Gabor Varga: Gold Rings of the Wounded Stone

Welcome to ‘Dodd’s DSD Discoveries’, a review series from NativeDSD Senior Music Reviewer Bill Dodd. This series focuses on Bill’s latest selections, with new reviews regularly.

Improvising at the piano… I used to do it a lot when I was a teenager. I think Improvisation is connected to memories– usually happy ones. Gabor Varga, whose various jazz albums have done very well on native, opens up his heart with Gold Rings of the Wounded Stone. It’s made up of 27 improvisations— no edits, no retakes, and in the same order they were played in the studio. There are no hesitations, no fumbles– just a look inside Gabor Varga, himself. These pieces include titles such as Song For My Mother, Hope, Broken Mirror, Forgotten– and happier ones like Hungarian Kids Are Playing, and Village Romantic. One, called Siege, 4^th November is illustrated by the cover picture of a bullet hole from that 4^th of November (1940) still visible in a building.

Memories, thoughts, improvisations that come to you from deep down in Gabor Varga. The available sample cuts will let you hear this for yourself. The recording quality is superb– everything I’ve come to expect from Robert and the folks at Hunnia!

The Gabor Varga Trio’s Cool Jazz is one of the top best-sellers on NativeDSD, and all of his albums are well worth exploring. Sometimes I just line ‘em up, click on play, and leave ‘em on all day.

You many also be interested in: