Peter Belák

Peter Belák has only a short moment for us, a short break in work deployment. We’re talking on the lawn in front of the company where he works as a designer.

He got to jazz music gradually through rock and world music of various kinds. He and his friend, Soulán, were also engaged in contemporary Renaissance music in the Musica Poetica group. Eventually he got jazz and band Aurelius Q (alias Aurelius Quintet).

We are focused on jazz modifications of Slovak folklore, and Peter explained. He added that among their modifications they have regional songs from around Trenčín, but also Horehronie. He says Orthodox folkloreists may have reservations about their making, but the Fan Club responds with enthusiasm.

Already on the way to the jazzman, we argued, as the improvisation of a jazz singer is called, in which the words replace with sounds and syllables without meaning, only in rhythm and melody.

The rhythmised vocal improvisation is called scat. We came in contact with him when we worked with the first lady of Czech jazz Janka Koubková, ” he explained the musician.

Belák recently cooperated on profile CD Zuzana Budínská from Očová. He has already done three other albums with the women’s vocal trio, the Krajka, of which Zuzana is part. Together they processed and musicized the poetry of Rudolf Dobiah, a poet, and also a political prisoner, whom we also had the honour to acknowledge.

For Belák, music is both relaxation and passion. Another relax is for him walks in nature, photography and discovering new species of plants and insects.