Hungary's the Peet Project smashes boundaries of jazz on 'Pink Spirit'

(Budapest, Hungary) Written by Robert Sutton. Have violin will travel.

For Peter "Peet" Ferencz, playing a violin gives him a license to explore the boundaries of jazz or perhaps even destroy them.

With his band the Peet Project, Ferencz gives new meaning to fusion as they weave in and out of jazz, funk, dance, and classical music on their first album, Pink Spirit, released under Beagle Beat Records in their native country of Hungary. In songs like the radio single "Be Free," Ferencz' searing violin rips through the polyester skin of ‘70s disco.

The Peet Project has a unique vision that was formed in Ferencz' childhood. "For quite some time, I was surrounded with the average pop, rock and house music that you hear on radio and TV everywhere," Ferencz recalled. "Then, at the age of 12, my attention turned to music production and suddenly found a lot of R&B, funk, and smooth jazz in my life. There were periods when the only thing I listened to was smooth jazz radio stations on the Net, and I decided that I want to make this kind of music."

Before Pink Spirit was recorded, the Peet Project entered "Be Free" in a contest sponsored by Budapest, Hungary radio station 90.9 Jazzy. It won the grand prize and was immediately placed on high rotation. However, "Be Free" offers just a glimpse of the Peet Project's wildly innovative eclecticism, from the cinematic atmospherics of "After the Flood" to the smooth jazz of the title track to the bracing James Brown tribute, "Funky Guy."

Ferencz began learning how to play classical violin at the age of four; by the time he was 13, he was already performing with a number of different pop groups. The Peet Project epitomizes the unending curiosity of childhood in its giddy defiance of musical conventions. After all, art should not close doors but open them.

More Information: http://www.peetproject.com

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