He has been playing the violin since childhood, he toured the entire world with Ida Kelarová. Violinist Milan Horváth is in charge of the jazz band The Harmonic Play and a dulcimer band. With the first one, they will accompany the screening of the silent film Bewitching Eyes in the Moravian Library. And they will also release a new album in the Museum of Roma Culture on 7 April.
You will accompany the film Bewitching Eyes live. Why with the jazz band The Harmonic Play, and not with the dulcimer band?
The film is from 1923 and it is set in the mood of the 1920s and the 1930s. Part of the film is from a Roma settlement, but the rest is set in Bohemia. At that time, popular music meant jazz, so a jazz band is ideal for it.
The film tells the story of a Roma girl from Slovakia who falls in love with a farm owner from Bohemia and leaves her settlement to join his family. Do you personally know anyone who experienced something like that?
Today, there is a lot of it, it is quite common. It is the 21st century and the Roma community is divided into various parts. There is a part where parents have their children get university education but it is not significant. People are covering up to avoid losing their jobs, they do not speak Romani and do not acknowledge their ties to the Roma community. Discrimination simply exists and many people from my layers have changed their surname to be able to succeed. While I understand it, I would never do it. My name is Horváth and my children's name will also be Horváth.
One of my Roma friends told me that he did not want her daughter to marry a white boy because we were different. I think that it works both ways...
Those parents may also have had some bad experiences. But it does not matter whether someone is white, black or purple. They are still people.
So when Roma and white musicians played together in the Paramisara band, it did not matter – a piece is a piece?
There is no difference, it is only fair. All art – whether it's music, acting or painting – does not care whether someone is white or black. It is a single artistic community and there are no differences in it. For now, the only fairness is in art.
You wrote music for a play of the Líšeň Paramisa Theatre – Chytrý hloupý Rom (Smart Stupid Roma), do you still work for the theatre?
It was more of a coincidence. Originally, my dulcimer band was supposed to play there but that was not possible for financial reasons. It was so much playing, my dad was still in the band at that time and there were also professionals in it whom it did not suit. So I structured the thing differently, I gathered my friends, we got together and were successful. They were amateur musicians but the outcome was good. We are longtime friends with director Pavla Dombrovská. If an unfamiliar institution had asked me, it would have been different. Eventually, it was a small favour for the Líšeň Theatre, but they also did something for us.
I think that many Roma musicians try to play funk or rap, what is attractive about it?
We are largely affected by the western world and traditional music is disappearing. It is still present in Slovakia and sometimes even here but the point is not whether someone plays funk or anything else. There must be heart in it. And black music is closest to us – have you ever seen a Roma metal musician? I have not. Our grandfathers listened to American Dixieland, then the Django style and our current music evolved from that.
But when you say Roma music, most people probably imagine dulcimer...
When we are here in Europe and you say "gypsy music", they will imagine a guitarist in France and a Roma dulcimer band here. In America, you say "jazz" and they will first think of African Americans. And the whole thing is based on that, those ideas differ from place to place.
The Harmonic Play play jazz, Latin American dance music, world hits and Roma music. Do you care more about art or business?
We do it because we enjoy it. And when we go play, we get paid, of course.
When did you start playing the violin and who taught you?
I always have to laugh when I think about it. I have an older brother, a contrabassist, and our father mainly saw his legacy in him. And he sent him to a music school for violin, I was seven years old. That was at a time when my father did not live with my mum. He used to go play and found another woman, so it was almost a divorce but then he came back. So, our mum took care of us, she took us to school and I used to go to the music lessons with them. They took place at a primary school in the classroom. I would sit in the back, the teacher taught my brother and I thought it was funny. So I made him laugh, I made faces at him and he could not play because he was laughing. And my mum told the teacher to take me in too. The teacher said she did not want me, that I was crazy. And my mum insisted that I would be even better than my brother. So eventually she took me in, in two months I passed him and soon I performed in competitions. We used to go to the school at Sirotkova but it belonged under the music school at Veveří.
What was your first band?
It was the year 1989, the history and teaching were changing and we did not get any grades in most courses. So we proceeded to the next year of primary school, but at that time my father took me and began to teach me. At the time, coincidentally, the first Roma café of Milan Ščuk opened at Táborská. My father used to play there and he took me with him, we played three times a week, always until the morning. In the morning, I went to school and fell asleep, the teacher was angry at me. Then she was told that I go play and they allowed me to start school at 10. They already knew that I would become a musician, not an engineer. My father, my brother, bassist, and another brother, dulcimer player, who was still little, played in the band.
And when did you advance from playing in the café?
In 1998, we started playing with Ida Kelarová and we toured the entire world. We recorded four CDs, half of the band were guys from Gulo Čar. They simply gathered musicians from Brno and off we went. I was in New York as well as in Mongolia, we toured all over Europe, it was a success. Over the four years, I experienced more than others experience in their lifetime. It would be enough for two lives.
What is it like to tour the world, play in New York, and then again in Brno?
When I came back, Brno seemed very small to me and I thought that I did not want to live here. In New York, it was good, there were so many black people. When we arrived there and said we were Czech, they laughed at us and thought we were joking. They thought we were locals. And they have nothing against Roma people. When we said "gypsy", they accepted us even more. Try to say here that you are a gypsy. I spent very little time in the Czech Republic over the years and I got used to people not having prejudices. And as soon as we crossed the border and arrived at the first petrol station in Rozvadov, they were already looking at the shelves to make sure we were not stealing. We also got in an argument there, Ida was a very spirited woman and she gave them a piece of her mind.
And then you only played here?
We used to play at major events in the Wallenstein Gardens and the Černín Palace with the band and then wealthy businessmen began to invite us as well. And every time I was looking forward to playing for such people. They considered us as equals – a millionaire respected me that I have millions elsewhere. And he was glad to shake my hand and talk to me. And that is how they were raising their children, no "be careful, they are Gypsies". But these are people who have big companies; the middle class, it is a disaster. Once, we went to play at a wine tasting in Bohemia and they did not know who they invited. So I opened the door, they saw that Roma people were coming it and it was absolutely clear that they did not feel good. So I told myself that we would give them something good and we played. Then they apologised – they said they thought that we were the bad Roma people. And I said to them: "I am also Roma. We are the same, there is no difference. And do not divide us up by colour. I am Mr. Horváth, so talk about Mr. Horváth. When Mr. Novák comes, talk about Mr. Novák. You have a university diploma and you think like you just came out of primary school."
Is your current band also a little bit family-like, just like when you used to play with your dad?
My father's youngest brothers are in the band, so we play with our uncles. And Čonka is our cousin. And sometimes the pianist from Gulo Čar comes help us but he is actually also family. He will also join us for the film, because we could not handle all the sounds with one keyboard.
Do you play any instruments besides the violin?
I also play the viola, it is pretty much the same, just in a different tune.
Do you make your living though music?
More or less, but it is not enough to take care of the family. This is not the time to make a living by just playing. Musicians also have jobs and today musicians are no longer professionals and amateurs. You can only tell by quality. You say about one that he is an amateur and about another one that he is a professional. But you are talking about how they play, not about how they make their living.
