More Than Play - A Conversation with Tamás Szabó about the History of Hungarian Harmonica Playing

This program is held in Hungarian.

Tamás Szabó is not only one of the most versatile harmonica players in Hungary, whose playing can be heard in the concerts/recordings of many Hungarian artists in the past decades, besides his own orchestras, but he is also one of the most expert experts on the instrument's one hundred and fifty years of history in Hungary. Béla Szilárd Jávorszky, a professional staff member of the House of Music's Pop Culture Club Library, talks to the harmonica player.

In the course of the discussion, we will take stock of the most important representatives of harmonica playing in Hungary from the 1870s to the mid-1960s, until the advent of the Beat era, and the harmonica bands that flourished after the Second World War, the most famous of which is the ABC Trio. Although the harmonica has not become an integral part of Hungarian folk music (unlike, say, American or German folk), and in recent decades has been identified by most with the blues, it is important to see how rich the culture of this instrument is in Hungary. Tamás will help us to do this, not only by telling us stories, but also by occasionally picking up the accordion.