Top Dogs

It could be that even we ourselves often don’t fully comprehend how many ways the digital age has changed our relationship with music. Nevertheless, there remain themes that simply demand an analogue, more traditional approach. Active since the ’10s, singer-songwriter Gergő Szakács has transitioned over the years from monumental pop sounds to more intimate, live instrumental productions, and this journey will reach its next important milestone at Müpa Budapest.

Formed in New York in 1986, The Klezmatics revolutionised klezmer, the Yiddish instrumental dance music style rooted in Eastern Europe. Now celebrating its fortieth anniversary, the ensemble was one of the first and biggest stars of the genre at the turn of the 1980s and 1990s, around the time when world music was gaining ground as a separate musical category. To this day, the band remains one of the best-known groups on the klezmer scene.

A supergroup assembled to mark the centenary of the birth of John Coltrane, the legendary saxophonist and creator of spiritual jazz. In the words of its most senior member, saxophonist Joe Lovano, the group pays tribute to Coltrane’s compositions, while discovering and expressing themselves in his spirit.