root salad f84 Budapest Ritmo
This year’s expo for Central and Eastern European music had a Roma focus, reports Bas Springer.
al stages were the main impulses for launching the network event and festival Budapest Ritmo in 2016. This year’s third edition, held in early October in Budapest, was focused on the position of Roma in Eastern Europe. The main event was the gala concert of Roma Ritmo, an all-star band with twenty-three fantastic Roma musicians. Younger talents and established world music artists such as Ladysmith Black Mambazo from South Africa, and the Malian Trio Da Kali were also presented to a mix of international delegates and a young local audience.
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In recent years, new local music markets have been organised such as the Atlantic Music Meeting on Cape Verde, Visa For Music in Rabat (Morocco), and IOMMA (Indian Ocean Music Market) on the island of La Réunion, as a reaction to the hustle and bustle of Womex – for twenty-four years now the most important world music marketplace. These smaller events offer a more intimate and laid-back atmosphere, giving delegates more room and time for networking. This description also fits Budapest Ritmo, organised jointly by the Hungarian record label Hangvet and CAFe Budapest, Hungary’s foremost contempo- rary arts festival. For three consecutive days and nights, world music professionals come together for conferences, showcases and concerts in the heart of sunny Budapest.
“Our main goal is to keep the music flowing in and out of the Central European
Roma Ritmo
utting Central and Eastern Europe back on the map for world music professionals and helping local artists on their way to internation-
region. We want to help local artists find ways to global stages, meet various interna- tional people, share our favourite concert experiences with the local public and initi- ate cross-border collaborations between artists, organisers, managers, festivals, and venues,” says programme director Balázs Weyer, one of the driving forces behind Budapest Ritmo.
Up-and-coming bands from such East- ern European countries as Hungary, Poland, The Czech Republic and Slovakia could be heard at the showcase night in Szimpla Kert. This iconic party venue is the city’s most famous alternative nightspot, and has inspired wave after wave of “ruin pubs” that have popped up in the years since it opened in 2002.
Eight bands were selected by an inter-
national jury. The trio Wowakin, founded in 2016, is considered by many as the future of Polish folk music. Last year they made a big impression at Womex in Katowice (Poland). Their three musicians on violin, accordeon, cello, drums, banjolele and vocals bring together their varied backgrounds in classi- cal, jazz and contemporary music to explore the roots of Polish village dance music. They energetically lift the spirit of a traditional village celebration, drawing a new genera- tion of dancers into a trance-like state through inventive, open-ended improvisa- tion on a repertoire of mazurkas, oberkas, polkas, kuyaviaks, and Polish-style tangos.
One of the most interesting bands from
Slovakia’s quickly developing world music scene are Balkansambel, an energetic brass band who mix Balkan music with Slovak folk music, jazz and classical music. Multi-
instrumentalist Marek Pastírik’s composi- tions are refreshingly laced with freestyle improvisations. Their performance was enthusiastically received by the local public and international delegates.
The other two nights were held in the Akvárium Klub, where among those artists one could enjoy Giles Yalo, the Ethiopian singer based in Israel, who put a lot of James Brown soul and funk in his music, and the legendary South African a capella group Lady Smith Black Mambazo, performing for the first time in Hungary. Mali’s Trio Da Kali impressed everyone with their beautiful ren- ditions of traditional griot music. The collab- oration between the legendary Hungarian band (and Womex Award winners) Muzsikás, pioneers of the dance house movement, and the Polish quartet Muzykan- ci was quite interesting. Both bands dig deep into the music traditions of their respective countries, resulting in a wide range of Polish, Hungarian, Roma, Jewish and Balkan melodies. Really charming was the first-ever public performance of rural Roma teenage band Várkonyi Csibészek, who caused a big stir among the audience.
The concert by Belgian Sinti multi-instru- mentalist and vocalist Tcha Limberger was truly impressive. He’s an outstanding musi- cian who learned how to play manouche swing by the age of twelve, went on to fall in love with Hungarian music and even learned the Hungarian-required pick-up Roma music. Backed by Rudi Toni (viola) and Viktor Berki (double bass), Limberger showed all his skills in a mesmerizing concert.
his well-organised third edition in Budapest ended with the unique concert by twenty-three Roma musicians, united under the name Roma Ritmo and featuring the greatest Roma musicians of the past decade including singer Mónika Lakatos, members of Romen- go, Roman Drom, Kanizsa Csillagai and Ando Drom. The show started a little slowly but when the musicians turned up the heat halfway, the Akvárium Klub transformed into a heart-warming Roma party with beautiful Roma songs and spectacular danc- ing – an event you would not soon forget.
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After the festival Balázs Weyer was a happy man: “There was laughter, passion, great music, dancing and tears in abundance – this is the way we love it. For the next edi- tion we don’t plan huge changes. Some new ideas come up every year, but the baseline, the venues and the concept remain the same. Next year’s focus country is Poland.” F
budapestritmo.hu/en/
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