Founded in 1995 by AttilaÉgerházi (guitars) and András Sipos (percussion, vocals), DJABE released a rowof studio and live albums, became the number 1 jazz/world fusion band inHungary and played during these years in 41 countries. These first classmusicians created their own, unique sound. Elements of jazz, rock, Hungarian,European and African folklore are mixed in absolutely natural, organic way. Themore I listen to Djabe music, the more I love it.

Wherever they play, Djabe are alwayswarmly received by listeners and critics. I guess these two opinions sum upwell numerous positive reports:

 "The best band I've ever played with." – Steve Hackett.

"By the end of the concert we will become slightly differentpeople..." –International DVD Magazine.

Attila Égerházi, bandleader,founder member, guitarist and composer, the manager of his own record labelGramy Records, kindly agreed to answer our questions. 

But when we prepared thisinterview it became clear that many questions were already answered ininterviews made for the band’s 15^th Anniversary DVD “Djabe 15”. Thus Djabe musicians, TamásBarabás (bass), Ferenc Kovács (violin, trumpet, vocals), Szilárd Banai (drums),Zoltan Kovács (keyboards), and the band’s friend and long-time collaboratorSteve Hackett virtually joined our conversation*.

Attila, welcome toProgArchives. Last year Djabe celebrated their 15-th anniversary, mycongratulations. Let’s talk about the band’s music, its members, some momentsof Djabe biography and other things related, not necessarily directly, to yourmusic.

Attila, your father was a painter artist, your grandfather was a conductor andmulti-instrumentalist. You graduated Technical University. Was it atough choice to make music your profession?

Attila Égerházi: No, it was easy to choose the music, but was azig-zag way to pull out something really professional.

My approachto the music let me create an exciting music, and I was lucky in finding myband and soul mates, all fantastic professionals.

RalphTowner, Oregon, Jan Garbarek, Weather Report, Genesis and King Crimson arelisted among your influences. But who were your musical heroes when you startedplaying guitar?

Attila Égerházi: My heroes were: Steve Hackett, Ralph Towner,John McLaughlin and David Gilmour.

Let’s turn back to the year 1995. How yourprevious band, Novus Jam, became Djabe? Who offered the name Djabe?

Attila Égerházi: My co-founder band mate András Sipos, or as wecalled him Sipi. He played African, Arabic, South-American and Indonesianpercussions. Djabe means freedom in African Ashanti language. This freedom wasour approach to write and play music. Both of us were self-taught musicians. Wefollowed unconventional writing and arranging way. And still it is, but laterwe added well educated jazz musicians to the band, who could accept ourconcept.

László Zeke: How did you meet first?

Tamás Barabás: First it was only studio work. I think it wasso for Muki (Ferenc Muck) and Feri (Ferenc Kovács) that we got acquaintedduring the studio work.

Then Mukiand I were asked if we wanted to be members.

We said OKand from that point we started doing this 4-member formation.

László Zeke: What was your reason to agree?

Tamás Barabás: It wasn’t an everyday music. Sipi was quite acharacter... He was interesting as a person and as a musician, too.

We foundsome plus in Djabe that other bands did not possess.

To help PA visitors understandhow the band’s sound and ideas developed with time, please give us your long orbrief views on all or some Djabe albums.

Djabe – 1996

I guess first album is very special for anyartist. Please tell some words about it.

Attila Égerházi: This was a fourth CD I produced as a bandmember. In addition on the first DjabeCD all the musicians played, whom I’m worked with on the previous three ones.But the concept and the approach to the music had changed in 1995.

I was afounder member of Novus Jam in 1983.We had a great success in my hometown Debrecenin 1983 and 84. In1985 I had to spend one year in the army as I accepted to the Technical Universityin Budapest.The life of the quartet paused for 4 years.

In 1989 wegot together for some gigs in Budapest.In 1993 the flutist (Judit Gesztelyi) and me recorded an album under Judit’sname. Next year we put together the NovusJam again and released the album “Profiles”. Judit was the one, who metSipi and invited him to join for the “Profiles” recordings in 1994. Wesupported “Profiles” with a domestic tour as a trio. Judit on flute, Sipi on percussion,and me on guitar. The Novus livealbum in 1995 captured the Debrecenshow.

After thisperiod we started to record a new material with Sipi. Judit didn’t like thefresh compositions, and we invited some new musicians to record our new music.Ferenc Kovács on trumpet and violin, Ferenc Muck on saxophone, Tamás Barabás onbass.

TiborKarvaly (violin) and Tamás Rácz (guitar), original members of Novus Jam, also played on this album,which in 1996 released under the name Djabe.In 1997 Sipi and me put together a band to play the numbers of the first albumlive, and to record the second CD.

This wasthe first official line-up of Djabe:

- AndrásSipos – percussion, vocal,

- TamásBarabás – bass,

- FerencMuck – tenor and soprano sax,

- AttilaÉgerházi – guitar.

László Zeke: Who wrote compositions at thattime?

Tamás Barabás: Attila and Sipi, the real core guys.

Attila Égerházi: We used to improvise with Sipi and not only inthe studio.

Then if wethought we had found something good, we would return, record them, and we had arange to select from, to edit.

When acomposition was about to take shape we called the others.

This wasour modus operandi in the beginnings.

Did the first Djabe album change the band’s lifein terms of popularity?

Attila Égerházi: Juventus Radio played the track “Coffee Break” for a year in the selector which means it was on air six times aday.

László Zeke: How did it reach the radio?

Attila Égerházi: We simply sent it to them.

László Zeke: And the video with the bus?

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Attila Égerházi: That is the video of the hit Djabe, which also had a radio friendlyversion.

It doesn’tfeature percussion, it is based on groove but there was djembe obviously.

Coffee Break was better received in the media, it was onmore times, but we preferred Djabe,that’s why the video was made. I think it was a work of professionals. I still havegood feelings watching it, I still think it kept its ground. It is quite rarethat a non-pop band shoots their video onto 35mm film then edits it in aprofessional environment.

We wantedthe whole thing to be humorous, that’s why we had the bus, the dancer girls,the fun…

Theaudience loved it.

So ourfirst so-called concert at Petőfi Hall was sold out so much that people werenot only sitting but standing, about 1200 people were there.

Today itwould be harder to attract 1200 people as easily as the music we play now iscloser to jazz. Our fan base was much bigger than today. However, I always usedto say to produce good quality, something of a high standard, make good musicbecause we love it. And then we found the place of the music we play nowadays.

This isjustified by our concerts abroad. The music we used to play in ’98-99, in 2000 we probablycouldn’t appear at renowned international jazz festivals where quality isimportant.

At thattime my idea was to create a real show, something professional and enjoyablefor the audience so that they wouldn’t get bored.

László Zeke: How many of you were on stagethen? How big was the crew?

Attila Égerházi: Four of us played the music and there wereabout six or eight dancers. Gábor Bakó was the choreographer and used to dance,too. His students formed the dance group. We devised part of the show when thedancers entertained the audience beside us. I think it was a good thing but ourgigs would be strange with dancers today.

Are there any stories behind funny titles ofthese two pieces: “Late Night Drink” and “Hangover”?

Attila Égerházi: No. I don’t drink alcohol, maximum one beer aweek. I don’t like spirits at all. When we finished those numbers, these titleswere match with the mood of them. “Hangover” is a parody of a drunken trumpetplayer.

From the very beginning all Djabe albums arereleased by the band’s own label Gramy Records. Did you try to deal with otherlabels before or you initially wanted “to hold all cards in your hands”? DidDjabe already have then, in 1996, their own recording studio?

Attila Égerházi: I never wanted to sell our music to otherlabels. I never wanted to present to record business people how good we are. Inever wanted to be auditioned. I got the model from Frank Zappa. I built arecording studio in 1997, I recorded all the gigs with my own equipment, I runa records label, etc.

During thetime of the first Djabe album the Gramy Recording Studio was just a plan, so werecorded it in three other studios in Budapestand Debrecen,and some guitar parts at home.

WitchiTai To – 1998

Attila Égerházi: WitchiTai To was a composition I first heard by the band Oregon then Jan Garbarek at the DebrecenJazz Days live. When my band took shape, I felt the urge to cover it. I foundSipi suitable to sing this song as it was his world.

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I alsochose this the title song because I believed that if there’s a completelyunknown band, it can be guessed what music it plays as the song Witchi Tai To was well-known.

I alsothought it would be good towards abroad by giving an international taste to theproduction. It’s not English, Witchi TaiTo is an intermediate choice. My best experience regarding Witchi Tai To was in Portugal, in Porto Covo. We hadbeen invited to a world music festival. Our concept was that once we were at aworld music festival, we should play more world music than jazz. It was thenthat after a long pause we put Witchi TaiTo into our set and I remember the audience received it very well and thenit found its way back to our standard repertoire.

First compositions written by Tamás Barabás forDjabe appeared on “Witchi Tai To” album. A year or two later he became,together with you and András Sipos, one of the main authors in Djabe. Did otherband members encouraged him to compose or he offered his own pieces and ideas?

Attila Égerházi: Tamás worked on the recordings as a soundengineer as well, not on the first ones but he recorded most of our secondalbum.

Instantlyhe found himself busy with arranging the music.

With hisknowledge and professional approach he wanted to make the tracks also moreprofessional which resulted in him writing numbers, or rather we had mutualcompositions.

Ly-O-LayAle Loya – 1999

Attila Égerházi: It was in fact a more conscious choice than Witchi Tai To. The concept with Lay O Lay Ale Loya was also to increaseour popularity, position our band with a well-known world thing. By then Tamásand I had discussed matters, the music we wanted to play, how to makerecordings, and then I showed him this track. He got interested and it was himwho arranged our cover from this authentic Indian theme.

Tamás Barabás: This was the album where I started arrangingthe music, getting involved.

Attila Égerházi: There was a tour to accompany this album.

We carriedon with the show and the lighting system.

But wereplaced the dancers with projection. By Tamás taking a larger role in thearrangement, he brought more themes and he formed the final characteristics ofthe tracks. We wanted to illustrate and support the music by the projection. Infact, this was the point when we reached a summit in that kind of arrangement,mentality and we took full advantage of everything we could, and then we had tochange.

Tamás Barabás: We had no problems with the instruments butthere were the four of us on stage. We had played so many different instrumentsat the studio that it sounded empty on stage when only the four of us played.We came up with the idea to have a lot of percussion backing tracks, maybe wealready had keyboards then, and then we would play to it.

We were abit restricted this way and we had to know the structure of the songs verywell. The tape would obviously not adjust itself to us if we happened to wantsomething else, like a longer solo. Practically, the arrangements went beyondthe point when four people could play them.

Attila Égerházi: We basically had the need of musicians.

Update– 2001

Up to this album the line-up was completed – ZoltanKovács (keyboards) and Szilárd Banai (drums) joined the band.

László Zeke: How did you and Sipi got used toeach other? Did you feel any tension? Or any problem caused by it?

Szilárd Banai: There was no problem. But I felt a kind of, Idon’t know, not rivalry but something on Sipi’s part.

Attila Égerházi: He tried to achieve new things. Tomi (TamásBarabás) also tried to build up the music so that the two would complement eachother. I remember we were playing exactly at the Steve Hackett press conferencein 2004, and I don’t know which musician said, the bass guitarist from thatband that he liked this two-drummer line-up. There is a drummer with massivedrum kit and a percussionist and they complete each other so well, and therhythm section is very strong. Sipi was also a soloist, so occasionally hestood centre stage and sang and did a percussion solo, while Szilu (SzilárdBanai) was giving him the base to which he could put even more.

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Ferenc Kovács was in the band from the very beginning, but he did notplay with Djabe after their debut album. And in 2001 he returned.

László Zeke: With this row of people as we’resitting here, with the featured musicians and Sipi, the first album to berecorded was Update. What did it feellike participating in it?

Ferenc Kovács: It wascurious to work with a band again and it felt like home. I also felt itcomfortable. I had never been served so well as a musician. The backgrounds,the organization of the tour, and the sound surroundings on stage are all veryimportant for a musician. Even more so for those musicians who widen theirpractice methods and reinvent their relationship with their own instrument.

So theykeep evolving and don’t want to stop. As Attila has said, some were fine withsimply doing gigs only. But the band made a great step forward and I still liketo listen to that album, my children adore it even.

László Zeke: Am I right in saying that Update was a kind of spontaneous musicmaking as well?

Zoltan Kovács: No, for me it was exactly the Update tour that was incrediblydisciplined and precise. I had much more to play on the keyboard that was partof the compositions. I had to play at a given place with a given tone.

Tamás Barabás: We were so afraid of having a drum kit and thepiano after the band sounded with Ferenc Muck, the lineup of four. We somehowincluded the piano a bit anxiously.

Then wesampled a nice little nursery tune into LeadSoldier played on the piano.

It was thenthat we began to appreciate the sound of the piano. It was then that werealized how this sound would work in our music.

Táncolnak a kazlak / Sheafs are Dancing – 2003 (CD andDVD-Audio)

The album is inspired by painting arts of Attila’sfather, Imre Égerházi (1925 - 2001).

Imre Égerházi (http://www.egerhaziimre.hu/) had a rare talent tosee miracles in ordinary things – in his paintings details of landscapes can looklike human faces and figures, sheaves begin to dance and eyes tell more thanwords can say.  

[Note: following this link http://www.egerhaziimre.hu/eletmu.php you can look at manyImre Égerházi’s works, just select time period in the field Időszak.]

How the idea came to life, how it was supportedby the band and received by your listeners.

Tamás Barabás: Attila and I had this idea independently.There was that sad event and the paintings were given. We somehow came up withthe idea separately to write compositions to the paintings. Obviously, therehad been a kind of thing like this in the course of history but we also wantedto try it. I didn’t believe it would work so well. It happened like this:Attila showed me some pictures, the better known paintings, and also some lessknown ones. I chose a few and wrote my compositions to them.

The pictureentitled Iceworld was also featuredin a booklet. [In 1988 Imre Égerházi wasin the state of clinical death on three occasions. He painted several picturesof these experiences.] I put the picture in front of my keyboard, I waslooking at it, and the way I pressed the first chord started it all. So allthis worked very well, that painting captured my imagination so.

When thecomposition was done, it touched everyone, especially those who had anear-death experience. There was a man at the press conference who came up tome and said he had had an experience like this and when he was listening to thesong he got the shivers. So there must be a connection.

Ferenc Kovács: We wereexploring something different. It made a disc like Sheafs possible to come out which is one of the summits of theDjabe quality. On it, it was real world music. We put our personalities intoit, the artistic concept itself, which didn’t require a foreign language or aforeign culture but our own. The tracks reflected on the wonderful paintings ofAttila’s father.

This albumproved Tomi to be breaking new grounds compared to Update.

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“Sheafs are Dancing” was the first Djabe recordwith Steve Hackett, one of the most respected musicians in prog community. HowDjabe met Steve?

Steve Hackett: Well, it’s been a long time since I’ve beenplaying and working with them and I think I must have heard something on recordfirst of all but originally I met Attila when it was – he was a distributor forsome albums of ours. So first of all I met him as a record company and westarted talking, and I found out more about the group and I found itfascinating, the concept of this entirely fluid band that just adds and changesmembers all the time. It’s a very interesting concept; it’s a very, very goodidea.

László Zeke: What was your first impressionabout their music?

Steve Hackett: Well, I thought it was very free and I thinkthat the more I saw of it live the more I realized how free it was. When Ifirst heard it I thought it was very tightly arranged and in a way it’s becomefreer since then so it’s developed over time.

László Zeke: I thinkthe music of Djabe is a very nice combination of jazz, the world music andtraditional authentic music. How can you find your role in thisinteresting mixture of cultures and music?

Steve Hackett: Well, I’ll tell you what I often do: if I hearsomeone doing an interesting sound I sometimes try to create almost like a sortof a wasp behind them of a similar sound so you can’t quite tell who’s doing what.I like it when instruments start to sound like each other. We’re not quite surewho’s who. I’ve always enjoyed that when two instruments create a thirdinstrument. So part of what I do is cloaking and masking what goes on.

It’ssomething which is presented in a way where there’s lots of room so anythingcan happen. And I think the best music is like that where it’s not so much theset moments but the moments of happy accidents that are happening the wholetime. And I love the fact that there’s so much exotica within the concept of itbecause you know at times it’s truly free, and I wish I had more of that withmy own band. I always feel it’s implicit or incumbent to be doing things thatare recognisable. Whereas I think most musicians would always prefer to bedoing something new so that fits. In that way Djabe fulfils that need forsomething new the whole time.

Djabe toured with “Táncolnak a kazlak”programme, it was filmed and released on “Sheafswere Dancing” DVD (2006)

You used screen projections, animations andsurround sound on this tour. Please tell some words about these concerts. 

Attila Égerházi: At first, it was me who came up with lightingideas but Tomi got interested soon as well. And I felt it did good to talk itover more. Especially when we devised the SheafsAre Dancing tour, it needed a great brainstorming as it was a process thatthe album was done to paintings. It was also an extra that we released our discinto a book in which you could see the paintings. We also thought we could domore live. We projected films and we didn’t stop at the paintings, they werefollowed by similar ones and themes attached to them. My father used to makesuper8 films a lot, so we had footages linked to the paintings.

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Our ideawas to play a two-hour video that wasn’t so tight, it was more like moodsexcept for Iceworld, in whose case ananimated video was made. Iceworld wasone of the paintings made after the near-death experience and there were sixother paintings as a series. My father always used to say that he would painthis short footage like experiences as he could but, it would do better if theycould be made into a real film instead of a still like paintings, because hewatched short “footages”.

Heexplained them on cassette and with the help of voice recordings an animationteam at Focus Fox Studio lead by Csaba Vass created the animation.

We weren’tcharged for it, they loved the idea so much. We played live at the concert tothe video.

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The realextraordinary thing was that Tomi and I came up with a system how to make itsound in surround, in 5.1 live. We wanted our band to sound like this, how doesit sound on the DVD Audio version of SheafsAre Dancing, we didn’t want a simple, stereo soundscape but the audience tobe surrounded by the music, because we thought they would have an even moreinteresting musical experience if they heard everything better. Moreover, thissurround environment, which is brought to life by effects, backing tracks, evenwith the moving of the instruments around, provides a more interestingexperience.

We devisedand built our own audiovisual system. A Mac computer with Protools controlledthe band, the sound and the video. So we created a complete multimedia systemon our own, but it was the band of course the essence of it because we playedthe whole album live to the computer provided audio and video backgrounds.

Attila, I know your father was fond of Djabeand often attended your concerts. Did he encourage you to be a musician fromthe beginning of your career or it took time for him to see that his son foundhis place in life?

Attila Égerházi: No. He said to me: Do what you like, and youwill find your way. The things will turn out themselves.

He washappy, that I choose architecture first as a profession, because this is closeto the fine art. But at the end he was happy with my musical activities too. Hewas happy with my results and I could support him with my company too in hislast years of life.

Where are Imre Égerházi’s works now? Is theresome permanent exposition? 

Attila Égerházi: He has a memorial house in his hometown,Hajdúhadház, with more than 100 very important paintings. He gave a whole lifetimecollection to the Deri Museum in Debrecen.His paintings can be found in several Hungarian museums, The National Galleryin Budapest,different institutes and collectors. The family also has a more than 1500-piececollection with oils, monotypes and graphics.

Some later albums were also released both on CDand DVD-A. Is Djabe the only Hungarian band recording albums in surround sound? 

Attila Égerházi: Not the only one, but I don’t know other bandfrom the jazz, world and rock scenes. Akos, a very intelligent quality pop starand producer made several surround recordings too.

Slices of Life – 2005 and Take On – 2008

Tamás Barabás: Slicesof Life was the first album where I tried to transform the compositions inarrangement and in sound to prepare them deliberately for our gigs abroad. Wehad seen what they wanted there. You have to play a bit differently at a jazzfestival than at your own gigs. Everyone was aware of it in there solos, too…

It had tofulfil the requirements of that atmosphere.

So it wasall conscious.

Thefollowing album, Take On representsalmost the same attitude. You realize exactly at these stages of theinternational tours what works well.

We almostcome up with these ideas on stage what suits everyone individually in the band.

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Attila Égerházi: In the beginning, when these gigs started, wehad to apply our older numbers to fit these festivals. It was exactly Tomi’sidea to create pieces so in the first place and then we wouldn’t have much leftto do at a festival. You can discuss whether to make certain parts longer orshorter, but you don’t need to transform them. The new compositions wereconsidered from this point of view as well.

Djabe recorded an impressive number of livealbums and videos. I believe this record, dedicated to your late friend AndrásSipos, is very important for Djabe.

Sipi Benefit Concert (featuring Steve Hackett) – 2009, released as 2CDand 2DVD

Please share your memories of that evening,when lots of friends came to say their last farewell to András Sipos.

Zoltan Kovács: We all you know it, and in my view, we alltalk about him in remembrance as if he was still with us. He is still notfeatured in the Djabe stories as a separated part. Well, while Djabe exists,I’m sure it will stay so.

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László Zeke: For me – it’s my personal view –the most memorable part of the Sipi benefit concert was Sipi himself playing inthe background. Those who don’t know much about these things or not a musicianmay not appreciate what a big achievement it is to play with a video. Becausehe should accompany the group. It was incredible to see how it can be done livethat someone who’s not alive can play on the video in the background and theband plays in sync with him.

Attila Égerházi: He watches over the band and when he’s needed,he joins in.

This was,so to say, the most defined part of the evening. It caused this fantasticfeeling to everyone, and everyone got wings. Our special guest, Steve Hackettgot such wings that he stayed with the band.

László Zeke (question to Steve Hackett): You offered that you would come to Budapest. Attila told that it would be greatbut they couldn’t pay in reply. The only thing you wanted to know is the exactdate and place of the concert. Why did you feel that was so important for youto be here in Budapestfor that occasion?

Steve Hackett: Well, Attila is a great friend and so all theguys in Djabe. I’m incredibly impressed by all of them as musicians, they’reall fabulous. But more than that, I have an idea that in the ideal world, musicwould exist without money. It’s not, it’s not about the money I think for mostmusicians, I think it’s about the chance to create some magic together, thealchemy of it, a spontaneous gesture, the ability to be able to surpriseyourself, and I have to say that although I’ve been a professional musician formost of my life, and I’m 60 now, I think the times that I’ve enjoyed best onstage were the times when I was improvising and there was no money involvedwithin whatsoever. It was just something that happened where the instrumenttook off in my hands and I was just there to try and hang onto it as it tookoff. So sometimes you get the feeling that you have a visit from someincredible guitarist who takes over from me and does something that surpriseseven me. And I live for those moments. When that happens, that’s incredible, Ijust – if I could exist like that the whole time that would be Nirvana. Perfection.

Djabe recent live releases In the footsteps of Attila and Genghis –2010 (2CD) and Jubilee double DVD Djabe 15 (2011) also feature Steve Hackett

Djabe often tour with Steve. How it is to workwith him?

Zoltan Kovács: He’s a very-very good, kind-hearted person,and as a musician I feel absolutely secure when he’s on stage with us. Youcan’t detect uncertainty in the Djabe tracks, which is not really his music. Hecan bring an essential colour to it, and it’s a very important plus. When webegan to play his numbers, we realized that experiencing them internally, thewhole material is very good, a very serious cohesion. I love to play Steve’smusic very much.

Szilárd Banai: He reacted to all of us perfectly. He is anabsolute musician. It is very rare if someone joins an existing production, thewhole thing changes completely.

Tamás Barabás: He didn’t have to give us musical instructionsor the other way round, somehow the whole thing fit. He is a personality, whenhe appears, the band is more disciplined in their play, it is obvious as werespect him very much. Even more, since we got to know him as a friend. He is afriend now.

László Zeke (question to Steve Hackett): You are not only a studio star guest of Djabe. You’ve taken part inconcerts several times, for example in London orin Graz; in Romania more than 13 thousandpeople saw your concerts. Which performance was the most memorable for you andwhy?

Steve Hackett: Well, you know we did a tour a while back andgot to visit extraordinary places. You know we got to play in – Sarajevo wasextraordinary, you know beforehand we didn’t now if – I had a piece of myequipment missing and I didn’t know if it was all gonna function. You know itwas on a knife-edge and yet the concert was extraordinary.

At the endof the day, you know the message of music is that – and especially with Djabe –is that I feel there would be no nationality or race that would be excludedfrom playing with this you know it really is world fusion. You know it rangesfrom Morocco to Azerbaijan to Americato England.And that doesn’t stop, that’s I think that’s a very great thing.

László Zeke: Nowadays, we can hear Genesisadaptation in the concert. How does it sound from the Djabe?

Steve Hackett: We’re about to do it now. It sounds likeGenesis plus. You know it’s Genesis but in another way, on a grander scale.

Genesis wasfive guys when I joined, then it became four guys, then three guys after I leftand then it became I think two guys. But you know my idea for Genesis was Ithought we should work with lots of people. You know there should’ve been aGenesis orchestra at the end of the day but it’s – Genesis had the oppositephilosophy and I doubt that there will be any more from Genesis ever again.

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There are some heavy and rocking compositionson Djabe live albums with Steve. Can we expect heavier sound on future Djaberecords?  

Attila Égerházi: Djabe means freedom. It means nothing isdirected in advance for us and the audience. So, some heavier bits arepossible. But this is not the way we walk.

And some questions not only about music

Do you remember the moment when you realized:Djabe is a strong band and it has its own identity (or perhaps you knew it fromthe start)?

Attila Égerházi: I felt good from the beginnings, but theinternational success of the Updatealbum convinced me, to try ourselves in abroad.

Some musician said that it’s easier to composea piece than give it a name. Titles of many Djabe tracks (“Above The Skies”,“Distant Dance”, “Winter Forest”, “Clouds Dance” etc) help the listener toimagine some picture. Were such pieces composed with some images in mind orinitially the music was abstract and entitled later?

Attila Égerházi: The music is coming often with visuals. Ifnot, we can name it later.

Arrangements. Main band’s arranger now is TamásBarabás. Does it mean he makes all arranging work or it is a collective processand each musician brings his ideas?

Attila Égerházi: I record my ideas with my own, or with some ofthe band members, and then I present them to Tamás, who works out, and finalisethem.

He works differentlyon his own tunes. He records everything with midi, and then asks the musicians to learn the melodies and add their own solos.

Tamás Barabás is now one of the best soundengineers in Hungary.As far as I can tell, good sound producer should have deep knowledge not onlyin music, but in technical side of recording process, equipment, acoustics etc.You are also producing Djabe records. Did you and Tamás have formal technicalstudies or your achievements in this field are a result of practice andself-education?

Attila Égerházi: We have our own recording studio, which is oneof the best in Hungary.This is a big adventure. We learnt everything in practice.

Is Djabe a democratic band (i.e. to includesome new piece in the repertoire is the whole band approval necessary)? 

Attila Égerházi: Djabe is a kind of a family. But my and Tamás’influence on the music, set and plans are determining.

Biographies of Djabe members can be found here:http://djabe.hu/biografia_eng.html, but I can’t skip the question about Ferenc Kovács (violin, trumpet, flugelhorn,vocals).

The listof his talents is unbelievable: musician and composer, key member of numerousmusical projects, a European champion of kendo, an active kendo trainer, heproduces famous wines, prepares meals, makes rustic carved pieces of furniture.Each of this occupations can take the whole life, do you have any idea how hecan manage all these things?

Attila Égerházi: He is an extraordinary person. Steve Hackettis amazed by Feri. If he was born in the USA, he would be a World Star now.But he rodilszja [“was born” in Russian]in Hungaryduring the communist era.

Accordingto his bio, Ferenc Kovács graduated as a trumpet teacher. I don’t know anyother musician who plays such different instruments like trumpet and violin. Andhe is so good on both of them that Archie Shepp tells about Ferenc: “Apart frombeing one of the best violinists of the world, he can play the trumpet likeMiles Davis.” When Mr. Kovács started play violin and did he have teachers?

Attila Égerházi: No he is a self-taught on violin. TheHungarian ancient violin sound is circulating in his blood.

All Djabe albums, including live and clubreleases, have perfect sound. Who is the man behind the desk, responsible forconcert sound?

Attila Égerházi: Gábor Zrupkó is a member of the band from thepoint of view of the sound. What you hear and what we hear on stage depends onhim.

The successof the band, that both the audience and we enjoy the play depends mostly onhim. His role is not a spectacular one as he’s never on stage but it is evenmore important. That is why we try to take him with us everywhere, andsometimes we get silly messages why we want to bring our own technician whenthey have a very good one, too. But that technician can’t be the best if hedoesn’t know the band and our compositions as well as ours does, it is impossibleto fulfil the task, it’s impossible. That is why I credit Gábor as part of theline up most of the time.

Djabe are extra class musicians. To be alwaysin a good form, does the band spend much time for rehearsals and practicing oninstruments?

Attila Égerházi: Yes, we are all practicing, and makingrehearsals before the shows. But the best rehearsal is the concert.

Do youand other Djabe members have time for listening music of other artists? Who are your favourite Hungarian and international bands (artists)now?

Attila Égerházi: Feri doesn’t listen to any music recently. Heis practicing all the time... I listen to different kind of music, from BrianEno to Pat Metheny. Tamás and Szilard are listening jazz mainly, and Zoltan alot of classical. But we all listen to Steve Hackett’s music in the tour bus.

Are your friends and families interested inDjabe music?

Attila Égerházi: Yes. Djabe is part of our life.

How it is to be a musician in Hungary? Is it possible to makeliving only by playing music?

Attila Égerházi: Very hard. Unfortunately it is very hard tolive from music only. We all need to do something else. Teach, work in otherprofessions or do many studio or live sessions.

Does Djabe have sponsors?

Attila Égerházi: We have some sponsors and governmentsponsorship, but small part of the real costs.

Does Djabe have radio- and TV-appearances now?

Attila Égerházi: We have a good PR, but the commercial radiosplay other type of music. We do not make compromise with Djabe. We play what welike and feel good.

Did Djabe have negative experience withpromoters (the band not get paid, bad equipment, technical and organizationproblems etc)?

Attila Égerházi: We have good and bad experiences both. In Russiatoo.

Illegal distribution of music via internet is areality of our days. Some artists are strongly against it, some tell “dowhatever you want with our music: upload, download, burn CDs, just don’t sellillegal copies”. What is your point of view on the problem? 

Attila Égerházi: If somebody is stealing your property it is acrime. The music is the property of the author, the musician and the recordlabel. The digital world collapsed the business, and the income of themusicians. Why do we like it?

Can you call one Djabe piece which is in youropinion the band’s visit card?

Attila Égerházi: Djabe.Unfortunately Sipi sung it. Maybe I’ll try one day...

Please tell some words about Djabe futureplans. Can we expect a new studio album?

Attila Égerházi: Yes a new studio LP is coming. In addition the5.1 reissue of the Update album willcome out February 2012 with many audio and video extras on double DVD. We havejust finished the Slices of Life tourDVD production as well.

What is Djabe for you and your band mates: onlya group you are working in or it’s a circle of friends as well?

Tamás Barabás: When we were looking for band members ourprimary goal wasn’t to check what kind of musician they were. The reason whythis band still exists and hasn’t broken up is because we have become onefamily. We have said it many times before.

Attila, I thank you for theinterview and wish Djabe to conquer new musical heights and visit as manycountries as possible.

Let me quote your friend, tar player from Azerbaijan,Malik Mansurov: Notevery band gets the chance to give a jubilee concert. Many musicians or bandleaders dream of a band which can get to their 15 or 20-year anniversaryconcert… This is a great thing.

Itobviously depends on every member, but I think it depends mostly on theirleader. If the band leader is a good person, a good musician, and sensitive,this can all be achieved. I wish them further jubilees. A 20-year anniversary,a 25-year one…

Peace and love!

Djabe page on ProgArchives: http://www.progarchives.com/artist.asp?id=5019

Djabe official website (English version): http://djabe.hu/index_eng.html

Djabe CDs, DVDs, solo works of the band members and collaborators can beordered from any corner of the world via Gramy Records website: http://www.gramy.com/rendeles.php

Special thanks to RitaGueuth (Gramy Records), without whom this interview would not happen.

* -fragments of László Zeke’s interviews with Djabe and Steve Hackett used by theband’s permission