Teagrass

by Craig HarrisThe music of Czech republic-based quintet Teagrass defies categorization. While much of their repertoire reflects the Balkan, gypsy, and Jewish influence on the music of their homeland, Teagrass continues to branch further and further toward jazz, swing, and bluegrass. Traditional instruments, including the hurdy-gurdy, taragot, and viola da gamba, combine with fiddles, mandolins, flutes, clarinets, saxophones, and upright bass to create a multicultural experience. Reviewing a Teagrass concert, RootsWorld wrote, "After a few measures of music right out of the Musikas songbook, they were slipping into a jazzy violin riff...it dips into bluegrass and newgrass, hovers around Klezmer without ever landing." Classic CD took a similar view, writing, "this is musical brainfood of the most sustaining kind -- omnivorous Eastern European folk fusion." After releasing a self-produced debut album, Cestou Na Vychod, Teagrass joined with Hungarian songstress Irén Lovász to record their second album, Wide Is the Danube.