“Music is a way of always learning new things. You’re learning different things to develop, to stretch yourself as a person. Music is very much a ‘feel’ thing. What you’re feeling is going towards the people, so you could say it’s a spiritual thing”.

Laszlo is a percussionist based in Glossop. He was born in Manchester to parents who had fled to the UK after the Hungarian uprising in 1956. He works as a teacher in a variety of styles, including Latin, Brazilian, West African, Irish trad and blues, and he has also performed with several bands, including Latin groups and Irish trad bands. Laszlo primarily shares his passion for percussion through workshops, where he hopes to help participants build valuable skills and potentially change their lives through music.

 LASZLO’S MUSICAL LIFE STORY

Laszlo grew up in Levenshulme, Manchester, with a Hungarian family background. Both his parents moved to the UK during the Hungarian uprising in 1956, as the Russian crackdown after this mini revolution caused many people to flee Hungary. Ironically, Laszlo’s parents would probably never have met in Hungary itself, because his mother was from Budapest while his father lived in a small rural village called Nagykáta. Both came to Manchester via a scheme for refugees and moved to Levenshulme.

“Both my parents came here separately, they didn’t know each other, they were from different parts of Hungary…I think it affected them over a long period of time, the upheaval of having to come out their country, come over as refugees, learn a different language, and everything like that…You can’t go through so much trauma and upheaval and not be affected by it”.

At school, Laszlo first discovered his love for music. He formed a band with friends, playing as the drummer, full of wide-eyed dreams of making it big. 

“From school age, I first got my love of hitting things! I mean hitting instruments. I developed my love of playing the drum kit. I saw people playing and I thought I’d give it a go so I started playing at school. Then I bought myself a drum kit when I was 14/15. It was a very old one. I set up in my mum and dad’s house, in the front room, and practised there. When you’re younger, you think, ‘Oh, we’re going to form a band and we’re gonna be the best band in the world and we’re gonna make millions’. So we played with a few friends and that. And we were absolutely rubbish!”.

Laszlo put his passion for drums on hold while building his career as an engineer, but the percussion bug later came back to bite him. With the rise of interest in music from around the world marked by the “world music” movement, Laszlo discovered whole new horizons of musical styles. He set out to learn as many instruments as he could and now plays a wide range, with the congas, pandeiro and bodhrán as his three favourites.

“Drum kit is where I started…but it slowly developed and I just wanted to learn more and more percussion…I think it’s good to play drum kit in a band, but then to learn all these other percussion instruments is something different altogether…Percussion is dead easy to get into, but, if you want to play something very well, it’s like the other instruments where you have to practise…but then you have to times that as a percussionist by how many instruments you want to play, which should be quite a lot…Being a percussionist, it’s endless to how many instruments you can play or should be able to play…I’ve spent over 30 years of my life learning different types of percussion…It takes time and dedication to be a percussionist”.

“I’ve got three [favourite instruments] off the top of my heard. First of all, I’d say congas…in terms of how many hand positions you have to create and how tactile it is in terms of making sounds with your hands. [Secondly], an instrument called the pandeiro…It’s used heavily in Latin American music, especially in Brazil. It’s a tuneable tambourine. Technique-wise, that is one of the hardest instruments played for percussion. It takes no prisoners. There’s so many sounds to be created, to be used within patterns and rhythms and phrases. It’s so demanding to play physically…you have to be fit, it is very physically demanding to play at certain speeds. You have to train your body to play. [Thirdly], the bodhrán, the Irish drum. It’s got so many sounds that you can create…it takes time to learn, time to practise. I always like that challenge of doing something more difficult”.

Laszlo started working with various bands within Manchester’s diverse music scene. After some time, Laszlo decided that he wanted to teach percussion, to “give back” what he had learned to help others. He now offers individual percussion tuition and group drumming workshops for all ages. He has also passed on his love for music to his daughters, who have both learnt to play instruments and one of whom has completed a music degree and a PGCE to become a music teacher.

“I’ve played with different bands over the course of a few years. I’ve played with lots of Latin bands…I’ve had samba groups that I’ve trained up and then carry on by themselves…In the last 10 years, I’ve got into playing Irish music, playing the bodhrán with different Irish bands…I’ve played also with blues bands…Generally, anyone who wants a percussionist in a band to come along and play, if I think I can do it then I will do it. I’m not going to say it’s a dead hard job, because it’s not to turn up and play a gig and get paid for it. It’s quite nice really”.

“I deliver workshops, drumming workshops, percussion workshops for large groups, small groups, individuals as well…I’m trying to give back what I know…I work with lots of age groups and I’m always happy working with any group or individual that wants to learn…I work with a range of different career groups – people who are in education, community groups who want to try different things, and working with businesses on team building aspects”.

THE MEANINGS OF LASZLO’S MUSIC

From his experiences both as a performer and a teacher, Laszlo suggests that music is a powerful tool for community building, for feeling part of a group through performance. He also highlights that music can help people to learn new skills and nurture their individual creativity.

“Music can make you feel part of a group. Drumming and percussion is particularly great because you can make something sound relatively good in a short space of time, which is why it’s great for kids and adults who are not in the realms of reading music…They can access instruments and do something positive and constructive…and create something as a group”.

“Music is a way of always learning new things. You’re learning different things to develop, to stretch yourself as a person. Music is very much a ‘feel’ thing. What you’re feeling is going towards the people, so you could say it’s a spiritual thing. You’ve got the mechanics of how you play, the technique of how you should play, and then you get the feel…Maybe it’s because I’m getting a bit older now, I see it in a different way than years ago. Before, I’d just play a gig and get paid for it, but it’s different now, it’s more a spiritual kind of thing”.

Laszlo also suggests that music is a gift that can be given and shared. It can offer both teachers and learners a strong sense of achievement.

“What I get out of teaching is the achievement knowing I have helped somebody develop new skills, new ways of thinking, and develop themselves as human beings…I pitch my workshops for who I will work with. So I always have to make sure that I know who I’m delivering to, what it’s for…Every group I work with wants something slightly different and I need to leave them having achieved something…Watching people progress as they learn things, I get a hell of a lot out of that. When I can see people start from nothing and not know anything to getting better and better and better, that really gives me a lot of satisfaction”.

“I compose pieces, mainly Latin or Brazilian grooves…With all the knowledge that I’ve gathered over the years, I take a bit of this, take a bit of that, and I mix things up a bit and I write new grooves. I’ve written different grooves for different bands in the past, especially for them to use. They say, ‘We want something new to play’, so I say, ‘Alright, I can write something’. So you put all changes, phrases, breaks and for them to play. In a samba group, you could have nine different instruments all playing at the same time, so you’re writing different parts for each instrument. So I’ve written quite a few pieces in the past…Some of the bands, they’re still playing the pieces that I wrote a few years ago”.

PERCUSSION IN MANCHESTER

Laszlo points out that, with little musical background in his own family, it was the vibrant drumming and percussion scene in Manchester that has been his biggest musical influence and its diversity inspired him to become the versatile percussionist he is today. He particularly loves the inclusivity of the scene, not only in terms of musical and cultural diversity but also with regards to the age of musicians.

“The music scene in Manchester, it’s influenced me heavily…When I was growing up, we just had all these pop bands playing on Top of the Pops. Then there was an influx of all this music coming from all over the world…I think it just started to expand really quickly when I was growing up. Just in the space of like 5 or 10 years, a lot of these bands from all over the world just came, it was great…I was always interested in other cultures, always…and I was getting to meet them in Manchester! I was seeing bands play, seeing other percussionists…It was being out and about, keeping an ear open for drums and percussion…It was just exciting, meeting other people. We met up and shared information. I still meet them now, we’re still sharing information…Seeing different bands has influenced me heavily in terms of what I do now, and how I play and how I teach. If I wouldn’t have got the opportunity to see or listen to these groups, I probably wouldn’t be the person I am now”.

“A good thing about music, especially the music I like and what I listen to, there’s no limit to it. I still hear bands now that have got ‘old’ people playing, people from an older generation playing, and it’s great. Other jobs, if you’ve hit 65, they say you have to stop now or whatever. Whereas, with music, it’s endless. If you love it, you can keep doing it”.

Laszlo believes that the scene remains vibrant today, but he hopes that there will be a growth in live music opportunities. A global problem rather than a problem specific to Manchester, he thinks that the rise in digital streaming is threatening the vitality of live music. He hopes that people and organisations will continue to value live music so that the next generation can have the chance to enjoy the life-changing experiences that he had growing up.

“People listen to music in a different way than they did back when I was younger. The only way, when I was younger, to listen to music was to go and see a band. You had to be there. Now, music streaming is what more people do…I think live music just isn’t as much now as it is was then. Certainly, people now find it easier to listen to music at the touch of a button as opposed to actually going out there and seeing groups for the first time. I think that’s where the excitement was before…I think there are still bands forming, but I don’t think to the same kind of way it was a few years ago because things have moved away from that. For Manchester, I hope the future will be more live music again, more venues…to get people out there to watch people doing their music…I hope the live side of music grows”.

Levante Samba Band (SEE VIDEO)

This performance shows Laszlo leading the Levante Samba Band at Didsbury Pride.

“The spirit of Samba, the rhythm of life”.