I first saw Pulcinella at the Perpignan Jazzèbre Festival in France in 2007, and immediately fell in love with their music, which is partly contemporary jazz, of a kind and with an approach I really like, and partly a music theatre filled with grotesque movement elements from the commedia dell’arte. An important, likeable characteristic of the Pulcinella phenomenon is that their humour never detracts from their seriousness, and the young musicians give not an iota less as regards quality.

So it was with great pleasure that we invited them to the 2008 MEDIAWAVE Festival, and quickly enquired whether they would be interested in cooperating creatively in a musical workshop with Hungarian musicians of the same stamp. For many years MEDIAWAVE has encouraged workshops, based on sufficient rehearsal (i.e. not remotely like a jam session) in order to foster the integration of Hungarian jazz musicians into the European circuit.

After receiving an affirmative response, we chose the band Dzsindzsa, which though almost unknown on the jazz stages in this form, counts amongst its members the greatest talents of young Hungarian creative jazz.

Here were two teams, with different cultural backgrounds, but with almost same musical spirit, full of vigour, between whom a fertile meeting took place and at the end of the three-day session of work together they gave a successful closing concert at the festival.

The sharpening of their panther claws continued in 2009, and this time the joint project was even recorded with participation of BMC and MEDIAWAVE, and, we hope, is the first phase in a series. We launch this special Hungarian-French coproduction in the solid faith that the panthers’ play will be just as lasting an experience for listeners to the CD as it has been for concert audiences.

Jenő Hartyándi
Festival Director, MEDIAWAVE
translated by Richard Robinson