For over three decades now, Hungarian guitarist János Bujdosó has left an indelible mark on the avant-garde jazz and rock world of Hungary’s burgeoning musical underground. But even after stints in the bands Adam 30, Pop Ivan and Chakra Hacker, and leading a highly-regarded trio of his own, Bujdosó remains relatively unknown outside of his home country. (More about János Bujdosó can be found here.)
Maybe A Hundred Desires can change all that. I hope it does. János Bujdosó’s latest is his first outing since the 2023 solo disc Sorry But Yes and the first of the Hungarian guitarist’s quartet recordings. It is also one of the finest and most notable pieces of work Bujdosó has waxed to date.
Not only is the program unusually effective and compelling – unlike previous sets of Bujdosó originals, A Hundred Desires is largely given over to covers (and obscure ones, at that) – the quartet Bujdosó has assembled could hardly be bettered.
A key player here – if you’ll pardon the pun – is András Kálmán (Manaky, SunMa), who made a brief, but striking appearance on Sorry But Yes‘s standout track, “Objects for Therapy.” Fortunately, Kálmán is on board throughout the whole of A Hundred Desires: he plays plays piano on “Song of the United Front,” Fender Rhodes on “A Hundred Desires” and “Alvorada,” and Wurlitzer on “Alvorada.”
But the organ is where Kálmán truly excels. He has a real gift for this particular keyboard and it is a sound that beautifully complements Bujdosó in a way this listener has not heard before.
Kálmán’s organ supports and enhances the quartet much in the way Ian Underwood’s did with Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention. Yet Kálmán’s sound has that spacey, ethereal quality Larry Young brought to Miles Davis’s Bitches Brew, the Tony Williams Lifetime and the 1973 Carlos Santana-John McLaughlin disc Love Devotion Surrender.
Kálmán is also quite a bit more playful than either Underwood or Young would suggest, making his interjections rhyme beautifully with Bujdosó’s more even-tempered, serious-seeming pronouncements.
The Bujdosó Quartet is rounded out by electric bassist Dániel Szerető (Rutkai Bori Banda and Bujdosó’s 2019 National Amnesia Institute) – who solos elegantly on “Song of the United Front/El Quinto Reimiento” and, of all things, “Girls Just Wanna Have fun” – and drummer Péter Koncsecskó, the 2021 World Champion in the Open category of the Global Drum-Off.
Also added on several tracks is percussionist Ádám Pettik, who previously appeared on Sorry But Yes‘s “Floating Field of Vision.”
As a guitarist, János Bujdosó has never sounded better than on A Hundred Desires. He is surely as inspired in this company as by this program. While Bujdosó is audibly beholden to no single identifiable influence, he has, to these ears, often suggested a European cross between Frank Zappa and Marc Ribot.
Like those Western players, Bujdosó has the true artist’s need to break down musical boundaries and an intellectual’s desire to express his passions through his art. He is apt – in his playing and his compositions – to suggest folk, jazz, sometimes even classical turns of phrase in a language rife with nods to rock, metal and punk.
But he is a superbly nuanced player as well. While he can summon the furies in a fiery solo, he can likewise sooth the gods with the most tender and heartbreaking of passages. Here and there, he’ll subtly alter his own sound to suggest, say a Hawaiian lap steel guitar (“A Thousand Desires”) or even a banjo (“Hair for Lions”).
II.
Previous János Bujdosó sets were largely comprised of originals, with such evocative titles as “Bondage of Buildings,” “Human Wurlitzer Virus,” “The Holy Left Hand Gives the Finger” and the positively wonderful “Highest Garden in Paradise.” For A Hundred Desires, the program is mostly covers – with one exception. Thankfully, though, none of these are the typically tired Tin Pan Alley standards or the jazz and pop warhorses that are done to death.
Indeed, Bujdosó digs much deeper than usual to compile a much more personal, even somewhat exotic blend of little-known treasures that dot the globe and its history, going as far back as prewar Germany and as recently as an eighties-era American pop hit.
The only real nod to “jazz” here is the album’s opener, the obscure “Hipnosis.” Written by trombonist Grachan Moncur III (1937-2022), “Hipnosis” is what Ben Sidran once called “a snake-charmer of a vamp” in the “Sidewinder” tradition, meaning a catchy sort of way to kick off a jazz album.
The song was originally written as the album opener for a 1967 Blue Note session by saxophonist Jackie McLean (1931-2006) that was not issued until 1978. In the meantime, saxophonist Archie Shepp recorded “Hipnosis” on two occasions in 1975 and 1976.
The disc’s haunting title track was originally written for the 1940 Hungarian film Tóparti látomás (A Lakeside Vision). Composed by Szabolcs Fényes (1912-86), the song – otherwise known as “Száz vágy,” or “Száz vágy muzsikál most az éjben” – was originally made famous by Hungarian actress and singer Katalin Karády (1910-90).
Bujdosó approaches the oneiric “A Hundred Desires” much as guitarist Bill Frisell might a piece of his own Americana: with deep reverence, no irony, and an inspired sense of subtle and impressionistic touches of his own. Kálmán’s terrific solo starts off dreamily – like the flickers of an old movie – before charging into a heady rock-oriented solo.
Next, Bujdosó pairs the German protest anthem “Song of the United Front” (Einheitsfrontlied)” with “El Quinto Reimiento (The Fifth Regiment),” a Spanish Civil War-era battle song. The former was written in 1934 by Hanns Eisler (1898-1962), with German lyrics by an uncredited Bertolt Brecht (1898-1956), while the latter is a traditional song that American folk singer Pete Seeger [1919-2014] recorded as far back as 1944 but was not issued until 1961.
Both, pointed pleas of resistance in the face of great national threats, were memorably covered by American jazz bassist Charlie Haden on his Vietnam War-era debut Liberation Music Orchestra (1970). Little wonder why the Hungarian guitarist revives these songs today.
The entrancing “El Nahr El Khaled (The Eternal River)” dates back to 1959 and was written by revered Egyptian singer, songwriter and actor Mohamed Abdel Wahab (1902-91). Wahab, author of the Egyptian national anthem, is considered the Beethoven of the Arab world.
That Janos Bujdosó even knows about “Nahr El Khaled” is something of a miracle. The song is neither widely available nor particularly well covered – outside of Egypt. But it’s a perfect fit for the guitarist, filled with the poetry of complexity Bujdosó has long evinced in his music and is so ideally showcased here.
“Alvorada,” the Portuguese word for “dawn,” is another extremely obscure beauty by Brazilian composer and mandolin player Jacob do Bandolim (1918-69). The song is a choro, a Brazilian style of music that was popular before the samba, bossa nova and MPB.
Bujdosó makes this song his own. It doesn’t sound obviously Brazilian. But, whoa, does it pack a punch. “Alvorada” transcends a singular style, even though the guitarist opens with what sounds like a sly nod to Vinnie Bell’s twang-y guitar on the “Twin Peaks” theme. Kálmán is on electric piano here, soloing, first and magnificently, on organ and then on the Wurlitzer piano.
The masterly “Hair for Lions” highlights Bujdosó’s singular gifts as both a guitarist and composer. The theme, originally written for a children’s puppet show about a lion cub in search of his mane, is evocative of a hunt. The deceptively simple melody is perfectly abetted by the exotic touches of the percussionists and Kálmán’s organ. Bujdosó’s guitar here is mysterious and magical all at once and evinces a commanding facility for exceptionally beautiful musical storytelling.
“Girls Just Wanna Have Fun” [sic] is, of course, singer Cyndi Lauper’s very first single release and a notable number two-chart topper from 1984. The song was originally a Ramones-style punk rocker, written by Philadelphia-based Robert Hazard (1948-2008). But when the song was brought to Lauper, she modified the lyrics a bit to make it more of a feminist anthem, which is how it is regarded today.
Here, Bujdosó brazenly slows down the tempo, making the song as much of a ballad as Lauper’s “Time After Time” (famously covered by Miles Davis in 1985). The ultimate effect transforms the song in to a whole different sort of anthem – more “Hallelujah” and less “I’m Every Woman” – and recalls Bill Frisell’s audacious reimagining of yet another mid-eighties pop favorite, Madonna’s “Live to Tell.”
Bujdosó curiously offers the song’s only solo to bassist Szerető, who rises wonderfully to meet the moment. This “Girl,” who has not previously had a jazz cover, deserves to be heard. So does the whole of A Hundred Desires.
About the Cover: The surreal cover art for A Hundred Desires comes from one of the images in the terrifically-titled We Anarchists Do Not Fret Moral Maggots, the 2023 multi-channel installation by the pseudonymous experimental filmmakers Igor (a.k.a. Kornél Szilágyi) and Ivan (a.k.a. Nándor Hevesi) Buharov.
For three decades, the Hungarian Buharov brothers-in-art have created many experimental and documentary films, using super 8 camera equipment and equally-retro production techniques. In addition to recording their own experimental music, the duo has also provided visual accompaniment for a number of concert presentations and DJ sets.
It’s also worth noting that brother Ivan, as Nándor Hevesi, was the bass player in Bujdosó’s early bands Pop Ivan and Chakra Hacker.
We Anarchists Do Not Fret Moral Maggots was inspired by the life and work of Emil Szittya, the best-known pseudonym of Hungarian-born writer and libertarian Adolf Schenk (1886–1964). The filmmakers’ installation muses on Szittya’s paintings, fragmentary writings, as well as dreams of his collected during the World War II-era to craft a uniquely “Bukharawian visual world.” Little wonder that this art piece and its concerns resonate with the guitarist.
Here, Bujdosó makes it resonate with listeners as well. Bravo!