Djabe celebrates its 20th anniversary in 2015. The Arany Zsiráf (Golden Giraffe) and eMeRTon Prize-winning group has successfully performed in 42 countries worldwide. At home in Hungary, it ranks among the leading representatives of the genre of jazz/world music fusion. The year 2014 saw the band complete its best album to date, entitled Forward, having long cherished a desire to compose and record material with a symphony orchestra. As the culmination of a cooperation begun in 2013, the musicians of the Miskolc Symphony Orchestra played a key role on Forward, their joint efforts resulting in a world-class record bearing all the unique and familiar hallmarks of the Djabe sound, on this occasion with a classical and crossover slant. The orchestral parts were composed by the band’s main writer Tamás Barabás, with arrangements by Zoltán Kovács.
At this concert to launch the new album, we can also admire the brilliant playing of Baku tar player Malik Mansurov. The tar is an ancient Azeri instrument, which we might regard as a traditional ethnic version of the guitar. Regular Djabe collaborator Steve Hackett has described Mansurov’s playing as a cross between John McLaughlin and Ravi Shankar.

Presented by: Gramy-H Kft.