Bluesmen's World(Music)

A portrait of a musician. An unconventional folk music album. These recordings introduce Géza Potta and his music, a rural Gypsy violinist (prímás) from a village in Abaúj (the region straddling the Hungarian-Slovakian border south of Košice). He is the kind of musician who could have been found by the hundred in the olden days of Hungary. They spent their whole lives serving and entertaining their village audiences and were esteemed members of the community when there was a constant demand for them and their music. However, after this demand diminished their musical knowledge was no longer handed down and now only a few of them are left – among them one of the most accomplished and versatile of musicians, who can be heard on this album.

Professional Gypsy musicians depended on their musical activities to earn their livelihood, the bulk of their income: the better they could satisfy the demands of their customers, the more invitations they received. This is the reason that these musicians are not strictly “traditional”, since they adjusted their repertoire to fit the prevailing expectations. The wider the range of music a musician could present to his audiences and the greater the number of melodies he knew, the more he could earn – regardless of the age or the intrinsic value of the tunes. This “musical multilingualism” also characterizes the repertoire of Géza Potta. At a wedding party authentic folk songs and “composed songs” (songs composed in folk style) sat together perfectly well, side by side, and completely different music accompanied the merry-making of, for example, the Gypsy and the Slovakian populations. In this respect, this album endeavors to paint a complete picture, presenting something from each musical world. After all, musician, a village “informant”, is not a nameless individual who only “provides” information, but a creative artist who produces something new and unique fro the musical tools at his disposal, weaving his own personality and musicianship into his performance. This is especially true of Géza Potta and his violin playing.

01. Csárdások simán (lassú és gyors csárdás)
02. Sipljakate, sipljakate... (cigány nóta)
03. Potta Géza zenekara 1986-ban (lassú és gyors csárdás)
04. Motoris, motoris... (cigány nóta)
05. Ciriklóri, miriknori... (cigány hallgató, lassú és gyors csárdás)
06. Cigány foxok
07. Áji nóták (lassú és gyors csárdás)
08. Hallgató és györkei verbunk
09. Libás nóták (lassú és gyors csárdás)
10. Bakanóták (lassú és gyors csárdás)
11. Duvás nóták (szlovák krucena)
12. Cardas a szlovákoknak (lassú és gyors csárdás)
13. Bolyongok a város közepén
14. Kincses Kolozsvár
15. Ó, mano, mano
16. Bugi
17. Balogás emlékére (cigány hallgató,lassú és gyors csárdás)
18. Pimasz vagyok mostanáig
19. Pimasz emlékére (magyarbődi csárdások)

Potta Géza - voice, violin
Ádám Béla - voice, cimbalom
Dzsuga Géza - viola, contra violin
Jano Ferenc - viola
Badó János - double bass
Badó Elemér - double bass

Link

pass: bluesmen-worldmusic.blogspot.com