Danubian drumbeats and distant dances
June 2017

Steve and Djabe - Brno, Czech Rebuplic show
Photo © Ben Fenner

Steve in Vienna

Ben and Steve outside the synagogue venue, Lucenec, Slovakia

Ben and Steve outside the synagogue venue, Lučenec, Slovakia

It was terrific for Jo, Ben Fenner and me to join Djabe again in Hungary. Last year we all convened in Sardinia to record, which was an inspiring experience of a different kind. But this time we were back on the road again in Central Europe...

The tour kicked off in Debrecen, a beautiful old town close to the border with Romania. We then played in Budapest to a large sell-out crowd. Everyone was in high spirits, the music gelled quickly and it was great to catch up with friends. Along with Djabe's own compositions involving virtuoso playing, extraordinary percussion, Indonesian angklungs and their wonderfully catchy Distant Dance, we played several of mine. This time, Please Don't Touch and Walking Away From Rainbows were added to the repertoire, along with The Steppes, Last Train to Istanbul, Ace of Wands and several Genesis numbers.

Our next stop was Lučenec, Slovakia. The venue was an active synagogue before World War Two. Virtually all the local Jewish population was wiped out by the Nazis, symbolised now by a multitude of stones in glass cases. We felt a strong spiritual atmosphere alongside the sadness in that place. It was recently renovated with the help of EU funding, preserving much of the old decoration and structure.

From the hills of Slovakia across the expansive Hungarian plain we headed for Szeged, an attractive old city on the River Tisza, which eventually meets the Danube in Belgrade, Serbia beside an ancient fort which Jo and I visited a couple of years back.

The Szeged show went ballistic, but we swiftly returned to the hotel for as much sleep as we could catch, before an early start to reach Brno, Czech Republic in time... The venue there had its own alchemy with screens and a great light show. Jo and I managed a walk into the city centre before leaving the next day. It's a beautiful historic Czech city, with domes and turrets, and a bizarre pink tank commemorating freedom from the Soviets in 1991...

Swiftly on to Vienna, like Budapest on the beautiful Danube, with all its buildings standing tall and proud as ever, the sunlight bouncing off the tops of green domes and gold crested eagles... Again good to catch up with pals before a fun evening gig.

Our last stop was magical Miskolc, nestled in forested rocky hills in Hungary near both the Slovakian and Ukrainian borders. It felt wonderful to play to the boisterous local crowd. We stayed in an atmospheric sixteenth century house overlooked by the Gothic Medieval Castle of Diósgyör (Igor, take care of the guests. I'll deal with them myself later...) We had a chance to briefly explore the forbidding battlements before shooting off for our flight home...

A big thank you to Attila Égerházi and all his team as well as Ben. We always look forward to the next Djabe adventure!