The
Hungarian Cultural Center, New York 
in association with Centrum
Management
presents
Gypsy Jazz from
Budapest
Szakcsi
Lakatos Trio
"Szakcsi"
Lakatos Béla is one of Hungary's most renowned jazz
musician who is from a famous dynasty of Gypsy musicians. He transplants his
amazing musical heritage and
musicianship into contemporary jazz thereby creating a new form of
exciting music which is called "gypsy jazz". Szakcsi is well known in the North American
jazz scene as a solo artist who teams up with famous players from this
continent. This tour to the USA represents the first time he brings two
remarkable young musicians from Budapest whom he has been sharing the stage
with for several years.
Thursday, February 6, 2003 at
9:00 P.M.
JOHNNY D’s CLUB, 17 Holland St. Davis Square, Somerville, MA 02144
Admission: $ 12 [$6 after 10 P.M.] *** Web: www.johnnyds.com
Information / Tickets: Box office at (617) 776-2004, dinner
from 4:30 P.M..
Gypsy Jazz from
Budapest
Szakcsi
Lakatos Trio
"Szakcsi" Lakatos Béla [piano] was
admitted to the Bartók Béla Musical
Conservatory at age of 12. By his 16th birthday he played regularly
with the best jazz players in Budapest. This was in the 60's when in Hungary,
under the communist suppression, jazz was just barely tolerated. Although he
was admitted to study at the prestigious Ferenc Liszt Academy of Music, Szakcsi decided to dedicate his life to jazz.
As a young artist he won several prizes at jazz festivals. When he was able to
travel to New York, Szakcsi was accepted by some of the most notable musicians.
During this period he heard for the first time the rock and jazz fusion, and
immediately decided to embrace it in his own music. In Hungary he established
several bands and taught jazz at the Conservatory. Szakcsi is also an
established composer of several popular jazz tunes, several musicals, one
rock-opera and one ballet. He has recorded several albums with great success
for GRP records, which are distributed by BMG. In recent years he has performed
solo appearances or with his Trio, fine-tuning his music, which may be best
described as "fusion-gypsy-jazz".
András Lakatos [drums] is one of the brightest young talents in the
Hungarian jazz scene. He has studied music since the age of 7 and his ancestry
is from the "Pecek Lakatos" dynasty of Gypsy musicians. Instead of
traditional music he turned to the performance
of jazz. This 21 years old drummer has just won the important
International Drum Competition held in Budapest in 2002. His intensity of
playing and dedication to the music of Szakcsi is remarkable. He follows the
demanding and highly temperamental music of the piano with a wonderful
sensitivity.
György Orbán [bass] started at age 7 as a classical guitar player. He completed his
Conservatory studies and decided to become
a jazz bass player. At the 2001 Jazz Festival in Belgium he received the
top award as a bass player. He played with the best gypsy jazz musicians in
Hungary and he teamed up with Szakcsi to round up his Trio. This 24 years old
musician also has a Gypsy heritage and his excellent musicianship allows him to
contribute fully to the special sound which is created by the Trio.
What is gypsy-jazz? It is the fusion of two great musical powerhouses. On onehand no other ethnic group
has advanced the music of more nations than did the Gypsies or the Roma, as
they are called today. These spectacular musicians injected excitement and
exhuberance into Central, Eastern and even Western European music. Think of the
Csárdás, the Flamenco or the music of the Balkans, they were all championed by
remarkable Gypsy musicians. On the
otherhand, jazz was invented and made famous by Afro-American
artists from the USA. Jazz is popular all over the world and it is embaraced by
all cultures. The Gypsies has began to play jazz in the early 20th
century, Django Reinhardt may have been the first to invent gypsy-jazz. This
was a different form of jazz rooted in European culture. As the political
restrictions in Central Europe were eased, a new group of musicians started to
emerge, playing new music which has not been heared before. This music is
rooted in European folk music [not American blues] but it is free flowing and
very creative, same as jazz. This new music
may be called gypsy-jazz, a musical idiom where the Old World meets the New.
FOR
INFORMATION AND BOOKINGS:
CENTRUM
MANAGEMENT, 178 Oakdene Ave. Teaneck, NJ. 07666
Tel:
201-836-4869 ~ Fax: 201-836-1590 ~ email: magyar@magyar.org ~
web:
www.centrummanagement.org