The enigmatic figure of French composer Erik Alfred Satie has been a magnet for many different artists. From the iconoclastic American composer John Cage who said that “Satie is indispensable”, to the jazz multi instrumentalist Jusef Lateef or the blues/rock/jazz band Blood, Sweat & Tears that recorded their own renditions of Satie’s most famous pieces, the Gymonpedies. Not to mention the recent 2022 Deutsche Grammophon’s Fragments album release, where artists from the electronic music scene revisited works of the French composer.
Hungarian drummer and composer Balázs Bágy adds his name to this ever growing list of musicians inspired by Satie; he was at the Kumu Auditorium in Tallinn to present his own interpretations together with his quartet consisting of himself, Sándor Soso Lakatos (alto saxophone), Dezső Oláh (piano) and Péter Oláh (double bass).
As announced by the band leader, the concert was split into two parts. First one featured the quartet playing pieces either by Satie or inspired by him. The second half instead featured different material coming from the band’s Decade album (released when the ensemble turned 10 years old).
Satie’s most iconic and known piece, the Gymnopedie #1, opened the concert followed by Gnossienne #3 and Gnossienne #1. The pure Satie-trademark tunes shared the same build up: the mellow, soothing melody played by the alto saxophone taking off from the pulsing work of the rhythm section. Once the theme was introduced, the musicians took turns in soloing in the most classical jazz fashion. As Bágy put it, the band played the nice rubato theme of Gnossienne #3 “as they felt”, leaving less room for improvisation. However, for the last original Satie tune, Gnossienne #1, the melody was played only after an almost bluesy intro.
Repetition #1 and Repetition #2 closed the first half of the concert. These pieces composed by Bágy clearly trod on the same path of the previous ones: both featured nice themes oozing out from the alto sax (a’ la Paul Desmond, one could be tempted to say), but in Repetition #1 an abrupt change of mood and tempo in the middle of the tune surprised the audience which was then led to the end by an intense piano and drums duo, while Repetition #2 commenced with the piano providing a solid Satie-ish pattern the bassist could improvise on before its theme was revealed. The tune suddenly ended with the drummer’s solo bringing the first part to its end.
The second half of the concert started with Braveheart. Interestingly, Bágy removed the music stand where music scores were placed, as if the band did not need it anymore. In fact, the overall feeling of the continuation of the concert was that the band was loosening up as if Satie’s compositions had restrained the band to a certain degree. The body language of pianist Dezső Oláh said it all because he seemed more at ease in his solos than he had been before.
The calm ballad Fairy Tale accompanied the audience towards the end, a back to back rendition of two more tunes by Bágy, Eastern Influence and Bass Dance that were threaded together by bassist Péter Oláh. This long combo featured the drummer clapping his hands for the Bass Dance theme and a stormy saxophone solo by Sándor Soso Lakatos, who had been calm and tidy most of the time up to that point, except for some rare moments. A brief encore closed the concert.
The concert description read “In the Footsteps of Erik Satie” and this event proved that Satie’s trail can be slippery. The familiar melodies, forebears of what is now called Ambient Music, lose some of their attractive power/lure when dragged into the realm of jazz improvisation. Satie aficionados could return home slightly disappointed while jazz connoisseurs might thank Bágy and his quartet for a pleasing jazzy evening that introduced them to the singular figure of the French composer.
Luckily for the audience, the ensemble did not perform Satie’s Vexations, a piece that should be repeated 840 times for an overall duration of almost one day. After all, Estonians had the opportunity to have a glimpse at this challenging work already, in its fullness in 2016 and partially in 2019.
P.S. The title of this review is a reference to A mammal’s notebook, a volume collecting all the writings of Erik Satie.
Balázs Bágyi New Quartet „In the Footsteps of Erik Satie”
Kumu Auditorium, Tallinn
Saturday, September 28, 2024
Group:
Balázs Bágyi (drums)
Sándor Soso Lakatos (alto saxophone)
Dezső Oláh (piano)
Péter Oláh (double bass)