Mandoki Soulmates performed at the 51st Jazzwoche Burghausen festival on March 25. Band leader Leslie Mandoki said their slogan for this festival was "Music against division and war - music for togetherness and humanity."
On stage at the concert, he said: "What a great feeling it is to be able to stand on stage again." This event is important to the musician because in 1976, fleeing the communist dictatorship, he began his musical career in Germany right there, at the Burghausen Jazz Festival. He wanted to return to his roots with the Mandoki Soulmates band after 46 years.
The band performed with a Ukrainian singer, with whom Leslie Mandoki will come to the Hungarian-Ukrainian border next week to visit refugees from Ukraine.
The Mandoki Soulmates, a band of iconic rock bandleaders and jazz legends, have won a total of 35 Grammy Awards and sold more than 350 million records. When these legendary musicians play together, they are not only "a band", but a community of values that spans generations and leaves a mark on the next generations.
"In the last two years, especially for us artists, the virus turned a lot of things upside down. Many concerts and tours have been postponed everywhere. These must be replaced now. Of course, the restrictions still determine the course of the concerts. Of course, this is a particularly big challenge for a band like Soulmates, where you have to put a world-class team on stage in a short period of time. We are all the more happy that we could perform with so many great Soulmates colleagues and founding members at the concert in Burghausen, despite all this," said Leslie Mandoki.
In these ominous and melancholy times, shadowed by a European war and millions of people fleeing, we managed to ask a singer friend of ours, Kamaliya, one of Ukraine's best-known current stars, who fled the bombings in Kiev 4 days after the war broke out, to join us. on the Burghausen stage.” said Leslie Mandoki. He added that two of his songs were played in this line-up to speak out against the war and to raise their voices for humanity.
The Mandoki Soulmates at the Burghausen International Jazz Festival Source: Leslie Mandoki
They also played a Ukrainian folk song, and at the end of the concert they sang together John Lennon's "Imagine", the hymn to humanity.
Leslie Mandoki and the Ukrainian singer are planning further actions. On March 31, they will visit the refugees on the Ukrainian-Hungarian border, and on April 24, they will give a large-scale charity concert in Residenz München, Germany's largest city palace, which is also one of Europe's largest art museums.
I feel deeply for the refugees in Ukraine who are trying to escape the atrocities of war," said Leslie Mandoki.
So let's all help, let's continue to do everything we can to give peace a chance! Let's not forget the millions of people still fleeing today. They all need our support.”
