In a dazzling evening of "gypsy jazz," the Kalman Balogh Gypsy Cimbalom Band interprets beautiful, ancient melodies with a modern musical consciousness to create a high-spirited, infectious conglomeration of traditional Central and Eastern European music, exuberant jazzy soloing, and an unstoppable 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 band also features Frankie Lato on violin, Ferenc Kovacs on trumpet and violin, Peter Bede on saxophone, Mihaly Gyorgy on guitar, and Csaba Novak on double bass. As on their CD, Gypsy Jazz (Rounder), this superb ensemble playfully combines a wide array of musical styles into a seamless whole, connecting the instrumental music traditionally performed by Gypsies in the Carpathian Basin and the Balkans with the chord progressions and swing of jazz and elements of Latin music and flamenco, ragtime, and klezmer.