Elek BACSIK, Hungarian gypsy guitarist/violinist

Barengero · March 2006

Hi Steven,

do you know Istvan Lakatos? He must have some rare early Elek Bacsik recordings. Please pm me for email adress if you are interested.

Best,
Barengero

Steve · March 2006

Barengero wrote:

do you know Istvan Lakatos? He must have some rare early Elek Bacsik recordings. Please pm me for email adress if you are interested.

Yes, I know Istvan.

Thanks.

Steven

tzuiop · May 2006

Hi!

Who is from Hungary?:) Because I try to play Hot Club style music here in Budapest, Hungary.:)

http://hotclubofhungary.hu

But unfortunatellyI can not say any better ideas about Bacsik Elek!

Barengero · October 2006

Hi Steven,

can you confirm that Elek is playing violin on this record of the dancers Nora Kovach & Istvan Rabovsky´s Zigani Ballet and the Hungarian Gypsy Orchestra? It was recorded in 1966 and published on the Label "Audio Fidelity" AFSD 6158. The violinist on the cover looks very similar to Elek Bacsik.

If anybody else knows this album - can you recommend it?

Best,
Barengero

Steve · October 2006

Hi Barengero,

Yes, Elek is the lead violinist on this record. I contacted the pianist of this session. You can consult the e-mails that we exchanged on the website of Anthony Barnett : http://abar.net/fbvisupdate.html :

ZIGANI BALLET
New York – ?1966 [or late 1965] – Produced by Nora Kovach and Istvan Rabovsky
Elek Bacsik (first vn), Joseph Axin (second vn), ? (vl), Louis Kallao (ce), Zoltan Zorandy (pn), Károly Szórádi (cimbalom), Géza Lakatos (sb), Georgina Fodor (soprano vc), Tibor Herdán (baritone vc), dance troupe members (vc, tambourine) incl. Nora Kovach, Istvan Rabovsky (featured dancers)
a Zigani Concert Csardas / Szatmar C. Csardas [medley]
b The Old Gypsy
c Darv Madar fenn Az Egen (Swallows Flying from the Sea)
d Csardas Medley
e Csipd Meg Bogar (Pinch Me, Bug)
f Aria from Csardas Princess
g Kisperes Falu Vegen (At the End of the Village)
h Hungarian Medley
i Cimbalom Medley
j Verbunkos (The Dance)
LP
Audio Fidelity ?AF6158 Nora Kovach and Istvan Rabovsky’s Zigani Ballet, The Hungarian Gypsy Orchestra
Audio Fidelity AFSD6158 Nora Kovach and Istvan Rabovsky’s Zigani Ballet, The Hungarian Gypsy Orchestra
NOTE
Uncredited personnel courtesy Zoltan Zorandy. The orchestra is depicted on the LP cover. ¶ “The instrumentation was a version of a Hungarian gypsy band: Elek as lead violinist, second violin, viola, cello, bass, cimbalom, piano. Also two singers, a baritone and a soprano and some members of the dance troupe (one with a tambourine) who supplied some shouting etc. Nora Kovacs and Istvan Rab were the featured dancers (both previous stars at the Hungarian State Opera House ballet corps) appearing at a night club in Manhattan (similar to the Lido on Champs Elysees). I was working at that time in a Hungarian night club called Chardas in New York. I played there with Elek when he substituted quite a few times for the lead violinist. On some of those occasions he picked up the bass and we had a little jam session late at night when few guests remained. He had fantastic technique on all string instruments bowing jazz on the bass also on cello. He also plaid the cimbalom quite well.” – Zoltan Zorandy email to Steven Jambot (10 June 2005). ¶ “Arrangements: No! We did not even know what he’s [Bacsik’s] going to start to play or do next in the live recording. He just started and everybody followed. The Chardas Restaurant was at 307 E 79th Street in the Yorkville (Hungarian–German) section of Manhattan. Its heyday was in the years 1954–1959 when it was one of the “in” places in New York. As a Hungarian refugee of 1956 (age 24) I started to play there in September 1957 until 1962 with lead violinists Rudi Surányi, Kálmán Banyák (a phenomenal violinist) and Elemér Horváth and returned there in 1965–1967 with Béla Babai, another very fine musician (made recordings with him too and played with him as a duo at Jacqueline Kennedy's apartment on 3 occasions in 1966–67, the first of which was an occasion of the birthday of Mathias ?, New York correspondent of Paris Match and frequent companion of the widow, he sang some Hungarian songs for the party)” – Zoltan Zorandy email to Steven Jambot (11 June 2005).

I can't really recommed this album but it's an interesting recording, especially because one can hear Elek playing with a wild acoustic violin technique. That's true hungarian gypsy music but the arrangements are not fabulous.

Best

Steven