Parno Graszt

Show Description

"They do not use sources of Gypsy music, they are the source itself."
–Songlines

During the last 20 years the name of PARNO GRASZT (meaning White Horse as symbol of purity and freedom in Romani language) became the equivalent of authentic Hungarian Gypsy music.   The band plays traditional Gypsy folk songs collected from North East Hungary and Romania along with their own compositions, thus representing a specific local dialect of Roma music. Their instruments are acoustic guitars, double bass, tamboura, spoons, stereo (!) water can and the ‘oral bass’ which is a continuous vocal improvisation made by the percussionist.  Today a 50-years-old archive video is projected behind the group on stage, presenting the parents and grandparents of Parno Graszt dancing parallel with them – a real time journey between past and present! Their first album HIT THE PIANO was released in 2002 by FONÓ RECORDS and hit nr. 7 on World Music Charts Europe, the first time that any Hungarian band reached the TOP 10 before!   World music radios discovered Parno Graszt. The catching, easy-to-sing-along melodies and superfast rhythms gained many fans around the world, especially after the first live shows abroad where everyone was astonished by the power of the Paszabi Gypsies.  The much anticipated second album  IN MY WORLD was featuring world-famous Hungarian Gypsy cimbalom master KÁLMÁN BALOGH. For this record, Parno Graszt was selected into the Top 10 Bands of 2005 by the Swiss magazine VIBRATIONS.

Aftr a successful French tour in 2007, the group celebrated its 20th anniversary with the new album THIS WORLD IS MADE FOR ME. For this occasion, DJ Gaetano Fabri (remixer of Taraf de Haidouks, Kocani Orkestar and Mahala Rai Banda) made his debut remix for Parno Graszt’s Gelem Gelem and two major labels, World Music Network and Eastblok Music selected one song off the new album for their compilations: TROUGH GUIDE TO THE MUSIC OF HUNGARIAN GYPSIES and BALKANBEATS 3 respectively.

Tonight they make their US Debut.