News archive - 2009

07.20.2009.

Time Bandits into the frame - July 09

Steve Hackett's blog
Photo © Jo Lehmann

Steve and Djabe in Croatia, Slovenia and Austria

Many moons ago in the early '60s Dad painted an intriguing picture entitled Rooftops of Dubrovnik. I remember the scene as one of his first efforts to grace the family walls. At my young age it seemed to be one of the most distant exotic places on Earth. I little dreamed that I would ever be in that picture...

Last week I joined the Djabe Magical Magyar Tour, once more for a week of blower's heaven. The party gathered in Budapest under sweltering skies for a day's journey from Hungary into Croatia. We passed through mountains and hugged coastal roads where possible, briefly stopping in the beautiful old port of Zadek, for a cordon bleu meal shared with a stray cat or two.

We rolled into our eventual destination at darkest 3am, but awoke in the morning to a fantastic sea view, barren mountains and wooded islands. Across an ancient drawbridge and through several medieval archways lay the town itself, with its many tiny alleyways and ornate buildings. The pride of the Adriatic past on display in 3D, Dubrovnik was just as if Dad's painting had come to life. The terracotta tiled rooftops of the impressive old walled citadel shone in the sunlit view from the battlements where the event took place.

The show went well, Garbor Vermes standing in seamlessly for Tamas Barabas on bass under a starry night as the candlelit turrets looked at a distance as if no time had passed since Richard the Lionheart had stopped over on his way to the Crusades for the odd roast haunch of the equivalent of a double Mac and fries. "Step on it Mac will ya... I've got Heathens to convert..."

Next day the Djabe adventure continued with a hairy journey up the unbelievable Croatian coast, with its incredibly diverse terrain... a moated island of fir trees amidst greenery that looked as if it was afloat itself, like some of C. S. Lewis' descriptions of Perelandra, Silent Planets and science fiction born of unlikely Eco climates that made it hard to tell what was land, what was sea, what was river... and why can't we stop? Because we've got another gig to do!

Another long day's travel, but against the backdrop of such blindingly beautiful scenery we scarcely noticed it was 1.30am as we checked into an old Slovenian farmhouse under the baleful stare of a huge Hound of the Baskervilles lookalike. The place was reminiscent of a cottage from Eastern European folklore, with its low beams, creaky doors and crucifixes. Hammer Horror meets Castle Dracula country by night... by day a Hansel and Gretel gingerbread house meets Goldilocks and the three bears. Goldilocks obviously grew up and became our extremely attentive hostess Helena, who seemed to conjure huge home-grown meals around a long wooden table, with hound in tow, now clearly a pussycat under the surface!

Djabe doesn't just comprise fabulous musicians, Ferenc (Feri) is not only a gifted violinist and trumpeter, but is also an Olympic Kendo fiend. He recommended some practise with one of his wooden swords for a frozen shoulder problem I've got... rounded off with a game of football. For the first time in fifty years I scored a goal. Perhaps it was the only goal I've ever scored! I wonder if Chelsea would be interested in my new found skill?

Whilst Dubrovnik brought back to life a heroic past of galleons, merchant adventurers and Knights Templar, this simple place in the Slovenian countryside really was a glimpse of an ideal childhood Eden wrapped in an evergreen cloak of cosy magic. A slower speed with a forty year old jukebox that at first glance looked like it couldn't possibly work, programmed to take only old defunct Yugoslavian currency. Then suddenly, as if we were catapulted into a Dr. Who episode where time is elastic, the beast cranked into life and burst forth in full cry with the sound of Abba!

The band's outdoor show took place in Slovenj Gradec, with the ensemble turning in an extraordinary performance full of atmosphere and energy, aided by all that Health and Efficiency country air. In the glow of the setting sun, Feri's haunting violin floated over the town whilst Szilard's drums sounded incredible, ricocheting around the surrounding stone arches.

About 6am the following morning I was awoken by a huge thunder clap. Torrential rain accompanied us as we aquaplaned through Alpine Austria to Graz, the scene of the next show. Here was another impressive old city, with ancient Roman walls and medieval brick venue, adapted to the requirements of the Graz Jazz Festival. This was for me the best of the three gigs. My fingers seemed to fly whilst my guitar gave me back more than I asked from her. In short, I had a visit. The spirit who took over was the kind of guitarist I always wanted to be... full of surprises, just like the great team of Attila Egerhazi's, Djabe, as it took the battlements by storm and ingenuity at so many of these shows, where East meets West.

Attila, Feri, Zolti, Aron, Szilard and Garbor, with the ever attentive Réka, all of us shortly about to gig in Italy salute you!

Steve's original blog page

05.25.2009.

Giving it wildly in the Hague - May 09

Steve Hackett's blog

A human whirlwind passes through Holland tearing the air with the sound of a thousand furious blowers at the Hague Jazz Festival. Nobody's feet touches the ground, there's no time. It feels like visiting a whole planet full of musicians who've obviously died and gone on to Heaven.

The omnipresent smell of legalised dope bars intermingling with that of coffee makes the Dutch the hippest nation to visit for a wild weekend. Music spills out from everywhere and on to the streets. Summer just seems to have kicked in big time as an added bonus...

Djabe have invited me to jam with them once more. This time the line up included the great John Nugent on sax who himself organises the Stateside Rochester Jazz Fest and finds time to play with a mere twelve or so of the acts he's promoting on any given year. Djabe combine many free styles but use structure to contrast the more 'out there' moments. Attila Egerhazi, the band's driving force and dynamic bass player Tamas Barabas lead the Djabe parade as founding members. Ferenc Kovacs ('Feri' to his friends) manages to play gypsy violin, jazz trumpet, is an Olympic Kendo champion and makes his own hooch which packs as much punch as his martial arts - in short he is a complete original. The Hungarians seem to combine multiple personalities... Nugent often quips "This guy is the king of Hungary..." Feri is as restless as the Mongolian horsemen of the Steppes. It's probably why he likes to play my piece of the same name.

It's a bigger line up than usual at Den Haag, Djabe playing two nights here at different locations within the same complex. Night two on Saturday was what it's all about for me. You can't tell who's playing who. The violin becomes the voice... the guitar, sax and keys all mingle together and set the crowd on fire as if this kind of music is the oxygen the crowd need to breathe. The more excited the band become, the more the crowd roar their approval. The line up on the Dutch gigs is joined by young Aron Koos-Hutas on trumpet who takes time to build his solos from an apparent centre of calm. He's obviously thrilled to be here too. Then there's the tirelessly enthusiastic Szilard Banai, his drums buckling under the weight of his assault and Zoltan Kovacs, Zolti to his pals, who plays keys with a furious intensity - a classical pianist and another demon player.

Of all the gigs with Djabe I felt that the Sat 23 May show gave me a rare chance to allow the music to play me instead of the other way round. Minimal arrangements and max atmospherics stretched boundaries in a collision/fusion of cultures. I'll always look forward to my times with the free spirited nomadic world of Djabe.

Steve's original blog page

Photoalbum of The Hague

05.05.2009.

Djabe plays at The Hague Jazz Festival

Special guests Steve Hackett and John Nugent

Djabe will play at The Hague Jazz Festival on 22 and 23 May. The festival hosts more than 80 acts in three days. Some of the headliners are: George Duke, Yellowjackets, George Duke, Djabe special guest Steve Hackett, Take6, Klaus Doldinger's Passport, Dave Holland Quintet, Joe Lovano, Dee Dee Bridgewater, The Brand New Heavies, The Syndicate etc.
The classic Djabe line-up will be completed by two fantactic special guests Steve Hackett and John Nugent. Steve played many occasions with his Hungarian pals in the last 12 month in Hungary, Romania, Latvia, Malysia, Bosnia and Herczegovina. The set consist of Djabe stage classics and some penuts from Steve's history like Firth of fifth, In that Qiuet Earth and The Steppes. They gave extremly well recieved shows in the countries mentioned above. The crowd was fallen love with this musical journey from rock, to jazz, via world and blues.

For these shows the Rochester, NY based saxophone player John Nugent also joins. He has earned his reputation as a backing musician for stars like Tony Bennett, Ella Fitzgarald, Clark Terry and many others. In his own quartet he worked with Al Foster and Dewey Redmann.

Djabe are
Banai Szilárd – drums
Barabás Tamás – bass
Égerházi Attila – guitar
Kovács Ferenc – trumpet, violin
Kovács Zoltán – keyboards

special guests
Steve Hackett – guitar
John Nugent – saxophone

The Hague Jazz

02.26.2009.

The snows of Sarajevo - February 09

Steve Hackett's blog

Having just participated in the Organic Art Life Festival with Djabe, my Hungarian pals, I'm trying to get a feel for what life must have been like during the siege of 1992 - 1995 by reading Stephen Galloway's The Cellist of Sarajevo, a fictional snapshot of the Bosnian war based on the true account of a cellist's insistence on playing outdoors for twenty two consecutive days despite the carnage raging all around him... solo concerts with a difference...

During the siege, the longest in modern European history, 11,000 people were killed, including 1,500 children, despite being under UN protection. Bullet holes are immediately visible on many small homes lining the route from the airport and on buildings throughout the city.

The annual Sarajevo Winter Arts Festival organised by Ibrahim Spahic began in 1984 and continued throughout the conflict as both an act of defiance and a refusal to accept war as the norm. Ibrahim's dream acted as an extraordinary beacon of light during the time of troubles. Meeting Ibrahim is like coming face to face with the soul of the place... a man who combines the drive of a hundred other mere mortals. Just this year alone the festival includes music, visual arts, drama and dance with contributions from Greece, Argentina, India, Egypt, Sweden, Korea and Japan, amongst many others.

It was fascinating experiencing Mani Mosaffa's read organ recital beneath the cupola of what was once a Turkish bath. He admitted that this was his first public concert... Music itself is banned unless approved by the religious authorities from the country of his birth. So far he has not been granted permission to perform his hypnotic sustained modal improvisational style in public. I must confess my heart went out to him. It's hard to imagine what life must be like for a modern Iranian musician facing the brick wall of the present regime in his home country.

To give you a picture of the post-war Sarajevo that Jo and I visited a few days ago with the Djabe team, we realised that so much had been rebuilt in this exquisite city of 200 minarets, where East meets West. By night ornate mosques loomed tall beside imposing ancient synagogues and church turrets, floodlit under the snowfall. By day you realise the city is surrounded by forested hills and mountains. Persian exotica lines the alleyways of the marketplace, filled with Aladdin's lamp-styled copperware. Through a courtyard where the strains of Turkish music cast its magic spell, we marvelled at hanging carpets that seemed to fly with the ascending notes... On our first evening Ibrahim took us to a Moroccan restaurant replete with Eastern decor, glowing lanterns, lush cushions and coloured waterfall completing the Arabian Nights theme.

The following day on the way to the concert hall we took in the Princip Bridge, where Archduke Ferdinand and his pregnant wife Sophia were both shot, heralding the start of the First World War.

But on to the gig... Djabe had rehearsed up a great version of The Steppes from Defector days, which on the spot we decided to include in the set. Djabe's material is built around strong themes, periodically jettisoned to allow the many extraordinary soloists free reign on their improvs. I've always thought that the real atmosphere of any show comes directly from the audience, and on the 13 Feb they were with the team from the opening note.

Sarajevo is an extraordinary place that you know has to be experienced in all the seasons. This first encounter in seemingly limitless snowfall was painted in picture book white. After the show even the dead seemed to gain a kind of sparkle all their own, as our bus skirted a snow-bound cemetery under the phosphorescent glow of amber streetlights. Possibly the most beautiful cemetery I'd ever seen... Then we sped passed the Olympic flame warming a couple of vagrants on a street corner, or were they pyromaniacs having a ciggie over a brazier that had gotten out of control?

We hurtled onwards towards the rest of our lives. From 200 minarets to 200 pubs and a thousand years of Bingo in Blighty hovering just around the bend...

Steve's original blog page

02.16.2009.

Dubai is next!

Djabe will play at the Dubai International Jazzfestival, NJG stage – 21^st of February, 11 PM, United Arab Emirates.
To the classic five piece line up will be add Mihály Dresch on saxophone and flute.

Djabe played a succesfull gig in Sarajevo with Steve Hackett last week. The next show with Steve will happen in The Hague end of May.

More details on the tour page

01.13.2009.

Malaysia with Djabe - December 08

Steve Hackett's blog

The invitation to play Kuala Lumpur and Penang Island came from Attila Egerhazi of Djabe a few months ago. Djabe are a talented World Fusion band comprising of Ferenc (trumpet, fugal horn, and violin), Attila (electric guitar), Zoltan (keyboard), Tamas (bass) and Szilard (drums). They are often joined by others on unusual instruments like the cimbalom or Moroccan drums, and they often play extremely exotic locations, such as Outer Mongolia. I sometimes jam along with them, adding the occasional well known guitar bit!

I'd never been to Malaysia before, but just the name Kuala Lumpur sounded like the furthest place on the map from the London fog and appealed to the pioneering instinct. Actually, Kuala Lumpur is not just a collection of mud huts! It is an extremely sophisticated city housing two of the world's tallest buildings, the Petronas Towers.

The flight (over 12 hours) is not for the faint hearted, but Malaysian Airlines were extremely good hosts and very attentive throughout the flight. Jo and I had a good ride, as did my axe that appeared to have been treated gently for a change by baggage handlers.

Next stop Kuala Lumpur itself for a warm up gig with the irrepressible Malik and Carol from the promotions team. Everybody was tired, none more so than Djabe, who were stuck for seven hours (plus lost luggage) in Cairo. At night the decorations at the back of the hotel looked like a Disneyland parade of lights. They don't do things by half at Xmas time in Malaysia!

Visiting the Far East of course means you are wide awake at 2.00 am, when ideally you should be asleep. You are truly dreaming with open eyes or passing out on the street! Say goodbye to normal at Heathrow.

Eight hours in the coach the following day got us to Penang Island via one of the world's longest bridges (about three miles). We joined the coach party along with several of the acts that would be playing the Penang Jazz Festival. Instant rapport with lots of musos from all over the globe including the dynamic Scot Ray Harris who is definitely going places, and the Jaume Vicaseca Quartet from Spain, which had recently reworked many classical Genesis numbers in Jazz style with an album called Jazznesis.

We passed the Tsunami Village Cafe a few paces from the hotel - an ominous reminder of the tidal wave that killed many thousands of people four years ago. It struck the island at exactly the spot where the festival was now in full swing.

Malaysia is an interesting mixture of cultures, colonial, Islamic, Buddhist etc. Where else would you see a woman on a jet ski wearing a burqa looking like the nearest thing to a flying nun? Venuses in veils alongside damsels in miniskirts...

Penang Island offers many exotic things. We blundered into terrapins, monkeys and extraordinary temples. The Kuan Yin temple is fabulous, once you have fought your way past hundreds of vendors! As you ascend your labyrinthine way upwards through narrow passageways it all seems like a scene from an Indiana Jones movie, with stalls of unbelievable colours. It seems to go on forever, but then you're out in the light gazing at flying pagodas and golden Buddhas you feel should surely be privy to only the faithful monks who inhabit this architectural rival to China's Forbidden City. On top of the huge structure the great statue of the Goddess of Mercy Kuan Yin herself presides. It's a Rupert Bear journey - surreal and unbelievable, a floating fortress of dreams. You can't possibly see it all in one go and you'll just have to go back again one day.

The Jazz Festival itself of course had a great vibe because in the tropical heat the crowd and performers were all so open to each other. I thoroughly enjoyed the Djabe gig and several of the other exotic acts, from the exciting funky sound of Ray Harris to the dynamic Aseana Percussion Unit. We tended to all eat communally in the hotel that housed the gig, where spirits were extremely high. Food was a delicious ongoing Chinese buffet of a feast. Organisers, including Paul and Maxine, were a great support to all, and one of them, Elvira, was not just a wonderful bubbly personality, but turned out to have the most fabulous singing voice!

All too soon the party was over. Back on yer heads, lads... and back to the cold and damp of England's green and peasant land. Maybe because I'm a Londoner... until the next Rupert Bear excursion from Nutwood... that's all for now folks!

A big thank you to Djabe and to organisers Carol Chu and Malik Traufiq (Kuala Lumpur) and Paul Augustin, Maxine Murray, Elvira Arul and Chin Choo Yuen (Penang)

Steve's original blog page

01.08.2009.

Djabe starts the 2009 tour in Sarajevo.

Djabe will play at the Sarajevo Winter Festival on 13rd of February in Bosnia.

Steve Hackett joins to the band as a special guest. Misi Dresch (saxophone and folk flute) will complete the grand Djabe line-up on this unique evening.

More deatails on the tour page

01.06.2009.

STEVE HACKETT LAUNCHED A NEW WEBSITE

Steve Hackett launched a new website beginning of this year at www.hackettsongs.com

Steve's opening notes: "Welcome to my new site! Tune in here for the latest news on recordings, touring and all things Hackett related. Like any fledgling site it's a work in progress and will continue to evolve. My new team look forward to having you on board!"

On his new site, in the blog section, Steve wrote about his Malaysian journey with Djabe.

Tune your eyes to Steve's fantastic new site!