György Szabados was a prominent figure in Hungarian avant-garde music. He created the Kassák Christmas series organized at the Kassák Club in the 1980s, which was revived by the Fonó Music House in the 1990s. Paying tribute to this tradition, the Adyton Art Foundation is organizing Adyton Christmas for the 10th time this year, finding a home at the Opus Jazz Club.

In the first part of the evening, István Grencsó and Stevan Kovács Tickmayer will play as a duo. Although they have made recordings together from time to time – most notably with the Trio Kontraszt, the Grencsó Collective Special 5 with Ken Vandermark, and the album Várakozás (Waiting) from the triple album Esszék (Essays) – they have not performed as a duo since the bold Chamber Music, recorded in 1988 and released on LP. It will be exciting to hear what they have to say to each other and to the audience now.

In the second half of the evening, the core of the band will be the rhythm section of the Grencsó Collective with Róbert Benkő and Szilveszter Miklós. They are joined by Stevan Kovács Tickmayer and Zoltán Mizsei, who appeared on two of Grencsó’s albums in the early 2000s, and whose current contribution will certainly add a new dimension to the free music sound of the Adyton Spontaneous Ensemble. 

Zsolt Németh