Link to record: RIVER
The Nikolett Pankovits Sextet & The River Voices infuse the haunting traditional songs of Hungary with the improvisational imperative of jazz and buoyant grooves of Latin America on River, an album inspired by Pankovits’ unprecedented 2019 production at Carnegie Hall’s Zankel Hall produced by Juancho Herrera.
Obliterating borders, epochs, and stereotypes, they recorded traditional Hungarian music with a jazz ensemble steeped in Latin American rhythms, delivering an intoxicating body of songs rooted in ancient traditions and as fresh as tomorrow’s dawn.
Pankovits has assembled a sextet that reflects the central role of Latin American musicians on the New York jazz scene featuring Colombian-born Juancho Herrera on guitar, American trumpeter Josh Deutsch, Swiss pianist Manu Koch, Venezuelan bassist Bam Rodriguez, and Argentine drummer Franco Pinna.
A brilliant follow up to Pankovits’ acclaimed 2016 debut album Magia, which was also produced by Juancho Herrera.
Her second release 'River' grew out of her hit production Sad But True - interspersed with poems in English by actor Adam Boncz, featuring Latin jazz-inflected arrangements of traditional Hungarian songs which she performed to sold-out audiences in New York at venues such as the Blue Note, Joe’s Pub, and Lincoln Center.
Working closely with her longtime collaborator Juancho Herrera, she featured special guest Ildiko Nagy on gardon, a traditional cello-like instrument played percussively with a stick.
“It was Nagy who inspired me to learn more about folk music,” she says. “I wanted to showcase the five regions and I wanted to unite the Hungarian singers living in the tri-state area.”
Pankovits, Nagy and Boglarka Goldea-Raksanyi spent the fall of 2018 selecting and refining the material for the Zankel Hall concert incorporating elements across the five major regions in Hungarian folk music: Transdanubia, Upland, Great Plain, Transylvania and Moldavia.
Pankovits assembled a female vocal octet featuring some of the East Coast’s finest Hungarian singers, including Laura Angyal, Réka Bányai, Kinga Cserjési, Kata Harsáczki, Ildikó Nagy, Artemisz Polonyi, Boglárka Goldea-Raksányi.
Throughout the first half of 2019 the singers rehearsed weekly, expanding the harmonies and honing arrangements by Herrera, Josh Deutsch, Artemisz Polonyi, and Pankovits.
By the time they got to Carnegie Hall they’d created a barrier-breaking repertoire for both Hungarian music lovers and music fans drawn to creatively charged cross-cultural collaborations.
While the vicissitudes of history have left the Hungarian people divided by statecraft and separated by borders, reinterpreting the music through a New York lens puts the pieces back together, offering a unity that transcends time and politics.
CREDITS
Vocalists: Nikolett Pankovits, Boglarka Raksanyi, Artemisz Polonyi, Laura Angyal, Ildiko Nagy, Réka Bányai, Kinga Cserjési, Katalin Harsáczki
Trumpet: Josh Deutsch
Guitar: Juancho Herrera
Piano: Manu Koch
Bass: Bam Rodriguez
Drums: Franco Pinna
Gardon: Ildiko Nagy
Tilinko: Boglarka Raksanyi
/Overtone flute/
Bombo legüero: Artemisz Polonyi
Actor: Adam Boncz
Special guest: Maria Petras
Poems:
Track 1: There are regions/Vannak vidékek/ by Sándor Kányádi translated by Paul Sohar
Track 8: Since you are nowhere/Mert sehol se vagy/ by Lőrinc Szabó translated by Paul Sohar
Producer: Juancho Herrera
Co-producer: Nikolett Pankovits
Editing: Juancho Herrera
Recorded at East Side Sound & Sear Studio by Duff Harris & Jeremy Loucas
Mixing & Mastering: Dave Darlington
Folk Repertoire Selection & Arrangements:
Boglárka Goldea-Raksányi, Ildikó Nagy, Nikolett Pankovits, Artemisz Polonyi
Photo: Timea Jaksa
Dress: Meyke
Special thanks to Juancho Herrera, Ildiko Nagy, Boglarka Raksanyi, Artemisz Polonyi, Laura Angyal, Réka Bányai, Kinga Cserjési, Katalin Harsáczki, Adam Boncz, Dorottya Mathe, Alejandro Berti, Aron Szekely, Levente Szekely, Branislav Brinarsky, Denes Takacsy, Jake Shulman-Ment, Anna Boros, Paul Sohar, Margit Arnoczy, André Csaba, Tankó Jánosné Gábor Eszter, Szabolcs Molnár, Massimo Biolcati, Miranda Danusugondo, Andrej Tóth, Anna Korolovszky, Csilla Criner, Melinda Madarász, Miklós Mester, Charlotte Madvig Schmidt, Steve Holtje, Astrid Kuljanic, Tímea Jaksa, Katalin Néveri, Máté Vincze, Márton Szegedi, Josh Deutsch, Aquiles Báez, Klára Égei, Tamás Barát, László Bartus, Nikolett Csók, Judit Czakó, Dániel Bényi, Fanni Fazakas, Gabriella Szabó, Anita Bak, Csilla Csűrös, Eddie Rosenstein, Tamás Szebeni, Balázs Horváth, Fanni Kaszás, Andrew Gilbert, Tyler Blanton, Esther Kando Odescalchi, Katharine Bride, Deborah Steinglass.
Thanks to the Carnegie Hall concert donors: Balassi Institute, Elizabeth Rajec, Dr. Ernő L. Holló and Mrs. Irén Holló, American Hungarian Folklore Centrum, Hungary Live Festival, Film Emporium Insurance Brokers, Meyke Fashion, Palinkerie, Andrea’s Chocolate
