There is no need to introduce László Dés to the Hungarian public. He is the founder of world-standard jazz groups, has composed the music for many films, he is the music director of the highly successful Jazz+az which differs from the usual pop market productions in its high standards, and has won numerous awards and prizes.

„In the spring of 2004, my band and I were invited to London where we played music from my previous album, ’Segments’. We played for four days on a stage set up at the historic marketplace of Covent Garden. In other words, we were playing street music, popularizing the genre in the heart of London, in an open space. The band and I felt so much at ease in that unusual and inspiring “concert hall” that I built the material of the new CD on this experience. This is how “Street Music” was born.” – says László Dés, composer.

The story of the Dés-septet has begun in the January of 2003 during the recording of Károly Makk’s film to which László Dés has composed various jazz themes and motifs. At the time of the film recording, he has recorded these chamber pieces on disc with his musician colleagues. This was the material out of which the CD „Segments” was born.

As a result of the succes of the album both among profession and public, the band has given numerous concerts all around the country, in Budapest and abroad as well within the frame of two greatly succesful tours. László Dés and his band has gone into studio to record a brand new studio album as an organic sequel of „Segments” called „Street Music”.

László Dés / saxophone,
Kornél Fekete Kovács / trumpet,
Gábor Juhász / guitar,
József Balázs / keyboards,
Péter Glaser / double bass,
András Dés / percussion,
Elemér Balázs / drum

László Dés recorded his last album titled ’Utcazene’ (Street music) and it was released at Tom-Tom Records. The album gives a special sensation towards the audience that reveals about Laszló Dés’s varied character and outstanding talent. Many fans may have heard the whole album in live, because the recording was followed by a national tour. The first station of the tour was the premier concert within the frame of Budapest Spring Festival. This DVD includes recordings from this concert at the Madách Theater and moments from the Jazz Concert on the Danube. The famous Grammy award winner trumpet player, Randy Brecker performed on this festival too.

„It’s been exactly twenty years since I last worked with Károly Makk in making the film „Another Way”. It seemed then to require great courage to ask a young musician who has just finished his first music for the movie „Without a Trace” to compose this one. But he knew what he wanted and the collective work went extraordinarily. So I was happy to learn that after twenty years he wanted to work with me again.
The film is the drama of two aged man, burdened with sins and treacheries of the past as well as with the confused early-capitalist relations crawling out from the socialism, something that describes Hungary today.

The roles are played by highly qualified actors: Darvas, Törőcsik, Garas, Nagy-Kálózy…, and the story is built from many subtly formed acts. This is what music has to follow, support and counterpoint. Only while working on it did I realise how huge this material was. Only through composition did I understand why the gorgeous editor of the film, Mari Rigó used to say: „László, this is a film that needs music!”
I used two methods of composing and recording the music for the film. I worked a part of it out very precisely at home, but for certain acts I only wrote the themes and figures with a loose structure, and in the studio we played it while seeing the pictures with the other musicians.

It is a hard task that takes lots of concentration, for the musicians have to pay attention to the pictures on the monitor, and not just each other. This I can only imagine performed by highly trained jazz musicians.
There are lots of kinds of music in the film, but due to the nature of movie on most parts it appears only in short segments. These themes were recorded as individual compositions as soon as we finished the film. We were working in a good and quite elevated mood, and I believe this can be felt through the compositions.”

„This is how Segments was born.”

Grateful acknowledgements are due for this to Károly Makk, Mari Rigó, András Bőhm and the musicians working as co-composers on the album.

László Dés