Upon their 30 years of existence, the supergroup he leads… the MAN Doki Soulmates, is celebrating its 30th anniversary with a concert in Budapest.
The boys are back in town with musician-producer Leslie Mandoki’s band, and visited Mandoki’s Soulmates. The main rehearsal toom place at Bem quayside Club on Thursday, August 17, 2023. On Friday, 18. August Mandoki Soulmates will give a free jubilee concert with world stars, including Grammy Award-winning guitarist Al Di Meola, American jazz guitarist Mike Stern, bassist Richard Bona and jazz trumpeter John Helliwell (one of my favorites from Supertramp) at the Basilica on the Szentáromság square – Budapest. The concert starts at 7 p.m. and to grab your seats early cause the seats are limited.
After a small band rehearsal, musician-producer Leslie Mandoki introduced the artists joining the band at the Mandoki Soulmates press conference on Thursday evening. In addition to the international stars, he also introduced domestic performers Caramelt and Misi Mező, with whom they will also perform at the concert on August 18.
Even before his defection from Hungary in 1975, he played music on this stage with such fame as the giant flute artist Ádám Török+.
After jamming, a short press conference was held. He said that they started this year’s tour with their American and English friends, and they wanted to come to Budapest at first before the tour to Europe. He introduced the Budapest soulmates team. This year, the biggest American-English soulmates group will take the stage. He also talked about how Al Di Meola gave the name of the super group, he and the Grammy-winning guitarist know each other preety well, and have formed a lifelong friendship. He emphasized that this is not a retro group, different musical styles come together… Hungarian folk music, fusion jazz, funky, soul, rhythm&blues.
He said they wrote a “Peace Song” which maybe doesn’t fit in the mood of the whole world at all… BUT still… as he said: Q.:” We are the grandchildren of the Woodstock generation and felt that we now owe it to the audience to address the song which title is: Devil’s Encyclopedia .
Q.: “About the choosen venue this time. The Basilica played a major role in selecting the venue, we had to make sure that the audience had the best in every aspect, so that they could enjoy every moment of the four and a half hour concert.”
Mandoki spoke about how he fled Hungary, he was a dissident in 1975. Beyond on the other side of the border, he was asked where he was going, he said to America because he wanted to be a famous musician as his role models. Since then he has lived in Germany and America. He himself wrote the lyrics of the songs in English, because even though he loves the varied Hungarian language, it is easier to write in English.
Added: Q.: “What keeps this fantastic team of 35 people together is the community of values, the love of music and most of all the fact that we are SOULMATES … we live with the audience, this is what has kept the band together for 30 years”.
The soulmates musicians have won a total of more than 35 Grammy awards so far, and the number of audio carriers sold exceeds 350 million.
Recommender and snaps by Aggie Reiter
Rolling in Budapest 