not doubled, or multiplied 4 times for that matter... Before inviting them to attend this session, I gave it some consideration to select who to invite, and I came up with the conclusion that (not counting the violin solo of Frankie Látó) these folks delivered the true improvisations of the album. Desney is still a benchmark inevitable for any show, although her presence is more difficult to arrange, given that she is a resident of Berlin, and I would also like to have Scieranski attend most, if not all, of our stage shows. As it is, our live performances involve at least three-part polyphonic vocals, having obtained recent help from Hajni Magyar and Eszter Váczi of late.

- You have published a so-called concept album. Whence the motivation to highlight the stub story outlined in the introductory paragraph?

E. H. – Me and Tomi pondered the subject a lot and we concluded that the tracks required a story line for cohesion. Having identified it, we came to realise that the whole stuff very much resembled a movie soundtrack, only the actual reels were missing. Given the status quo, we could not direct a feature cinema act to commemorate it, but a cartoon version was eventually released by Balfilm. The company nominated for the Oscar of flash animation numbered a bunch of talented kids, who went straight ballsitic when they heard the soundtrack music and became familiar with the drama. This cartoon was recorded on and distributed along with the album cd; hopefully, one day it will wend its way to cinemas as a supporting movie.

-As to the underlying script, it was usually found to appeal to musicians and the public of media workers, I can only hope that the wider audience will also appreciate it. I do not deem it to be particularly perverted. Our era holds more excentric ones up its sleeve. lehet bekerülni a kereskedelmi médiába. Besides, it is by now an acknowledged fact that music alone will never propel a band ir a song to the stream of commercial media.

- Is this, then, your objective: to ultimately become a part of commercial media?

E. H. - Nnaah, to achieve that, we should really shoot some record company managers... But fortunately no, as it is, it looks like - thanks to the story and the cartoon - we will be able to reach places where such music was never played before.

- We have discussed at some length, but I am afraid the reader still does not have a clue as to the music itself.

- 9:30 Collective play 21st century fusion music, -says Tamás Mohai. Endre is nothing else than a fusion DJ...It happens sometimes that he tricks us, namely when he builds up a song in a way it surprises even the members with the sequence where our tunes join in.

- The album is a musical montage -adds Zsömi. It was an interesting recording session, as for e.g., me, I just got a kind of key note plus the instruction to put in a solo from 2:40 to 9:30, say. No response whatsoever, no feedback, not like when you play live. However, when I finally heard the song there were already these reactions, and the outcome truly astonished me... I no longer heard how much I had to key up myself in order to make progress during the recording session. Besides, this music is more than just a simple mosaic, it is also a sandwich manifesting several layers.

- Given that the story is about how to get a jazz album into the media, to what degree is this music jazz?

- It is jazz to the point jazz exists today...

- Zsömi has the truth of it, -argued Endre Huszár. Surely this music has nothing to do with carved-in-stone jazz. But it is still jazz in the sense that it was performed by musicians who knew what to do in improvised situations.

- You worked in several studios, mixing was done in Poland, the mastering process was completed in Australia. Why?

E. H. - The first mixing round was done here in Hungary, but the result was disappointing. So many wasted efforts sacrificed to produce such a poor sound. In Hungary, there is just no studio where the required technical equipment and the ideal human factor are present at the same time. Either there is some nice gear, or there is a fine sound engineer, and yet the two do not combine, or at least do not come up to our expectations. We then hit the road and went to Warsaw to a place called Studio Chróst where the parts of Scieranski had been recorded earlier. In the meantime, new bits were played and added to the tracks, and finally I had what I wanted: a recording even my grandchildren would be proud of. By the way, it did not cost more than a domestic recording session, Poland is also suffering from the curse of the region, world class quality cannot be sold over suppressed East European prices. For mastering, we called for Americal and Australian offers. The second proved to be more advantageous, because Digisound Mastering were so confident that they made a commitment to work on the first track for free as long as we do not give the go-ahead. We found that the fourth version was already perfect.

- Let us skip back to the story. Why does the hero kill publishers? Recently many artists have attempted to co-operate with record companies, thinking that their enemy was common.

- They suspect the audience perhaps?, -put in Zsömi sceptically.

- This may fall into the scope of another article, but let me briefly argue that not all of our troubles can be blamed on copying alone, -explains Endre Huszár. That has been with us since the time tape recorder cassettes were first sold. I bet you also had more cassettes than vinyl lp's. But think of a truly great album, you did everything to get it, even import the lp from abroad. Now you can hardly find such works at all, in my humble opinion, the vast majority of the current stuff is not even worth a blank CD.

- Do you know why I feel inclined to pull the trigger of that silenced gun in the cartoon?, -raised the rhetorical question Tamás Mohai. In most cases, the staff of publishers are not quite clear about their roles and duties. They do not really experience why they bear a certain title or occupy a specific position. In the old system, an artist had but one choice. In theory, a musicial today disposes of several, yet only a single one seems to be available, due to the people I just referred to.

- Your album was released by Gramy Records. Attila Égerházy can thus expect an imaginary bullet with his name on it?

- No, he is not on the 'list', -answered Endre Huszár. I submitted the material to him and only to him, and I knew his reaction in advance. Just as I am familiar with the business opportunities of Gramy. They do give it a try in earnest, and apart from that they let you work without harassment. They do not attempt to block your path or restrict you in any manner. They would not obstruct or stop us if we had a possibility abroad.

- And do you have some?

E. H. - As it is, I see two potential avenues. We will follow the threads of the German and Polish options of Desney and Krzysztof, respectively. I personally harbour no doubts that this show would be viable abroad. It must be, because if we are content with what we can exploit in Hungary, we will be depleted real quick. We plan to make a European tour of sorts in springtime. No way to kick off earlier. It is not that one concert a month is too much for us, it is rather staging the show that proves to be taxing. It is complicated to adapt the songs to be fit for live performance.

- Where are your intended concert venues?

E. H. - In summer, we performed in Kapolcs and at the Sziget Festival, and by the time this interview is in press, we will be past the album premier, arranged within the framework of the Budapest Autumn Festival. There will be a couple more concerts this year, if everyhting works out fine. Scieranski will be our 'special guest', playing solo before the concert of 9:30 Collective – with such 'package goods', it will be easier to organise a concert. By the way, it is funny that Krzysztof is just the kind of man I imagined having heard his performance. We were introduced in London a couple of years ago by a Polish guitarist residing in London, and our relation has developed into friendship. When I asked him how much he would charge for appearing on the album, he said: 'Come on, don't be a fool'. He crashed to enter our first rehearsal session right from a car trip, driving ten hours or more, and it took him only a few minutes to get on friendly terms with everybody.

- This may be a minor concern, but after several times of listening, it actually annoyed me that there are acts or scenes between the tracks. It seemed all right at first, it helped to grasp the essence of the story, but later I found I only wanted the music.

E. H. - This is inherent in concept albums, Zappa and Prince did the same. If you really hate these interludes, set your hi-fi to play the music only, or convert the piece to an mp3 file to hear nothing but the music. It is envisaged that we will provide the opportunity to order custom cd's from our homepage, including only selected tracks.. Having said 'Internet', by its nature the life of the band is not too eventful, so the site will be developed not just for 9:30 Collective but, rather, for all of the musicians contributing to it. It is meant to be a sort of community portal for these 15 artists.

- A lookout for the next album, please? Will we have to wait another seven years?

E. H. - Huhh, by that time we will perhaps be relagated to the Old Timers' Nostalgy Stage...No, I do not affirm here that our next album will take seven years to finish, especially if out plans work out as foreseen. Because we also want to release a dvd to facilitate promotion abroad. But, if I consider the net time required for preparing an album, it will no doubt take no less than two years. This is a strict minimum to enable us to come up with a production that suits our self-imposed criteria for satisfaction.

György Maróthy