Gábor Szabó Essay (2025)
Flemm
- Somewhere I Belong (Gábor Szabó) – 12:43
- Galatea’s Guitar (Gábor Szabó) – 10:24
- Mizrab (Gábor Szabó) – 8:51
- If You Don’t Want My Love (Bobby Womack) – 5:36
János Bujdosó – guitar
Béla Ágoston – sax
Dezső Oláh – piano
Modul (a.k.a. DJ Mango) – Akai MPC
Gábor Gergácz – moog bass
Gergő Szőcs – drums
Mixed by Daniel Sandor
Mastered by Dan Smith (DKS)
1-4 issued on Digital LP on November 28, 2025, on Blunt Shelter Records.
“[T]he feeling comes first, not the technique. It doesn’t matter if it’s one note or two notes or ten thousand notes. The way you express yourself is what’s most important.”
The Hungarian guitarist Gábor Szabó was speaking here – in a translation from part of a 1974 interview included in the documentary film “Jazzpódium ’74 – Szabó Gábor (USA) Musora” – of his own unraveling of the mysteries of Hungarian composer Béla Bartók’s music. But the ars poetica of what he was saying was certainly applies to his own approach to music and musicmaking.
A full half century later, these words piqued the interest and curiosity of Hungarian drummer Gergő Szőcs (b. 1990?), inspiring a collective dedicated to exploring Szabó’s all-but uncelebrated legacy.
In early 2024, Szőcs assembled an auspicious and eclectic group of Hungarian musical virtuosos including such underground superstars as Béla Ágoston (b. 1966) on sax (he also plays bagpipes, clarinet and recorders elsewhere), Dezső Oláh (b. 1986) on piano, Modul (a.k.a. DJ Mango, whose real name is Márk Jávor) on the Akai MPC sampler/sequencer and Gábor Gergácz on moog bass.
Such a configuration, though, naturally affords the guitarist a considerable portion of the limelight and Flemm boasts one of Hungary’s best in János Bujdosó. While not particularly well known outside of his native Budapest, Bujdosó (b. 1975) is a remarkable guitarist, who has been involved in a number of fascinating aggregates over the last three decades or so. I’ve previously covered the multi-talented guitarist in such appreciations as Above Ground and A Hundred Desires (2025).
“Mizrab” – video (released March 8, 2024)
Bujdosó (b. 1975) has not previously shown much of an affinity for Gábor Szabó – other than a shared love for modernizing traditional Hungarian fare. Indeed, Bujdosó, who boasts his own signature sound, is a more progressive, some might even say experimental or avant-garde, guitarist than Szabó ever was. Yet, we should all remember that Szabó’s fusions – notably the four tunes covered here – were pretty radical in their day.
It’s hard to believe that Szabó hasn’t had some effect or impact on Bujdosó. But he lovingly honors Szabó’s music without ever condescending to it or mimicking the earlier guitarist’s distinctive sound or style. With Bujdosó on board, and as inspired as ever, Flemm not only celebrates but elevates the music of Gábor Szabó,
What the program lacks in actual tracks is more than made up for in extended songs, with meaty soloing atop lush contemporary finery. It’s something special, but, sadly, not enough.
Things get off to a rousing start with an exciting 13-minute take on “Somewhere I Belong,” originally from the 1968 album Bacchanal. Guitarist Bujdosó dominates here, waxing and waning on effects that recall the simpatico interplay shared between Szabó and Jimmy Stewart on the original.
Drummer Szőcs initiates the proceedings with a groove similar to the one drummer Chico Hamilton laid down on the original “Gypsy Queen” – which is either curiously (intentionally?) missing here – while Ágoston’s sax growls out a bracing solo that recalls Argentinian saxophonist Gato Barbieri. Szabó himself is sampled here, from the interview noted above, discussing Béla Bartók.
“Galatea’s Guitar” – video (released March 7, 2025)
“Galatea’s Guitar,” originally the opening salvo from what is probably Szabó’s finest album, the 1968 Dreams, gets its ominous, slightly menacing groove from the drummer in tandem with Gábor Gergácz’s moog bass. Dezső Oláh’s spiky piano interjections are a reminder of just how infrequently Szabó worked with pianists – at least on record.
Bujdosó offers occasional nods of folkish turns-of-phrase his illustrious predecessor would often employ, even returning to the use of feedback – an effect Szabó, inspired by Jimi Hendrix, was experimenting with at the time he first recorded the song.
“Mizrab” is one of Gábor Szabó’s signature songs. He first recorded it on the revolutionary 1967 album Jazz Raga and then again on the 1973 CTI album of the same name. “Mizrab” stayed in the guitarist’s repertoire throughout the remainder of his career. It is fitting that Flemm would take on “Mizrab,” but what they do with it is inspired and not at all what is expected.
This “Mizrab” is a genuinely compelling and breathtakingly free-form take on the original. Bujdosó may initially state the basic melody on guitar, but he hardly dominates this performance. No one really does. It is a superb group performance of genuine interaction: the push-pull of collaboration and improvisation. Pure feeling.
“Mizrab/Bacchanal” – Live at Budapest’s Gödör Klub, December 2024. Gergő Szőcs and János Bujdosó amaze here.
What this sextet has done here is transform the lovely original in to a whole new work of art. Such is the way painters like David Hockney or Roy Lichtenstein would expound on such a master as Picasso. This is jazz at its very best. I sense that somewhere out there, a certain someone would be very happy, if not just a little impressed.
Bobby Womack’s “If You Don’t Want My Love,” originally from Szabó’s 1971 classic High Contrast (which, of course, also featured the original “Breezin,” a monster hit for fellow guitarist George Benson five years later), seems like something of an outlier here.
But it is exactly the sort of piece that would appeal to both the Flemm guitarist, who goes at it, full hammer and tongs, and the drummer, enhancing the down-tempo melody with a refreshingly – and appropriately – rollicking, soulful twist. Ágoston is again featured in Gato Barbieri-mode, before the song oddly fades at the five-and-a-half-minute mark, seemingly mid-solo.
The Budapest-based Blunt Shelter Records launched gorgeously-produced performance videos on YouTube for “Mizrab” on March 8, 2024 – what would have been the guitarist’s 88th birthday – and “Galatea’s Guitar” on March 7, 2025 (the day before the guitarist’s 89th birthday), while the four-track Gábor Szabó Essay digital album was finally issued in November 2025.
Flemm has performed Gábor Szabó tribute concerts at the Gödör Club in Budapest on at least two occasions (that I know of), in April and December 2024. Considering the near two-year span of time between the initial recording of these four tracks and their subsequent issue, it seems strange that there wasn’t more material recorded. It’s also disappointing that there is neither a physical-media release of Gábor Szabó Essay (yet?) nor any discussion of further Flemm recordings.
Still, what is here is well worth savoring and enjoying. Let’s hope there is more to come.
“Galatea’s Guitar” – Live at Budapest’s Gödör Klub, December 2024