World-renowned German-Hungarian musician, producer and songwriter Leslie Mandoki has been the driving force for over 25 years in uniting some of the most elite and iconic musicians of the jazz and rock world under one banner and on one stage called the Mandoki Soulmates.
The Soulmates, once described by the late Soulmate Greg Lake (Emerson, Lake & Palmer) as “one of the best bands in the world,” are the “Super-Group” musicians Mandoki, who has worked as a producer for Disney masterpieces and with greats like Lionel Ritchie, Phil Collins, and Chaka Khan, among many others.
The Soulmates are staging a global live stream event at 3 p.m. EST on Jan. 15 where you'll hang with the band for their global Zoom meetup before watching the premiere of their new concert film for FREE.
"During the band meet-up, we’ll update everyone on what we’ve been doing musically and personally in these trying times, and preview exciting new and upcoming releases from band members, such as the new Jethro Tull album from Ian Anderson," said Mandoki.
Mandoki Soulmates staged a global live stream event earlier this year which has achieved over half a million plays on YouTube and over 700.000 on Germany’s leading TV channel ARD since its release.
This comes on the heels of the release of their latest album "Utopia For Realists: Hungarian Pictures," which is being called a modern day masterpiece.
On ‘Utopia For Realists: Hungarian Pictures’, Leslie Mandoki plays together with Ian Anderson (Jethro Tull), Jack Bruce (Cream), Nick van Eede (Cutting Crew), Chris Thompson (Manfred Mann’s Earth Band), Bobby Kimball (Toto), David Clayton-Thomas (Blood, Sweat and Tears), John Helliwell (Supertramp), Al di Meola, Mike Stern, Randy Brecker, Till Brönner, Bill Evans, Cory Henry, Richard Bona, Tony Carey (Ritchie Blackmores Rainbow), Jesse Siebenberg (Supertramp), Steve Bailey, and Julia Mandoki.
The progressive jazz-rock suite “Utopia For Realists: Hungarian Pictures” is based on themes by Béla Bartók and the greatest Soulmates hits.
“Bartók mixed sounds and traditional melodies from a wide variety of regions in the Carpathian lowlands to send a signal against the threat of National Socialism with the power of music to unite people. This idea of uniting people has been a lasting inspiration for me,” Mandoki explains.
In the first days of real pandemic lockdown in 2020, Ian, Leslie, and members of the Soulmates created a song for charity celebrating front-line workers, 'We Say, Thank You'." That song has become a rallying cry for all those frontline workers that don't have a voice in today's society.
"We Say Thank You" was written by Mandoki and Jethro Tull's Ian Anderson to pay homage to all the essential workers - from the doctors to grocery store workers - risking their lives on the frontline during the COVID-19 pandemic. Mandoki's wife Eva is a first contact physician in Germany, which was one of the inspirations for the composition.
The political class was failing to take care of the essential frontline workers during this pandemic," he said. "They are the true heroes of this pandemic. Businessmen around the world made billions on the pandemic, which is wrong. The essential workers were offering there services to us when we really needed them for pennies really. This is ridiculously wrong and someone has to stand up and say something. Ian Anderson and I thought that we have to say something. They go to work and put themselves and their families at risk. If we or someone else gets the virus, someone has to got to take care of us. These are socially relevant people and we should not only say Thank You, but we needed to pay tribute to them.
Due to the pandemic, so many bands around the world were relegated to recording music online through high speed internet, but Mandoki assures us that that wasn't the case with the "Utopia for Realists."
"What is great about this album is that we were all in the same room together. This is all analog music," he said. "Analog music has a positive aspect like the hand writing a letter. You hear about it really went down. We are recording artists not post production artists. This album is for the people."
What came out was a rich full performance of that perfectly blends progressive rock with jazz to create a new sound experience, while also returning the music to social and political relevance.
"We will only overcome the global challenges - pandemic, financial and economic crises, migration and integration, climate change - if we overcome the divisions across all borders. That's why we need to be louder than ever!"
This musical journey started for Mandoki when he was a 16-year-old boy in communist Hungry starving for music from the outside world.
I was one of the lucky ones behind the Iron Curtain who got a mono tape copy of 'Aqualung' by Jethro Tull and it changed my life," he said. "I was very much attracted to the intellectual lyrics of prog rock and I was pretty much impressed and inspired by the complexity of the productions, the harmonies and the melodies. Progressive rock is today's classical music.
In 1975, Mandoki fled Hungry to avoid persecution for objecting to the political landscape of the communist regime.
"I was longing for freedom and prog rock is the music of freedom," he said.
That passion for freedom and music has served him well. He has gone on to work with such artists as Phil Collins, Lionel Richie, Jennifer Rush and has been a musical director for commercials, with clients including Audi, Daimler and Disney.
And now, he's brining the music of the Soulmates to the world.
"This music is for the people," he said.
The Soulmates are staging a global live stream event at 3 p.m. EST on Jan. 15 where you'll hang with the band for their global Zoom meetup before watching the premiere of their new concert film for FREE.