Mihály Tabányi

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Mihály Tabányi (2011)

Mihály Tabányi (born February 1, 1921 in Pilis - † July 2, 2019 ) was a Hungarian accordion player .

Life

Tabányi came from a working-class family; his father was employed as a steelworker at the Ganz company in Budapest . The first years Tabányi grew up in Pilis. In 1926 the family moved to Budapest so that his father no longer had to commute to work. There he received violin lessons from Gabriella Hoffmann at the age of six. Since playing on strings and the sound of the violin did not satisfy him and he also wanted to play chords, he switched to the piano at the age of nine.

He began playing the accordion at the age of 13, inspired by the accordionist Lajos Bobula, who settled in Budapest in 1933. At that time the accordion was becoming fashionable in Hungary. Tabányi became a student of Bobula. In 1940 the music dealer Frigyes Marnitz, who had taken over the distribution of Hohner in Hungary, organized a national accordion competition in which Tabányi took first place. He then studied at the Franz Liszt Music Academy for a year and a half . Since the accordion was not a regular subject at that time, he took the cello and organ subjects . In addition to his studies, he earned money as a church organist.

Although he was trained in classical music, he also engaged in popular music and jazz and formed his first trio with guitar and double bass , with which he recorded his first record and performed on Hungarian radio . A role model at that time was the American accordionist Art Van Damme , who influenced his playing. In the field of jazz he was self-taught, he learned jazz pieces mainly by listening to the radio. First he worked with the guitarist Sándor Horváth, then with Elek Bacsik , Miki Sárköz and later with Andor Kovács. He began to write transcriptions from the fields of classical, operetta and South American music, which he performed at his concerts. At that time Tabányi often appeared in trio ensembles, for example in 1945 with the pianist György Cziffra , with whom he played in the Bristol Hall in Budapest. The Pinocchio trio was founded with the two guitarists Elek Bacsik and Attila Zoller .

From 1947 to 1954 he played with an eight-person formation in the Emke coffee house in Budapest. This group included Géza Balogh on Hawaiian guitar , Jenő Official on vibraphone and Gyula Kovács on drums. The coffee house had more than 500 seats and was mostly very well attended on the weekends. The house band of Tabányi accompanied performances by then popular in Hungary singers like Janos Sardy, Hanna Honthy, Marika Németh, Kató Fényes, Anni Kapitány, Márta Zaray and János Vámosi.

In 1956 he worked as a guest musician at the film festival in Karlovy Vary, Czechoslovakia . In 1957 and 1958 an extensive tour followed through to the Soviet Union . After performing his adaptation of the saber dance in the theater in Yerevan during this tour , the composer Aram Khachaturyan , who was in the audience, came on stage after the concert and congratulated Tabányi for his interpretation.

In 1962 Tabányi made recordings with larger formations with the participation of István Bergendy, Péter Bergendy, Lajos Dudas , Dezső "Ablakos" Lakatos, Attila Mittai, György Váradi, Rudolf Wirth, Péter Káldor, Andor Kovács, Aladár Pege and Gyula Kovács.

In 1976 he was invited to the USA and performed there with Les Paul , Doris Day , Art Van Damme, Dean Martin and Frank Sinatra .

Tabányi participated in numerous record productions and wrote his own compositions for the accordion.

His grave is in the Farkasréti temető, a cemetery in the Farkasrét district in the XII. Budapest district .

Appreciation

Tabányi has received several awards, including the eMeRTon-díj from Hungarian radio in 2000 for his life's work. He is an honorary citizen of Albertirsa , Budapest and Pilis. The Mihály Tabányi Prize ( Tabányi Mihály-díj ) has been awarded annually by the Hungarian National Accordion Association since 2017 .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Elhunyt Tabányi Mihály, a "harmonikakirály". fidelio, July 4, 2019, accessed October 28, 2019 (Hungarian).

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Tabányi, Mihály
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Hungarian accordion player
DATE OF BIRTH February 1, 1921
PLACE OF BIRTH Pilis
DATE OF DEATH 2nd July 2019