In a dazzling evening of "gypsy jazz," Kalman Balogh & The Gypsy Cimbalom Band interpret beautiful, ancient melodies with a modern musical consciousness to create a high-spirited, infectious conglomeration of traditional Central and Eastern European music, exhuberant jazzy soloing, and plenty of swing. A virtuoso of the Hungarian cimbalom (a larger version of the hammered dulcimer), Kalman Balogh is descended from a famous dynasty of Hungarian Gypsy musicians; a graduate of Ferenc Liszt Academy of Music of Budapest, he has mesmerized audiences throughout the world with his amazing mastery of this unique and rare Hungarian folk instrument.

With the cimbalom as the compelling voice at its center, The Gypsy Cimbalom Band also features Sandor Budai and Laszlo Major on violin, Ferenc Kovacs on trumpet and violin, Sandor Kuti on guitar and cimbalom, and Csaba Novak on double bass. As on their most recent album, Gypsy Jazz (Rounder), this superb ensemble plays a wide array of musical styles, from rousing traditional Jewish dance tunes to the strange, discordant yet beautiful harmonies of Transylvania, often switching speeds from slow and sensual to hair-raisingly breakneck in the space of a single heartbeat.