»The American Norris and the Hungarian Pege are both perfectly matched musicians who inspire each other, master all technical skills, thus keeping their minds free for musical events and these means improvisations filled with great intensity... with a musical precision in the sharpest pizzicato and ampliest strokes which is quite unusual in jazz.«
M. Sack
Playing from the heart was the driving force of Pege's eloquence as a classical musician, a jazz improviser and a folk artist with a profound understanding of his country's traditional songs. A big man with a striking white beard, who moved (as Browning put it) "like a graceful bear", he was as imposing in his physical presence as through the sophistication, energy and resourcefulness of his music.
For much of his career, Pege's reputation outside his homeland was limited to a handful of double-bass buffs and jazz enthusiasts, since cold war politics hampered opportunities to travel. But to those in the know, he was a phenomenon. He trained as a classical musician, adopted the double-bass at the age of 15 and discovered jazz through DJ Willis Conover's nightly broadcasts to eastern Europe on Voice of America.
He became fascinated by the sound of such bass stars as Ray Brown and Oscar Pettiford, though he later declared that he was not a jazz musician, and wanted only to be considered "an artist who plays the bass". But after he attracted international attention at the 1980 Jazz Yatra festival in Bombay (now Mumbai), and Charles Mingus's wife, Sue, presented him with one of her late husband's instruments in honour of the performance, Pege finally made it on to the global jazz map. He played guest roles with the Mingus Dynasty tribute band, and with pianist Herbie Hancock and drummer Tony Williams, at the Kool jazz festival in New York in 1982.
Pege was born in Budapest, the latest of four generations of double-bassists; his father (also Aladar Pege) helped pioneer the expansion of Hungarian jazz and swing in the 1940s. Aladar Jr studied at the Bela Bartok Musical Training College, worked in dance bands and in 1963 formed a jazz quartet that played in Yugoslavia and at the Bled jazz festival. As Stalinist strictures about the decadence of jazz eased during the 1960s, he performed more widely, playing festivals in West Germany and across the eastern bloc. His remarkable facility brought him extensive studio work, but he also pursued classical bass studies, graduating in 1969 from the Franz Liszt Academy, Budapest, where he also taught.
In the following decade, Pege continued to astonish festival audiences - at Montreux, Warsaw, Zurich and Berlin, among others - with his speed, ideas, penetrating sound, expressive elegance and swing. He often worked with the jazz quartet that had launched itself by winning first prize in a competition run by Magyar Radio.
From 1975 and 1978, he lived in Berlin, taking advantage of the city's more open scene to play conventional bebop and free jazz, and studying with Rainer Zappernitz, then a principal bassist with Herbert von Karajan's Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra. But though he returned to the commercial and academic work that supported him in Budapest, Pege's fruitful relationship with American pianist Walter Norris (a former Mingus sideman who had moved to Europe) brought duo opportunities across the continent between 1978 and 1980.
The famous Jazz Yatra performance followed, but Pege was reluctant to pull up his roots and embrace the opportunities the international jazz scene would undoubtedly have offered him. Walter Norris maintained that Pege could turn the bass "into an entire orchestra", and that his seamless integration of classical, Hungarian Gypsy and jazz music made him unique. The evidence is plain from the duets with Norris (Synchronicity, 1978, and Winter Rose, 1980) recorded for the enja label.
But Pege always believed that the ability to bring out the best of the eclectic musical culture he grew up in was dependent on a classical player's technical discipline and rigour. He would play a dozen or more classical pieces as part of his exercise regime every day, frequently transcribe and perform pieces written for other instruments to expand the classical bass's limited repertoire, and regularly present variations on Hungarian folk music as part of his repertoire.
· Aladar Pege, double-bassist and composer, born October 8 1939; died September 23 2006
For much of his career, Pege's reputation outside his homeland was limited to a handful of double-bass buffs and jazz enthusiasts, since cold war politics hampered opportunities to travel. But to those in the know, he was a phenomenon. He trained as a classical musician, adopted the double-bass at the age of 15 and discovered jazz through DJ Willis Conover's nightly broadcasts to eastern Europe on Voice of America.
He became fascinated by the sound of such bass stars as Ray Brown and Oscar Pettiford, though he later declared that he was not a jazz musician, and wanted only to be considered "an artist who plays the bass". But after he attracted international attention at the 1980 Jazz Yatra festival in Bombay (now Mumbai), and Charles Mingus's wife, Sue, presented him with one of her late husband's instruments in honour of the performance, Pege finally made it on to the global jazz map. He played guest roles with the Mingus Dynasty tribute band, and with pianist Herbie Hancock and drummer Tony Williams, at the Kool jazz festival in New York in 1982.
Pege was born in Budapest, the latest of four generations of double-bassists; his father (also Aladar Pege) helped pioneer the expansion of Hungarian jazz and swing in the 1940s. Aladar Jr studied at the Bela Bartok Musical Training College, worked in dance bands and in 1963 formed a jazz quartet that played in Yugoslavia and at the Bled jazz festival. As Stalinist strictures about the decadence of jazz eased during the 1960s, he performed more widely, playing festivals in West Germany and across the eastern bloc. His remarkable facility brought him extensive studio work, but he also pursued classical bass studies, graduating in 1969 from the Franz Liszt Academy, Budapest, where he also taught.
In the following decade, Pege continued to astonish festival audiences - at Montreux, Warsaw, Zurich and Berlin, among others - with his speed, ideas, penetrating sound, expressive elegance and swing. He often worked with the jazz quartet that had launched itself by winning first prize in a competition run by Magyar Radio.
From 1975 and 1978, he lived in Berlin, taking advantage of the city's more open scene to play conventional bebop and free jazz, and studying with Rainer Zappernitz, then a principal bassist with Herbert von Karajan's Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra. But though he returned to the commercial and academic work that supported him in Budapest, Pege's fruitful relationship with American pianist Walter Norris (a former Mingus sideman who had moved to Europe) brought duo opportunities across the continent between 1978 and 1980.
The famous Jazz Yatra performance followed, but Pege was reluctant to pull up his roots and embrace the opportunities the international jazz scene would undoubtedly have offered him. Walter Norris maintained that Pege could turn the bass "into an entire orchestra", and that his seamless integration of classical, Hungarian Gypsy and jazz music made him unique. The evidence is plain from the duets with Norris (Synchronicity, 1978, and Winter Rose, 1980) recorded for the enja label.
But Pege always believed that the ability to bring out the best of the eclectic musical culture he grew up in was dependent on a classical player's technical discipline and rigour. He would play a dozen or more classical pieces as part of his exercise regime every day, frequently transcribe and perform pieces written for other instruments to expand the classical bass's limited repertoire, and regularly present variations on Hungarian folk music as part of his repertoire.
· Aladar Pege, double-bassist and composer, born October 8 1939; died September 23 2006
John Fordham. The Guardian
Tracks
1. Playground (Aladar Pege)
2. Winter Rose (Walter Norris)
3. Elvesztettem Paramat (trad. arr. A. Pege)
4. For High Notes (Noel Lee)
5. A Child is Born (Thad Jones)
6. Evening Lights (A. Pege)
7. Enkephalins Rose (Walter Norris)
WALTER NORRIS piano
ALADAR PEGE bass
Recorded at Studio Bauer Ludwigsburg June18, August 31 & Sep 28, 1980
ENJA 3067 / Inner City IC 31031
http://www.enjarecords.com/
1. Playground (Aladar Pege)
2. Winter Rose (Walter Norris)
3. Elvesztettem Paramat (trad. arr. A. Pege)
4. For High Notes (Noel Lee)
5. A Child is Born (Thad Jones)
6. Evening Lights (A. Pege)
7. Enkephalins Rose (Walter Norris)
WALTER NORRIS piano
ALADAR PEGE bass
Recorded at Studio Bauer Ludwigsburg June18, August 31 & Sep 28, 1980
ENJA 3067 / Inner City IC 31031
http://www.enjarecords.com/