Multi-award winning Basel-based Hungarian drummer Marton Juhasz’s approach to his instrument has seen him perform all around the world alongside highly celebrated names of modern jazz including Gilad Hekselman, Wolfgang Muthspiel, Jorge Rossy and more. He was voted ‘Drummer of the Year’ two years in a row on JazzMa’s online readers poll, and his 2017 release ‘Pannon Blue’ featuring Lionel Loueke won ‘Best Hungarian Jazz Album’ at the Gramafon Awards.

Through his new release, Juhasz develops on the 70’s fusion sounds of Weather Report and Headhunters to offer a fresh contemporary perspective on the style. Blending traditional African influences with modern sounds from the USA, the Caribbean and Brazil, Metropolis presents a colorful mix of intricate rhythms and lyrical melodies. Self-described as postmodern instrumental groove music, each piece is grounded by Juhasz’ powerful and dynamic touch on the drums, often evolving through a set of complex metric frameworks over the course of a piece.

Built around the live sound of the quintet, each of the record’s eight original compositions comes across as the sound of five musicians feeding off each other’s energy, using the written material as a sandbox for melodic and timbral improvisation and pushing each other further into the deep end. Squelching envelope filters, searing distortion, fluttering arpeggiations from the saxophone, delicate finger picking on guitar, and selective use of transportive reverbs create variations in texture that elevate the ensemble’s sound into a modern space.

Marton Juhasz (drums), Charley Rose (saxophone), Fabio Gouvea (guitar), Lorenzo Vitolo (piano), Jérémie Krüttli (bass)