Gábor Gadó - guitar
Matthieu Donarier - saxophone
Kristóf Bacsó - saxophone
Béla Szalóky - trombone
Sébastien Boisseau - double bass
Joe Quitzke - drums

"Stereotypes about the drab world of the planned economy overlook the biting wit and black humor that people with a will to live always manage to sustain. Guitarist Gábor Gadó can't be said to be nostalgic about Hungarian "goulash communism" (an ironic term of the era), but he's getting the last laugh with a tongue-in-cheek sextet rounded out by a pair of saxes, trumpet, trombone, bass and drums. Gadó picked up extra cash playing dance school accompaniment and "catering music"; for the latter, a music surcharge was added to the meal and the musicians hired had to wear ties, which they would rent from the maitre-de for the evening. Modern Dances for the Advanced in Age has a certain down-at-the-heels dancehall feel: odd time changes, droll, edgy tango, cha cha and calypso, a guitar owing as much to Hendrix, Hawaii and heavy metal as to Wes Montgomery and George Benson, while the spirits of Johnny Mercer and Henry Mancini drift by for the album closer, "Moon River," a place you've never been but might want to reconnoiter." - Michael Stone, RootsWorld

The artist says:
"Perhaps there is some social judgement in this musical memoir, but that is not important. I have to refer once more to Hrabal: he makes something holy from whatever moves him. The Hrabal smile, which transcends the minor things in life, is very close to me. (...) Like the Poles, we Hungarians are into self-flagellation, which is of course related to the way history has treated us. (...) But with the Czechs, for the most part, instead of a tragic worldview irony flourished, in which fundamentally dramatic situations are embraced by a delight in the beauty of life. The smile that peaks out from behind Hrabal’s realism is what I have tried to project onto my memories of socialism." - Gábor Gadó