TITOK
Ferenc Snétberger  guitar
Anders Jormin double bass
Joey Baron drums
 
ECM 2468
Recorded and mixed  by Jan Erik Kongshaug at Rainbow Studio Oslo.
Produced  by Manfred Eicher 
 1. COU COU  02:53  2. TITOK  02:18  3. KÉK KERÉK  04:01  4. RAMBLING  07:22  5. ORANGE TANGO  05:13  6. FAIRYTALE  05:24  7. ÁLOM  07:05  8. LEOLO  05:53   9. EASE  05:23  10. RENAISSANCE  05:14  11. CLOWN  05:09  12. RUSH 01:53  13. INFERENCE 02:16
 
Music by Ferenc Snétberger  
except  Cou Cou, Titok, Clown and Rush by Snétberger, Jormin and Baron
 
INTRO
 
Hungarian guitarist Ferenc Snétberger made a lot of new friends with his ECM solo debut In Concert (“a beautiful, assured performance” – All About Jazz) and will make many more with Titok, which features his trio with Swedish bassist Anders Jormin and US drummer Joey Baron.  Recorded at Oslo’s Rainbow Studio in May 2015 and produced by Manfred Eicher, it’s a warm and involving album, with an emphasis on intensely melodic improvisation and interaction which draws the listener gently into its sound-world.  The rapport between Snétberger and Jormin is evident from the outset, as both guitar and bass explore the contours of Ference’s compositions. Throughout, Joey Baron’s drums and cymbals provide shading and texture with restraint and subtlety.
 
Press Release  ECM
Ferenc Snétberger
Titok
Anders Jormin
Joey Baron
 
Ferenc Snétberger: guitar; Anders Jormin: double bass; Joey Baron: drums
 
ECM 2468      CD 6025 5740661 0     Release: 21. April 2017 | USA  2017-06-02

Hungarian guitarist Ferenc Snétberger leads a trio with Swedish bassist Anders Jormin and US drummer Joey Baron in this warm and involving recording, produced by Manfred Eicher in Oslo, and intensely melodic improvisation draws the listener gently into its sound-world. The gracefully flowing guitar (Snétberger has a way of making even complex phrases seem effortless), the enveloping rhythmic undertow, and the highly creative playing from all participants captivate throughout Titok. There is soloistic brilliance here and high-level interplay, and the music takes the time it needs to unfold, breathing very naturally. The compound sound of the trio, with Ferenc’s acoustic nylon-string guitar partnered by bass and drums, is special. Joey Baron shades and colours the music with great subtlety using brushes, sticks and hands, and the rapport between Snétberger and Jormin is evident from the outset, as both guitar and bass explore the contours of Ferenc’s compositions. “The dialogue here between classical guitar and Anders’s way of playing the bass seems to me unique,” observes Ferenc Snétberger. “Anders has a special ‘voicing’, a special way of entering into my music. And, together, he and Joey offer inspirations which are mirrored in my playing. Manfred’s participation was also inspiring – without his ideas, and his choice of pieces and the sequencing of them, the album could not have existed in this form.”

 
The producer recommended Jormin and Baron for this project and the trio came together to play three concerts in Hungary before the session at Rainbow Studios, where spontaneity was the watchword. The album is framed by music freely created in the moment: the opening piece “Cou Cou”, the title track “Titok” and the three concluding pieces “Clown”, “Rush” and “Inference” are all improvised discoveries. The sense of searching and finding in the opening moments gives way to the clearly etched melody of “Kék Kerék”, a rather beautiful older melody of Ferenc’s. “Rambling” is the first of several pieces written for this trio, the writing leaving space for bass and drums to add their statements. The tenderly phrased “Fairytale” likewise invites Jormin to add countermelodies in the deep end. “Leolo”, dedicated to Ferenc Snétberger’s grandson Leo, begins with nursery rhyme melodic simplicity and develops into elegant chamber music, including a fine section with Jormin’s arco bass…
 
Ferenc Snétberger’s thoroughly distinctive guitar style has been gradually shaped through the absorption and transformation of many influences. Born in 1957 into a very musical family, Ferenc had classical guitar lessons from age 13, and studied jazz guitar in Budapest. Based in Berlin from 1988, he began to harmonize the full range of his guitaristic interests, from Django Reinhardt and Roma music to Brazilian and other Latin American musics via US jazz and European classical tradition – from the baroque to contemporary composition. “Alom” on the present disc is an adaptation of an old theme referencing Roma music, while “Orange Tango” and “Renaissance” acknowledge their inspirational sources in their titles. Yet none of these pieces sounds “eclectic”, the diverse sources are integrated organically inside Snétberger’s music, and accessed readily through the guitar. (Throughout Titok, Ferenc plays a guitar hand-built to his specifications by the late German luthier Tom Launhardt.)
 
Titok is the second ECM album by Ferenc Snétberger. It follows the critically-acclaimed In Concert, recorded at Budapest’s Franz Liszt Academy of Music (“A beautiful, assured performance” – All About Jazz).
 
Anders Jormin and Joey Baron have appeared on many ECM records, but Titok marks the first time they have played together on a session for the label (they have periodically crossed paths in live contexts – playing for instance in trio with the late John Taylor). Jormin has made several albums as a leader for ECM, most recently Trees of Light, with singer and fiddler Lena Willemark and koto player Karin Nakagawa. His other discs include Xieyi, In winds, in light, and Ad Lucem. A long-time member of the Bobo Stenson Trio, he also appears on albums with Don Cherry, Charles Lloyd, Tomasz Stanko, Sinikka Langeland and others.
 
Joey Baron has been John Abercrombie’s drummer of choice for two decades and appears on the Abercrombie Quartet’s newest release Up and Coming. Baron is also currently a member of the trios of Jakob Bro (album: Streams) and Gary Peacock (albums: Now This and the forthcoming Tangents, due this autumn).
 
Plans for further Snétberger concerts with Jormin and Baron are currently being worked on. Meanwhile, Ferenc also fronts an admirable trio with British bassist Phil Donkin and New York-based Hungarian drummer Ferenc Németh, which recently brought some of the Titok repertoire to Europe’s clubs and concert halls. In October 2017 Ferenc Snétberger will tour in trio with Anders Jormin and Ferenc Németh.
 
 
 
 
 
 

SNÉTBERGER | FENYŐ | ORCHESTRA | MÜPA BUDAPEST | OCTOBER 24

SNÉTBERGER | FENYŐ  | ORCHESTRA | MÜPA BUDAPEST | OCTOBER 24

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MÜPA BUDAPEST with Students  | 2024 September 2

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Duo With Anders Jormin @ JazzFest Budapest | 2024 April 28

SNÉTBERGER BRIDGES KONZERT MÜPA BUDAPEST 2021.10.21.

SNÉTBERGER BRIDGES KONZERT MÜPA BUDAPEST 2021.10.21.

GLB JAZZFESTIVAL ITALY | September 2016

GLB JAZZFESTIVAL ITALY | September 2016

BUDAPEST| ASSISI SANT FERENC CHURCH |2016-10-01

BUDAPEST| ASSISI SANT FERENC CHURCH |2016-10-01

TITOK ALBUM RELEASE TOUR OCT. 17

TITOK ALBUM RELEASE TOUR OCT. 17

FERENC SNÉTBERGER- TONY LAKATOS |  FRANKFURT AM MAIN | GETHSEMANEKIRCHE | NOVEMBER 17

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with CONCERT BUDAPEST  & ANDRÁS KELLER  AT PALACE OF ARTS IN BUDAPEST

JTI TRIER JAZZ AWARD 2018

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Tehran | Festival SHOW OF HANDS  | Septemeber 2018

MOSCOW | TCHAIKOWSKY CONSERVATORY | OCTOBER 2018

MOSCOW | TCHAIKOWSKY CONSERVATORY  | OCTOBER 2018

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Hamburg | Elbphilharmonie | Trio feat. Anders Jormin  Joey baron | Febr. 19

Budapest | Liszt Academy | Oct. 19 with Arild Andersen & Markus Stockhausen

Budapest | Liszt Academy | Oct. 19 with Arild Andersen & Markus Stockhausen

Zsidó Kulturális Fesztivál 2015

Zsidó Kulturális Fesztivál 2015

Franz Liszt Chamber Orchestra I Budapest National Theater I 2015

Franz Liszt Chamber Orchestra I  Budapest National Theater I 2015

Open Air Concert I Eszterházy CastleI I Snétberger Quartet & guests I 2015

Open Air Concert I Eszterházy CastleI I Snétberger Quartet & guests I 2015

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Snétberger I Anders I Baron I zeneakadémia 2015

Budapest I Liszt AcademyI Snétberger Quartet I Markus Stockhausen 2014

Budapest I Liszt AcademyI Snétberger Quartet I Markus Stockhausen  2014

Pécs I Kodály Központ I Quartet & Michel Godard I 2014

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Open Air I Budapest I 2014 I Concerto Budapest I Quartet I Michel Godard & students

Open Air I Budapest I 2014 I Concerto Budapest I Quartet I Michel Godard & students

Budapest I Liszt Academy I 2013

Budapest I Liszt Academy I 2013

with Richard Bona, Pécs, Kodaly Center, 2013

with Richard Bona, Pécs, Kodaly Center,  2013

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Berlin, Philharmonie, KMS, with Nádor String Quartet, 2010

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TRIO NOMAD | FEAT. ARILD ANDERSEN & PAOLO VINACCIA |  VESZPREMFEST 2005

Berlin 1988 © Gyula Traumberger

Berlin 1988 © Gyula Traumberger