For at least 30 years, Leslie Mandoki and his band, the Soulmates, have seen this as their contribution to making the world a little better, taking a stance on socio-political issues with intellectual, poetic texts. You can convince yourself of this in the next few days at a few concerts in Germany.
“Faked innocence is no defense for a contrarian maniac,” sing Leslie Mandoki and his soulmates in their latest work, “Devil’s Encyclopedia.” In short: “Stupidity is no protection against folly”. Lyrically, the song is a single outcry against the war of aggression in Ukraine, which violates international law, and a powerful reminder that rock music has always stood up for freedom in peace and for peace in freedom. This devil’s encyclopedia is about nothing other than the madness that Putin started with his war of aggression against Ukraine. Not many can find words to describe the horror and absurdity of such an act, most remain silent. Also many artists.
Not so Leslie Mandoki: “We are not administrators of world hits – we are a fresh band full of creative drive.” For the 70-year-old, music has always been an expression of freedom. His musical vision is the combination of British prog rock and American fusion jazz – but even more important: staying true to his own values and not being bent by genre constraints and zeitgeist currents. With intellectual, poetic texts, the musician takes a stance on socio-political issues ranging from generational justice to climate catastrophe, against greed, egoism and division in our society to war in the middle of Europe.
On their current tour, the Soulmates – as usual – bring up many of these socio-political issues. Because the vision stands above everything that Mandoki has been doing with his friends Al Di Meola, Nick van Eede, Richard Bona, Mike Stern, Randy Brecker, Bill Evans, Till Brönner, John Helliwell and Tony Carey for the last 30 years his soulmates – his soul mates in the truest sense of the word – to achieve socio-political relevance with music.
When do teenage dreams come true?
In the anniversary year 2023, the Mandoki Soulmates are back on the German stages with their “30 Years Anniversary Tour 2023”. They will play the best of the last twelve albums together and give their fans a little taste of the new album “Memory of my Future”, which will be released in spring 2024. The wonderful thing about these “Old Rebels” is that they will play with the power of the past 30 years together and the energy and verve of their teenage dreams. Definitely qualities some younger musicians could learn from. Because to say what one thinks, to live in freedom – all this is not to be taken for granted. And Leslie Mandoki, who fled the dictatorial regime of Hungary in 1975 on foot through the Karawanken tunnel to Austria and then to Germany, remembers it only too well as “Woodstock’s child”: “We have known, not just since 1989, that people’s longing for peace in freedom is in the end much stronger than any oppression and aggression of a dictatorship.”
Again and again he asks himself: “In these times, is it even allowed to just be for peace? Where years ago people stood together hand in hand on Easter marches for peace in freedom, today the dying in this war goes on and on, day after day !” But he is not frustrated, even if he believes that his generation has done a lot wrong: Mandoki carries on as if he had fallen into Obelix’s magic potion.
As part of their anniversary tour, the Mandoki Soulmates will be giving five concerts in Germany at the beginning of September: on September 1st in the Laeizhalle Hamburg, on the 2nd in the Admiralspalast Berlin, on the 3rd in the Circus Krone Munich, on the 4th in the Kulturpalast Dresden and on the 5th in Berlin. September at the Leipzig Gewandhaus. There are still a few tickets left.
2023-09-01 05:44:40
#Mandokis #music #stupidity #ignorance
