As I write these words in Chicago during May of 2020 and look back on the week of activity in
January that led to these recordings withIstván Grencsó and Róbert Benkő, it’s hard for me to
comprehend that the tour scheduled at that time would most likely be the last series of
concerts that I play in 2020. Without warning the world changed for everyone between those
months, and it’s very hard to predict how things will look in the future, for music and for
everything else.

My work with István began exactly two years earlier, when he invited me to collaborate with
his ensemble, the Grencsó Collective. We both composed music for the project, performed in
Hungary, and recorded the album Do Not Slam The Door for BMC Records. I learned a lot about
improvised music in Hungary during that week, particularly the history connected to György
Szabados. It was a great starting point, and I knew that there would be more work to do
with István in the future. In March of 2019 my group Marker did a night of collaborative
performances with musicians in Budapest, and István was an important part of that evening.

Then an invitation came from Mario Steidl, director of the Saalfelden Jazz Festival, for the
Grencsó Collective to come with me as a guest to participate on the 3 Tage Jazz 2020, which
would be held in the middle of January. It was clear to all of us that we should take
advantage of this opportunity to arrange some additional shows, and Mario graciously agreed to
enable this. In addition to that concert, and with the help of Benedek Kruchió, who has been
central to the success of all the plans that have involved István and me, the Collective also
played again in Hungary, at the BMC/Opus Jazz Club in Budapest and at the Grand Café in
Szeged. A recording session and duo concert (which took place at Meseház, in Békéscsaba) were
also scheduled. István and I composed new music for this project and rehearsed together in the
gaps between the other performances.

The SuperSize Studio was located on the outskirts of Budapest, in Törökbálint, and both it and
the sound engineers were excellent. We recorded all the new duo pieces and a series of trio
improvisations that included Róbert Benkő on double bass; those were performed in front of an
audience brought in by the label, Hunnia Records. Though it was a pleasure to return to the
material that the Collective performed, working on the new compositions was really
exhilarating and displayed how far the level of communication between István and me had come.
Though our collaborations had been occasional over the two years since first meeting, the
creative process we’ve shared has kept accelerating.

The evidence of that progress is documented on this album. Both the compositions and the
improvisations, whether duo or trio, exhibit a depth of creative understanding that was
impossible on our initial encounter. This communication transcended the music, and it
transcended language as well. It’s in all we’ve shared as István and I view the world and
encounter music together, laughing in the car as we drove from Saalfelden to Budapest with his
band, across the Hungarian countryside, sitting in the bar outside of Meseház, eating lunch in
his home with Benedek and Denise (István’s wife). This shared enthusiasm for music, art, and
life is projected into plans we’ve made to put a quartet project together that would expand
this new duo material. Originally the idea was to meet in the autumn of 2020. As I sit here
now in Chicago, considering the landscape for concerts and touring as it may exist several
months in the future, I am doubtful. But I do know this -István and I will get together again,
we will bring this new ensemble on the road, and the music we make will be better than ever.

-Ken Vandermark, Chicago, May 12, 2020