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December 21, 2006
A Diplomatic Riff Andrea Noble – Washington Prism
It’s expected for ambassadors to be boastful of their diplomatic and personal achievements. The Swiss ambassador to the United States speaks six languages while the Ghanaian ambassador started his own medical clinic in the U.S. before his appointment. However Hungarian Ambassador András Simonyi’s hobbies are not quite as characteristic of a diplomat. He fronts a rock and roll band. Initially entranced with rock music in his youth after hearing bootlegged copies of The Beatles’ records in communist Hungary, Simonyi, 54, now sings and plays guitar in the band Coalition of the Willing. The band plays renditions of classic rock songs by the likes of Jimi Hendrix, the Doobie Brothers, and Traffic for charity events. However, Simonyi isn’t the only member of the quintet who surprises colleagues with his musical inclination. Bassist Lincoln Bloomfield is president of an international advisory firm and a former Assistant Secretary of State, guitarist Daniel Poneman is a principal of an international advisory firm and former presidential aide, and drummer Alexander Vershbow, the U.S. ambassador to South Korea, plays with the band when he is in the country. Otherwise Dan McDermott, director of Upper Shore Workplace Investment Board fills in. Guitarist Jeff “Skunk” Baxter, widely known for his work with 1970s American rock legends The Doobie Brothers and Steely Dan, perhaps surprises more concert goers when he reveals his day job as a counter-terrorism advisor with the Pentagon. Either way, prejudgment of the band often ensues. “People expect us to be nice, aging ambassadors and diplomats that got together and started a band, but that’s not it,” Simonyi says. “This band is really a rock ‘n’ roll band.” Formed in 2003, Coalition of the Willing has been knocking stereotypes that suit-clad businessmen have no business in rock music ever since. “The idea that a lawyer, doctor or journeyman could have an artistic side to their personality makes some people uneasy because it doesn't fit their view of the world,” Baxter says. “I think this is a result of most people's desire to compartmentalize and categorize people in narrow terms.” Aside from the fun band members have onstage, Simonyi says they’re performances carry a message: rock and roll builds a free community. “Rock ‘n’ roll music was the internet of the 60s and 70s,” says Simonyi of music’s role behind the Iron Curtain. “It was our line of communication to the West. It was my lifeline.” Up until the fall of communism in Hungary, much Western music was difficult to come by. For Simonyi, when friends traveled outside the country the best thing they could bring home with them was the latest rock album. Once inside the country, records procured from trips abroad were quickly copied to cheap vinyl. While the copied albums only played once or twice, that enabled the music to spread and in the process a larger community of music fanatics formed.
“No one had all the records, but together we had all the records,” Simonyi recalls. Even listening to the music of Cream or Rory Gallager via forbidden radio stations or on a friend’s record player was pushing boundaries in 1960s Hungary. An 18-year-old Simonyi took rebellion a step further however by forming a blues band. “It was my way of expressing that I did not like the system that I lived in,” Simonyi says. With an electric guitar given to him by his father Simonyi pursued music fervently, nearly choosing the life of a musician instead of continuing in school.
The study of economics won out eventually and today playing alongside Americans, the Ambassador calls his current band a vehicle for communication between cultures. At their last charity concert Dec. 1, the Coalition of the Willing took to the stage at the Hungarian Embassy to raise money for the families of three Hungarian firefighters that died in Hungary in a rescue operation last April.
Through corporate and individual donations, along with an auction of items that included an electric guitar signed by the band members and round trip tickets from Washington D.C. to Budapest, the event raised about $37,500 for the families. Both American and Hungarian firefighters were honored at the event, with fire chiefs, fellow ambassadors and the President of the World Bank, Paul Wolfowitz, present.
“For all of the firefighters in Hungary it is a huge deal that there is a strong message of support coming from Washington D.C. and not just from the Hungarian ambassador but from other communities and other firefighters,” Simonyi says. In the past, Coalition of the Willing has also played to raise money for Hurricane Katrina victims and to support coalition troops. Whatever the charity event these rock stars try to never outshine the cause they’re playing for. “You want people to enjoy themselves; you don’t want to show off,” says Simonyi, admitting that his stage presence has calmed considerably since the band’s first show in 2004. “We’re not doing this for the money; we’re doing it for the message, for fundraising, or for the love of rock ‘n’ roll. We are very careful not to overdo it.”
This is the reason the band opts to play cover songs rather than original material, despite the fact all the members have separately written plenty. The band still makes the songs their own however, evident as they launched into a Hungarian version of “Wild Thing.” Though the band’s set list reads like a perennial hit list of the1960s and 1970s, the Ambassador is quick name off English punk rockers The Libertines as a new favorite. After his daughter introduced him to the music of the seminal New York punk band The Ramones, Simonyi even played with drummer Tommy Ramone after finding out the musician was Hungarian born. Previously having served as a representative to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) Simonyi’s spent plenty of time working with foreign dignitaries; however he says “I’ve learned more about teamwork in this band than anywhere else.” So could all politicians learn a thing of two from musicians? “I have not seen a guy who was seriously into rock ‘n’ roll who did not just want to make the world a better place,” Simonyi says. “And I’ve have not seen any mean politicians who played rock ‘n’ roll music; the two just don’t go together.” Reflecting on the Dec. 1 fundraiser he adds “Today it’s the rock ‘n’ roll generation that is in charge. There were some pretty big faces in the audience that love rock ‘n’ roll and inside I think they all wish they played in a rock band.” Andrea Noble writes regularly for the Washington Prism
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