This is an unusual project. Pianist Béla Szakcsi Lakatos and Miklos Lukacs, a master of the cimbalon (which is similar to a hammer dulcimer), team up for eight free improvisations. Lakatos, one of Hungary's top jazz pianists, toured the world with the fusion group
Special EFX while becoming immersed in the idea of fusing together Hungarian folk music with advanced jazz. The music that Lakatos and Lukacs create is very much a conversation between two equals, covering many moods, sometimes being quiet and lyrical and in other spots becoming overflowing with excitability. Wit is not absent and neither is melodic development even though the results, recorded during an eight-hour period, are quite spontaneous. Well worth checking out. ~ Scott Yanow