Gadó Gábor - Harcsa Veronika Quintet

Shekhinah in 2023 was a further step in this direction, and this year the dialogue between classical musicians and jazz musicians continues in the songs of The Language of Flowers. But while Shekhinah presented Gadó's fresh compositions with lyrics by Veronika Harcsa, The Language of Flowers aims to revive Gadó's compositions from more than two decades ago, set to lyrics by Eszter Molnár, and to perpetuate the era of Hungarian vocal jazz that is perhaps the most famous, marked by the name of Gábor Winand.

Between 2002 and 2006, the Gadó - Winand duo released four albums (Corners of My Mind, Agent Spirituel, Different Garden and Opera Budapest), which took their careers to new heights. The Gadó - Harcsa Quintet have selected 11 songs from these albums, but their aim is not to replicate, of course, but to treat these pieces as they would jazz standards or classical song literature: as melodies and lyrics that anyone can pick up and find their own voice in.

Gábor Gadó and I have worked together for a quarter of a century, releasing a record 25+ albums on BMC Records. He couldn't have found a better partner for reinterpreting the vocal jazz tradition than Veronika Harcsa, who is justly the most popular Hungarian jazz singer at home and the most recognised abroad. In their quintet, János Ávéd, the saxophonist and sound magician already known from Shekhinah and Gadó's other projects, adds a defining colour to the character of the music, while Tamás Zétényi, an outstanding cellist of the contemporary music scene, adds a classical touch.