About

The origin of the band

Nick, the violinist who started the band plays the violin since he was 7 years old.
“As a child I got acquainted with a family of Hungarian gypsy musicians. When I was 9 years old I played along with the gypsy ensemble of Miklos Hoszu, a cymbalist who had fled his country during the Hungarian resurrection of 1956. He finally arrived in Antwerp where he opened a restaurant just opposite the opera house. He gave me my first violin lessons. Later on I got teachings from Jancsi Hoszu, the primasj of that band”.

Some years later Nick got a proper classical training with Dejan Mijajev, then a docent at the Antwerp conservatory.
“The so called gypsy swing jazz of Django Reinhardt is still one of my favourite musical styles. Its a mixture of many influences wherein rhythm, syncope and improvisation play a very important role. This musical style is very accessible for us Westerners because of strong American Jazz influences from the twenties and the thirties.
The authentic gypsymusic from Transsylvania for instance is much less accessible for us due to the use of quarter tones that do not exist in our tempered tone system and the impair metrics/ measures such as 5/8, 7/8; 9/8, etc.”