Djabe: Witchi Tai To 2015 edition
GR-111-5, Deluxe Mediabook, 64 pages, LP size – 2CD, 2 DVD
The monstre re-release of the award-winning Djabe album of 1998, which is considered a milestone to jazz/world music has come out. The mediabook packed four discs with the remixed version of “Witchi Tai To” contains more than three hours of previously unreleased extra material like video clips, interviews, unreleased live audio and video recordings, hundreds of unseen photos and interesting articles about the award-winning album and the Djabe. All this contained in a luxurious LP-sized high-quality book, 64 pages long.
András Sipos, also known as “Sipi” an actor-musician man above the ordinary, met Novus Jam band led by Attila Égerházi in 1994, the band he also became a member of. Following two albums they started a new project in 1995 under the name “Djabe”. The original musicians of Novus Jam and new jazz musicians who later formed Djabe, played together on the debut album released in 1996. Following the success of the first album a huge need arose for the live introduction of Djabe’s music world - and for that a permanent line-up was also required. The formation with Attila Égerházi (guitar), András Sipos (vocal, percussion), Tamás Barabás (bass guitar) and Ferenc Muck (saxophone) started to perform in 1997, and this line-up considered to be the first classical formation.
The unique music has been accompanied by special visual world since the first gig. The high standard stage visuals were provided by the Vari*Lite lighting system. The ballet led by Gábor Bakó completed the show.
1998 was the year of completion of the second album – first as a complete line-up – christened Witchi Tai To after Jim Pepper’s never fading classic. This was the way Sipi and co. helped record stores position the band in genre and as a performer. Album special guest was Ferenc Snétberger, world-renowned guitar player, the legend from Trio Stendhal.
The second record of Djabe sports a well thought-out and mature concept. Characterizing the musical freedom of Djabe’s then on board members Witchi Tai To (and the following Ly-O-Lay Ale Loya) mixes repetitive tribal rhythms harmonizing with various continents’ folklore music and established forms of tunes with pop music and popular jazz and funk elements. The outcome is just awe-inspiring. Success was so exuberant it literally blasted the Hungarian pop market. Witchi Tai To today is considered a musical milestone and a fundamental work.
The album received the Hungarian Music Award in world music category as the “Hungarian Album of the Year”.
In 2015, 20 years after the founding of Djabe Witchi Tai To got re-released in the form of a Deluxe mediabook. The LP-sized 64-page hardcover book thoroughly introduces the whole era.
The first CD and DVD introduces the classic album remastered by Tamás Barabás, many hidden ear-candy brought forward on the surround DVD. The 2-side DVD (DVD10) was already published in 2014 with quality accustomed to Djabe: side one with real DVD-A (complete album in 5.1 MLP Surround and 2.0 MLP stereo 2bit/96kHz format), side two with standard DVD-Video (complete album with 5.1 DTS Surround, 5.1 Dolby Digital Surround and 2.0 PCM Stereo 24bit/48kHz format) and further interesting extras.