MOUKSA
Mouksa (Dr. Louis Jungmayer, born February 28, 1959) is an American singer, songwriter, guitarist, radio show host and university resident lecturer who moved to Budapest, Hungary at the turn of the 21st century. His parents were born and raised in Hungary and immigrated to the United States after the 1956 Hungarian Revolution. Mouksa showed musical ability as a child writing a song to his stuffed dog at the age of three and learning the piano at six. As an adolescent he took part in the hippie/yippie counter-cultural movement starting in 1971 and has continued to incorporate many of its values into his music ever since. Always with an ability to meet famous people, Mouksa knew on a first name basis many legends of the Sixties era including: Bill Ayers, Ken Kesey, Mario Savio, Ram Dass, Swami Satchidananda, Timothy Leary and Wavy Gravy. After performing solo or in various bands during the 1970’s and early 1980’s, Mouksa formed his own band The Now in 1984 while living in a commune in Northern California. In 1983 he met up with Carole King and her production crew in Los Angeles while she was working on her Speeding Time record. Many photos were made of Mouksa’s psychedelic car with Hippie Forever painted on it for her album cover, but was deemed too radical by Atlantic Records and dropped. Starting in early 1986 Mouksa started a new band called The Awakening to focus solely on his own music. The Awakening lasted until 1998 recording one album and several singles. From 1986 to 1990 he lived half the year in the U.S. Virgin Islands with his first wife Linda (who died in 1989) and performed with well-known musicians, such as Steve Miller, Dave Mason and some members of the Three Dog Night who would come down on vacation to play at the Barnacle Bills bar in St. Thomas. In his early years, Mouksa had been an opening band, a roadie or just hung-out with various members of Canned Heat, Country Joe McDonald, Credence Clear Water Revival, Funk Brothers, Jefferson Airplane, Quick Silver Messenger Service, Shawn Phillips, Steppenwolf and others. In 1996 Mouksa played at both the Anti-Clinton Democratic National Convention with Saxophone player John Tyler (of Herbie Hancock) and at the Woodstock anniversary concert held on the original 1969 Woodstock concert site connecting this time with drummer Buddy Miles (of the Jimi Hendrix’s Band of Gypsys). During 1997 and 1998 the Awakening played in Europe for several months, especially in Hungary, which was the first time Mouksa had played in his parent’s native country since 1985. After some time in Hungary, the band gradually transformed with Hungarian musicians added to its line-up as the Americans left one by one. The experience in Europe was so positive for him that he stayed longer each of the next several years until finally deciding to relocate there in early 2001 after meeting his future wife Zsuzsa. In late 1998 Mouksa started two bands called the Psychedelic Cowboys, one based in Budapest and the other in the San Francisco bay area. While the American band lasted less than a year, the Hungarian band consisting of several well-known Hungarian musicians (such as the legendary guitarist Tóth János Rudolf of the Hobo Blues band and Kex) went on to record six albums (Light Out of the Dark; Go Beyond It; Once Again they are Wrong; Anotherside; Never Give Up; New Generation). While there were many line-up changes over its 16 years existence – it always consisted of former members of well-known Hungarian bands such as Químby and Pál Utcai Fiúk. During the summer of 2008 Mouksa played music in California with Powell St. John (of Janis Joplin, 13th Floor Elevators and Mother Earth) and The ALIENS, the backing band for the former 13th Floor Elevators lead singer/guitarist Roky Erickson (which included Billy Miller and Duane Aslaksen). This was repeated again in 2009 with the exception of Powell St. John who had suffered a stroke. After some relatively inactive years during the early 2010’s, while Mouksa was earning a Phd (summa cum laude) in History, the name of The Psychedelic Cowboys was changed to The Mouksa Underground in early 2014. As Mouksa explains, “I never wanted my name to be part of my bands name, especially with all these great musicians in my band, but over the years I came to realize that I was the only consistent member of the group and its songwriter – moreover, some sort of name change was contemplated by me for years as we really weren’t playing much psychedelic music anymore and we sure weren’t some Country Western band as some who didn’t know us thought us to be.” In 2014 unreleased Psychedelic Cowboys songs recorded from 2011 to 2013 made up the first Mouksa Underground album called Evil Deception. Besides music, Mouksa had a radio show in Budapest on Fiksz/Civil FM 98 from 2002 to 2014 called Woodstock Online and then later The Psychedelic Cowboys Feeling, interviewing many well-known political activists, Hungarian musicians and American musical legends such as Jesse Colin Young of the Youngbloods. In 2016 Mouksa began teaching history at Eötvös Loránd University (ELTE) in Budapest – but need not worry the music goes on!
Over the years many well know and talented Hungarian musicians have performed or recorded with Mouksa’s various bands: The Awakening, Psychedelic Cowboys and/or Mouksa Underground, they include:
Gergely Balázs– violin (1997 – 2018)
Samu Gryllus – bass guitar (1997 – 1999)
Máté Pálhegyi – flute (1997 – 1999)
Tisza Miklós – Drums (1997 – 1998)
Janula Stefanidu – vocals (1997)
Racsek Tamás – percussion (1997)
Machács Mónika – vocals (1997)
Szabó Tamás – harmonica (1998 – 2011)
Tóth János Rudolf – guitar and vocals (1998 – 2002)
Laukó “Tüske” Tibor – percussion (1998 – 1999)
Sima Anikó – vocals (1998 – 1999)
Péter Kovács – saxaphone (1998)
Vörös Ákos and Mazsi – mantra vocals (1998)
József Bernát – harmonica (1999 – 2018)
Papp Ernő – guitar, vocals, keyboard and percussion (1999 – 2016)
Turjánszki György – bass guitar (1999 – 2002)
Tóth Henrik – guitar (1999 – 2000)
Adamecz József – drums (1999)
Gilián Gábor– drums (1999)
Pribill György – vocals (1999)
Ferenczi György – harmonica (2000 – 2003)
Garda Zsuzsa – vocal (2000, 2004)
Zsuzsa Horváth – vocals (2000)
Döme Dezső – drums (2000, 2007)
Józsi Verseczki – drums (1998, 2000, 2004)
Prohászka Ferenc – bass guitar (2000)
Király Éva – vocals (2000)
Simon Edina – vocals (2002 – 2005)
Simo – didgeridoo, percussion and bass guitar (2002 – 2003)
Felfalusi Renáta – vocals (2002)
Gerdesits Ferenc – drums (2003 – 2004, 2016-2018)
Mezei András – bass guitar (2003 – 2004, 2013- 2014, 2017-2018)
Nagy Zoli – Guitar (2003 – 2004)
Muck Ferenc – Saxophone (2003)
Fogolyán Kristóf – flute (2003)
Kiss Gergő (Dj W) – mix (2003)
Ogi Péter – keyboards (2003)
Szabó Attila (Leon) – guitar (2004 – 2008, 2017-18)
Vadady Attila – keyboards (2004 – 2005)
Tóth Lóránd – drums (2004 -2005)
Zombori Sándor – bass guitar (2004 – 2005)
Szappanos Gyuri – bass guitar (2004)
Csala Miki – guitar (2004)
Péter Kovács – harmonica (2006)
Molnár Endre (Monyo) – guitar (2004) # unplugged (2006 – 2008)
Medve Ákos – drums (2005 – 2006)
Antal Adry – vocals (2005 – 2017)
Malkovics Tibor – bass guitar (2005 – 2008, 2015)
Fuchs Dániel – keybords (2005 – 2008)
Somogyi Tibor – keyboards (2005 – 2007)
Ábrahám Nóra – vocals (2005 – 2006)
Bajkai Feri – drums (2006 – 2008)
Pandzarisz Diána – vocals (2006 – 2007)
Bognár Csaba – guitar # unplugged (2006 – 2007)
Gábor Kovács – harmonica # unplugged (2006)
Angie – vocals (2007 – 2008)
Mátyus Atilla – drums (2007, 2009)
Szabó Sándor – flute (2009 – 2010)
Kapitány Bernát – guitar (2009 – 2010)
Christensen Helena – vocals (2009 – 2010)
Varga Csaba – bass guitar (2011 – 2017)
Zelenák Tibor – drums (2011 – 2016)
Kelemen Kristóf – flute (2011 – 2016)
Nagy-György Bori – vocals (2011 – 2016)
Magyar Bori – vocals (2011 – 2012)
Péter István Farkas – trombone (2011)
Benyik Mátyás – vocals (2013 – 2014)
Eőry Tamás (Totya) – saxophone (2015 – 2018)
Sólyom Zoltán – guitar (2015)
Oltvári László – drums (2016 – 2017)
Écska Pleszkán – vocals (2017-2018)
Stella Csandáni – vocals (2017-2018)
Viola Berchi – vocals (2018)
Tünde Krasznai – vocals (2018)
This list does not include all the amazing musicians that recorded and/or performed with Mouksa on his many side projects; nor when Mouksa played as a guest for other musicians either live or on their records over the years.