Márta Sebestyén and the Muzsikás - Four CDs of Hungarian and World Music

Márta Sebestyén has long been known in her native land as the greatest interpreter of Hungarian folk music and she is now one of the world's favourite traditional singers. She has toured with the Hungarian groups Muzsikás and Vujicsics all over Europe the US and Asia and has recorded with tradition/fusion groups Deep Forest and Towering Inferno.

Márta Sebestyén was brought up surrounded by music from Hungary and all over the world. Her mother studied with Zoltan Kodaly and taught music in Hungary as well as travelling to the countryside to collect songs in villages. Over the years, Márta has continued to learn songs from other cultures, even as she has devoted her life to Hungarian traditional music.

The songs in the album Kismet have been learned from people and sources who have been close to Márta and are part of the treasured collection of melodies she keeps close to her heart and which represent so much of her life's destiny - like a kismet worn around a Turkish girl's neck underneath her blouse. Márta has now travelled all over the world and speaks many languages, but it is still the melodies she hears that she remembers most vividly. This is a collection of some of her favourites. The fact that most are not Hungarian has created for her the freedom to sing them to Nikola Parov's unique arrangements which are not strictly traditional, but use a mixture of traditional and modern instruments.

The album The Rooster Is Crowing is a memento for the archaic Northern Transylvanian (Maramureş) Jewish community, destroyed by the Nazi in 1944. Their music has survived due to the Gipsy musicians playing to them in their feast. Márta and the Muzsikás have collected these melodies in the '80s from these old musicians, and two of them actually plays them in this CD in the same way they had done it forty years before.

The albums Homeward Bound and Morning Star, presenting Hungarian traditional music, were the first successful registrations of Márta outside of Hungary. The Morning Star is not my rip, and only includes the CD cover, while the other CDs are complete with both cover and folder scans.

Some links to Márta Sebestyén & the Muzsikás:

Muzsikás Home Page (both in English and Hungarian): http://muzsikas.hu/
A review of Kismet from Rambles: http://www.rambles.net/sebestyen_kismet.html
Another review of the same CD by Paul James, 1998: http://music.pauljames.de/musfolk.html
A CV of Muzsikás and Márta Sebestyén: http://www.concertmedia.com/muzsikase.htm (corrupt images, but the text is informative)
A good overview of the Hungarian folk scene: http://www.rootsworld.com/rw/feature/hungary.html
Márta Sebestyén resources on the Web (a short compilation): http://www.robotwisdom.com/jorn/marta.html
A much better compilation of M.S. and Muzsikás resources on the Web (in Hungarian): http://www.muzsikas.lap.hu/

Download:

Kismet:

Scans:
http://rapidshare.de/files/29885525/M_rta_Sebesty_n_-_Kismet_-_Scans.rar

Music:
http://rapidshare.de/files/29783530/Kismet.part1.rar
http://rapidshare.de/files/29789162/Kismet.part2.rar

The Rooster Is Crowing:

Scans:
http://rapidshare.de/files/29916489/M_rta_Sebesty_n__Muzsik_s_-_The_Rooster_is_Crowing_-_Scans.rar

Music:
http://rapidshare.de/files/29921284/M_rta_Sebesty_n__Muzsik_s_-_The_Rooster_is_Crowing.part1.rar
http://rapidshare.de/files/29924541/M_rta_Sebesty_n__Muzsik_s_-_The_Rooster_is_Crowing.part2.rar

Homeward Bound:

Scans:
http://rapidshare.de/files/29889402/M_rta_Sebesty_n__Muzsik_s_-_Hazafel__-_Scans.rar

Music:
http://rapidshare.de/files/29905908/M_rta_Sebesty_n__Muzsik_s_-_Hazafel_.part1.rar
http://rapidshare.de/files/29915590/M_rta_Sebesty_n__Muzsik_s_-_Hazafel_.part2.rar

Morning Star:

Music:
http://rapidshare.de/files/29929413/M_rta_Sebesty_n__Muzsik_s_-_Morning_Star.part1.rar
http://rapidshare.de/files/29933021/M_rta_Sebesty_n__Muzsik_s_-_Morning_Star.part2.rar