Swansong

Three musicians from three continents

since 2010

Originally conceived almost 10 years ago, Swansong brings together three musicians from 3 continents: renowned Hungarian pianist Gábor Csordás, Japanese bassist Noriaki Hosoya and Washington-based drummer Marty Risemberg. The band started in 2010 in Berlin with Andrea Zuliani on drums, and during the formative years they didn’t leave their home city. After their self-titled debut on Hunnia Records in 2019, came the time of expansion.

The first tour was in Japan in 2019, playing in Tokyo, Kyoto, Nagoya and Shizuoka. The pandemic delayed plans by two years but in 2022 Swansong released their second and third album: Do Swans fly? is a studio album and Turbulence is a live album recorded in Budapest, Hungary.In 2023 they followed up with a tour in Germany and Hungary, playing at the Budapest Jazz Festival. Then in 2024 their first entry to China followed: a tour with 6 shows in China and 3 in Japan. In 2025, the 15 year anniversary of Swansong they celebrated with an Asian tour of 13 concerts in China, South Korea and Japan.

The style of the band does reflect the geographical distance of the members, and the influences of their musical upbringing. Gábor brings a fun and playfulness on one side, trance, repetitiveness, groove and depth on the other. Noriaki is masterful melodist, penning tunes that evoke the Avishai Cohen – ECM world, meanwhile Marty is the glue who sticks it together with his balanced playing between groove and jazz, reminiscent of Steve Gadd.

Swansong (2019)

“Originally conceived almost 10 years ago, Swansong brings together three musicians from 3 continents: renowned Hungarian pianist Gábor Csordás, Japanese bassist Noriaki Hosoya and Washington-based drummer Marty Risemberg.

Led by Gábor Csordás, a versatile musician & composer with credits stretching from jazz and pop to hip hop and classical, the trio formed in Berlin – and Budapest, Hungary is the city they chose to record these 10 original and highly melodic songs.

As you might expect from the geographical divide separating them, their influences are diverse too; Gábors classical upbringing sits alongside Marty’s Cuban roots (he studied with noted percussionist Ramón Marques) and Noriaki’s Berklee-educated beginnings. It’s all brought together, however, by a strong sense of groove and adventure.

With various solo projects behind them, Swansong finally puts on record the long-term relationship between these 3 international musicians. “

Do swans fly?

Swansong – Do Swans Fly?
(Hunnia Records. Album review by Fiona Mactaggart)

Swansong is an international jazz trio, formed in Berlin in 2010 by Hungarian pianist Gábor Csordás and Berklee-educated, Japanese electric bassist Noriaki (Nori) Hosoya. In 2016, Washington DC-based drummer Marty Risemberg took over from original drummer Andrea Zuliani. As well as their origins being the world over, they also bring a wide musical background, discernible in this album; for example classical, pop and hiphop all seem evident in Csordás’ sound.

A 2019 debut album, Swansong, was especially successful in Japan where the trio subsequently toured, although the pandemic put follow-up plans on hold until last spring when, in Budapest, the trio recorded this, their second studio album, Do Swans Fly? (Only a few days before, they had also recorded their first live album, Turbulence.)

Do Swans Fly? is a fresh, even youthful-feeling jazz album of eleven originals. The mix of electric bass guitar with acoustic piano lends a mild fusion feel to the mostly mainstream European jazz sound. Led by Csordás, he takes composer credits for five of the eleven tunes, Hosoya the remaining six.

Csordás states that the trio’s style is “centered around melodic ideas coming from European music,” which is most overtly shown in his soaring title track, reportedly strongly influenced by the early music of Hungarian keyboard player Zsolt Kaltenecker.

Another highlight of this 74-minute-long album is Hosoya’s Far From Winter which features the extraordinarily lovely tones of guest Bence Táborszky’s flugelhorn.

Indeed, gentleness and lyricism are two words (listen to Hosoya’s delightful Komorebi) that come to mind when listening to this charming album, as well as a sense of the composers taking pleasure in sharing their favourite musical styles and heroes; Rush Hour, Csordás’ take on Herbie Hancock’s Actual Proof, is a felicitous example of this.

With their disparate origins and influences, these friends together seem to be starting to find their own particular, rather attractive jazz style. It will be interesting to hear how they evolve.