Bright Sun - 1977 - Fényes Nap (full album)

What an astonishing lost fusion album from behind the erstwhile iron curtain, now a ghost curtain of the past. We know that these oppressed people mastered jazz and fusion and created some really outstanding works in both genres, but what makes this one unique is the importation of hungarian folk music-- like a fusionary Bartok. The album is the brainchild of one Robert Cásel who recorded it in the summer of 1977 in New York City and released it as private pressing. Of this man, whose photo is on the bottom of the back, there is little to no information further, though he must have poured his heart and soul into this release. In overall tone, for comparison purposes, it reminds me a great deal of Thijs van Leer's masterpiece Oh My Love with its mix of gorgeous melodies, fusion, and highly progressive chord changes, and there's no doubt in my mind it should be as highly regarded. (I use that record as a convenient point of reference because I love it so much.) I hope that with this post some amount of that well-deserved fame might accrue to Robert and his creation: this album is simply brilliant.

Each song apparently is based on an old Hungarian folk song, and the lyrics for these are printed in English on one side and Hungarian on the other of the inner sleeve. I'll go ahead and reprint some of these lyrics below as they really communicate the overall dark and melancholy tone of the record, aided by the gorgeously powerful voice of the singer who is Erzsebet Szalay. These songs were always about suffering and death, we must remember how atrociously difficult times were in the old days when half the children died before the age of four (today even one child's death leads to a medical malpractice suit!) and people sold all they had for a meal during famines. Folk songs were not just instructional narratives, but as one can imagine, the beauty of the music made the pain of life easier to bear. I'm reminded of that gorgeous Beausoleil Broussard song about the mother singing a lullaby to her dying child, and the mother's song was the only happiness the child ever knew.
Also, note the persistent theme of daughters being married away by the parents.

Band:
Erzsébet Szalay- vocals
Mihály Ráduly - sax
Robert Casél - acoustic and electric piano
John Floerke - acoustic and electric bass
Jeff Williams - drums
Ava Tulchin - harp
Nobu Urushiyama - percussion
Bruce Samuels - acoustic bass (on Love, Love only)


http://progressreview.blogspot.co.il/2014/01/bright-suns-fenyes-nap-from-hungary.html