Playful and sometimes sharply dissonant melodies that have had every age group humming for at least half a century: the second concert in this year's New Orleans Swing Festival will serve as the official début of the István Gyárfás Trio's recently released album, Cartoon Jazz. “Gyafi”, as the trio's namesake is known, founded his line-up consisting of guitar, double bass and drums more than 30 years ago, and it has been going strong ever since, playing with soloists like Joe Murányi, Carol Cass, Sydney Ellis, Agostino DiGiorgio, Tommy Vig, Boško Petrović, Eldad Tarmu, Kim Hutchcroft and Herbie Mann. The band has already released five other records, with collaborators that include Csaba Deseő, Juli Fábián, Béla Szalóky and the American saxophonist Big Red Ron.
Their most recent album draws from a hitherto unexploited goldmine – the masterpieces of Hungarian animated film music. When recording them, they made every effort to preserve the unique character of the songs - and the humour of the jokes they contain. Discussing his work on the album, Gyárfás said, “I started out by getting in touch with Zsolt Pethő, one of Hungary's finest composers, who was enthusiastic about the idea. He said, 'Gyafi, go right ahead and use my songs! I'm sure it will be great!' Sadly, he didn't live to see the record's release, so with this material, we'd like to pay tribute to his greatness as a musician.”
In addition to these popular Hungarian melodies, the concert will also bring its trademark swing pulsations to music from foreign animated and puppet films, with vivacious improvisations from invited guest soloists. Coming to life on the stage will be the adventures of the Mézga and Flintstone families, Gusztáv, Frakk, Mirr-Murr, Mekk Elek, Dr. Bubó and the Pink Panther, but visitors who are more interested in enjoying jazz of the highest order than in the cartoon theme will have nothing to worry about.

Presented by: Müpa Budapest