Kristof Bacso Alteregos BMCCD148 : Jazz CD Reviews- 2009 MusicWeb International

1. Egos
2. Pictures From Home
3. Crazy age Children
4. West Balkan Tale
5. Budapest Anzix
6. Game with 6ths
7. Time Snake
8. Chest Pressure
9. Alteregos Coda

Kristof Bacso – Alto sax, soprano sax
Kornei Fakete-Kovacs – Trumpet, flugel
Martyas Szandal – Bass
Ferenc Nemeth – Drums
Arpad Olah Tzumo – Fender Rhodes (tracks 5, 8)
Balazs Kantor – Violoncello - (tracks 4, 8)
Recorded in Budapest - June 2008.
All Compositions by Kristof Bacso

“The challenge for me in this line-up was how the three voices (two winds and the bass), combined with the groove of the drum, could create an organic whole in which a full sound is born without a harmonic instrument, with only melodies: as if the other part were an alter ego”. - Kristof Bocso

The quote above sets the tone of the album for me. Although the standard of musicianship is extremely high, for the most part, I didn’t understand it. This could well be the fault of my own musical knowledge, but the pyrotechnics of these very well educated and brilliant musicians, lacks the soul of earlier generations of jazz musicians. Compared to the Gerry Mulligan Quartet, this music is ten times as intricate and less than half as pleasant to listen to. I fear for the future of jazz if this is the direction the musical educators of our time are driving the music along.

Don Mather

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