Max Buda Musical Biographies
Max Buda Violin Harmonica & Vocals Born the late 1940’s in eastern Europe (date and country unspecified due to wartime conditions), brought to U.S. by adopting refugee acquaintances of his mother who only required they keep his name. Reared by various “family” members throughout the midwest Max decided to unburden his hard-pressed relatives by moving to California at an early age.
There in 1966 he and his friend Fenrus Epp started playing in various ensembles one of which eventually became known as Kaleidoscope. Epp was to die tragically following the release of the group’s first album (rumor has it he was crushed by a stack of speaker cabs) and was “replaced” by Buda (who had played some uncredited bass on “Side Trips”). Ironically, the only group members who were present for the six albums of the group spanning three decades were Buda and iconic sixties figurehead Solomon Feldthouse. On these albums he played bass, keyboards, violin and harmonica, the instrument with which he was most closely associated with as a “guest” artist on many period recordings.
He credits his success with the harp to his Ash Grove class teacher Sonny Terry who remains a major inspiration. Kaleidoscope “officially” ended in 1970 as a live act but Max never stopped performing, particularly in the San Gabriel Valley where he spent time with Cowboy Ramar and his Bongo Boppers, The Snake Boats, Snotty Scotty and the Hankies and eventually his own ensembles Los Chumps and now the Max Buda Band. At 70 he is now primarily known as a rock/jazz violin player and spends the majority of his time (when not recording projects with partner Chris Darrow) fiddling around.
