More from Rudolf Tomsits Jazz Group with the Light Symphony (Hungary, 1980)

A couple of weeks of Eastern European albums for now, do I dare call it a Fortnight.  Though it does seem the ridiculous craze is dying down now.

Recall Tomsits from a long time back in the thoroughly progressive "Dream and Reality" fusion album.  This, on the other foot, is more in the line of easy listening, a Hungarian radio album with various composers and artists but the jazz partitions at least played entirely by the Tomsits Group, so it resembles the Murad Kazhlaev album from before (which I deeply love to this day).  At least seeing three compositions by Tomsits on side b got my hopes up, as well as an appearance by the amazing Peter Wolf on the last track, fittingly enough a Bach homage.   The hopes were quickly dashed though when I heard the first composition which is a tribute to Spain featuring the usual execrable chord progression seemingly the only progression possible with this country, the Eminor - F - G (played in exactly that key too, the easiest on the guitar--shame on the composer).  It seems outrageous that an entire nation should be reduced to three chords in the realm of music, and it is indeed ridiculous, insipid, and demented, reminiscent of the worst rude treatment the spaniards of capable of--and any tourist to that country will be familiar with this.  France does not have one progression it relies on to be identified, though it does have the accordeon instead, neither does Britain, or the US, or Germany, etc.  I suppose China suffers the same fate to a certain extent with the stupid pentatonic scale played on a childish harp, you can hear for ex. in Turandot (the opera).

But having been to the nation in question, I'm not all that shocked.  I recall traveling all over the Spanish landmass to find a good paella and being reduced to tears at encountering nothing but frozen mussels, soggy rice, watered down sauce, and poor seasoning in an expensive bowl served by rude waiters desperate for a couple of euros of tip, ready to run after you to belt you with a patata brava if you dare to short change them their precious few extra euros, as if they were all homeless people.  And of course as I said before I had the best paella of my life at a Spanish-themed restaurant in Las Vegas, of all places. But that's nothing.  Recall that famous church we traveled hours to get to and reached finally at 4 PM only to read the sign: Closed for siesta, 12 to 5; Open 10-12, 5-7.  Or that time we asked for directions from a tourist office in Granada and were thrown a map without any humanlike speech.  Or driving in the days before GPS and stopping to ask police how to get to the North Rail Station in Madrid and him waving at us, "it's over there!" before running away.  Or what about the time I parked in the spot next to a local, in Toledo this time, whereupon he started screaming at me in quick Spanish for a totally unknown reason.  The only possible response to that was saying "F**k off, you asshole!" which, based on the startled look on his face, translates well into Spanish.

The long-haired Blonde track by Tomsits is the best of the lot, though the blonde is a bit more Pamela Anderson than Gwyneth Paltrow, I mean musically speaking:





and of course, like the music, the colouring is not genetically natural but rather entirely chemical.
So the search continues...