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24 May 2025, at 7:00 p.m., Multicultural Centre, Transilvania University of Brașov

The pianist Lucian Ban and the violist Mat Maneri return for the Chamber Jazz @ Transilvania University series, as part of an international tour to launch their new duo album, Transylvanian Dance (ECM Records, 2024), which brings back to life the traditional folk songs collected by Béla Bartók, reinterpreted in the language of contemporary jazz.

The folklore performers’ voices recorded by Béla Bartók more than one hundred years ago on Edison wax cylinders will resonate in tandem with the two musicians’ live improvisations, while video projections specially created for the performance will bring before the audience Béla Bartók’s original scores and rare photos, taken by him himself in the villages of Transylvania.

BÉLA BARTÓK

The Hungarian composer Béla Bartók, one of the prominent figures of the 20^th century, dedicated an important part of his career to the study of Transylvanian traditional folk music. Between 1909 and 1917, Bartók transcribed thousands of songs and recorded hundreds of folklore performers on wax cylinders. The thorough study of these songs made an indelible impression on the composer’s vision.

A century later, two exceptional improvisers – the violist Mat Maneri and the pianist Lucian Ban – find inspiration in the music that sparked Bartók’s imagination. The two reinterpret carols, elegiac songs, love songs, dowry songs, and many more.

LUCIAN BAN and MAT MANERI

For two decades, since the beginning of their collaboration as a duo, Lucian Ban and Mat Maneri have been acknowledged for the innovative fusion of Transylvanian folklore and improvisation, the exploration of 20^th century European classical music through the prism of jazz, and the search for a contemporary ideal of chamber jazz. 

The two musicians first worked together in 2009, within Enesco Re-Imagined octet, along with Ralph Alessi, Tony Malaby, John Hebert, Gerald Cleaver, Albrecht Maurer and Badal Roy, the legendary player of Indian tabla (hand drums). The album was recorded live within George Enescu International Festival, in 2009, and won many prizes, such as Best Album of the Year, awarded by Jazz Journalists Association.

In 2013, the two artists’ successful musical partnership materialised in the duo album Transylvanian Concert, released by ECM Records label, which was acclaimed for “original voice and unconventional beauty” (The Guardian).

Later, the two musicians created a trio alongside Evan Parker, an emblematic figure of the European avant-garde (Sounding Tears, 2018).

Another common achievement is the album Transylvanian Folk Songs, released in 2020, which was included in prestigious charts.

The two artists’ shared projects continued, with Ban and Maneri releasing, in 2023, under Sunnyside Records label, the album Oedipe Redux, a radical performance of George Enescu’s masterpiece, Oedipe, alongside an international contemporary jazz and improvisation ensemble.

In 2024, Sunnyside Records released Blutopia, a project led by the baritone saxophone player Alex Harding and the pianist Lucian Ban, joined by Mat Maneri, Brandon Lewis and the tuba virtuoso Bob Stewart.

We will be therefore waiting for you on Saturday, 24 May 2025, starting at 7:00 p.m., at the Multicultural Centre of Transilvania University (29 Eroilor Ave.). The entrance is free, within the limits of available seats.