[Dixielandjazz] Festival in Hungary

[Charlie Hooks]

When I re"enlisted" awhile back, I was determined to remain a 
lurker--like one on welfare, always sucking out and never blowing in; 
but Tomas' posting leaves me no alternative: I simply must encourage 
y'all (I'm a native Texan) to heed his call.

I was one of those fortunate players to have been chosen by Tomas for 
the Hungarian Dance #1992, I think it was: a dance with Mimi Blois, 
in company with the Paul Asaro Trio and "Rusty" Isham Jones II, to 
fly to Kecskemét  and spend a dozen marvelous days traveling around 
this beautiful historic country and playing for Hungarians--which is 
"carrying coals to Newcastle" if I ever understood the phrase!    
Wait a minute!  I'm supposed to demonstrate to Hungarians how to play 
the clarinet?   Forget it!
Mimi Blois to demonsrate piano?  Well now, that's different.  Mimi 
can show ANYBODY how to play the piano.   Former classical player 
turned stride player, her smoking technique and warm hugging 
personality and crazy Quebicois accent all through Hungary made me 
fall in love with her--well, I fell into admiration of her:  I was 
already married and hopelessly in love with my wife.   Otherwise....

I'm trying to say a simple thing:  if any of you can show up in 
Kecskemet--a city that Brahms called  "the most beautiful city in 
Europe,"-- please go there.  You won't regret it!   Tomas will take 
care of you all: in addition to being a marvelous pianist and 
violinist, he is a leader/organizer of genius.

Charlie







On Sunday, June 5, 2005, at 08:08 AM, Tamas Ittzes wrote:

> Dear listmates,
>
> If you care for helping to keep traditional jazz alive in Central
> Europe, please, read on:
>
> As some (maybe most) of you know, we have an international festival 
> (the
> Bohem Ragtime & Jazz Festival - home page at: www.bohemragtime.com) in
> Hungary which is the only festival in Europe (as far as I know) that
> puts emphasis on featuring ragtime, too. We have the 15th Festival in
> March 2006 and since we have a very limited budget, we really rely on
> attendance and especially guests from abroad who generate not only
> ticket sales but also hotel nights etc. thus make our festival more
> attractive to sponsors, too. Anyway, we have printed flyers about our
> 2006 event and would like to mail them around. I definitely will mail
> them to festivals and ask them to make the flyers available to the
> public but also would like to ask all of you if you run (or are a 
> member
> of/or are in contact with) a jazz society that would be willing to hand
> or mail out our flyers, maybe even write a few words about our event,
> please, let me know. We would be happy to mail flyers to interested
> individuals, too.
>
> We not only sell tickets and book hotel rooms but would be happy to
> organize additional programs and give all kinds of help for anyone who
> is interested. All details, application form can be downloaded from our
> website at www.bohemragtime.com - there is information about the coming
> bands (still being completed), photos and even an mp3 file of each
> performer all available for download.
>
> Our festival is a tiny one compared to big events like the greater
> festivals in North America or Breda, Dresden and Ascona in Europe, but
> it has a very friendly atmosphere and the audience is always superb -
> not to mention Hungarian cuisine. Since we have put together a pretty
> good program, we hope to draw a pretty good crowd from abroad, too - 
> but
> we certainly would need your help in this. The line up includes a few
> favourites of the past 14 festivals and also new names to the Hungarian
> audience: three of the greatest ragtime pianists of today (John Arpin,
> Mimi Blais and Morten Gunnar Larsen), the Ophelia Ragtime Orchestra
> (voted as world's best ragtime orchestra in the Mississippi Rag),
> Andor's Jazz Band from Holland, The Belgrade Dixieland Orchestra
> (Serbia), Matthias Seuffert and Herbert Christ (both from Germany) as
> guests of my band, the Bohem Ragtime Jazz Band and many other Hungarian
> performers.
>
> I personally have lost many thousands of dollars on this festival over
> the years but still have the activity, ability and willingness to
> organize it and I certainly hope that we can soon turn it into a
> well-established non-profit festival (so we can always generate a 
> little
> money for next year - last four years we broke even, but next year's
> program requires much more money). Since we still have no budget for
> advertising the Festival too much, this is rather a plea and I hope,
> nobody feels offended by taking it as a commercial mailing.
>
> Thanks,
>
> Tamas
> _________________________________________________
> Tamas ITTZES - violin teacher, ragtime pianist, festival organizer
> Bohem Ragtime Jazzband, Kecskemet Jazz Foundation
> Mailing address: H-6001 KECSKEMET, Pf. 652., Hungary
> Phone: +36(20)82-447-82
> E-mails: tamas at bohemragtime.com, bohem at fibermail.hu
> Web site: http://www.bohemragtime.com
> _________________________________________________
>
>
>
>
>
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>
>
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