Budapest’s turning into a Hungarian Dixieland at the end of March, courtesy of the Association for Hungarian Jazz. If you’re a fan, be it bepop, cool, Latin, fusion or funk, the Budapest Jazz Club (BJC) is your place to be for the Hungarian Jazz Fest 2010 – sponsored by Alerant – between March 25th and 27th.
Kicking off with the ceremonial presentation of the Szabó Gábor Award, this year honoring Mihály Dresch’s music, founder of the Dresch Quartet, the three-day long festival will line up all the crown jewels of the Magyar jazz scene as well as present newly discovered talents, exciting formations and late night jam sessions packed with the joy of impro music by the trio of jazz legends Gábor Bolla, Árpád Tzumo and Mihály Borbély.
The much loved (both here and abroad) Harcsa Veronika Quartet will open the first day, followed by Artisjus and Gramofon Award winner Gábor Juhász and his band, plus the trio of virtuoso pianist, Péter Sárik. Later on, more experimental formations will take the stage such as the East Side Jazz Company mixing Balkan tunes with classical sounds. Then, the Grencsó Kollektíva, known for their surprising sound solutions, and the HársHegy Band armed with not one, but two great singer talents, Orsi Kozma and Eszter Váczi, will be filling the floor of BJC.
A worthwhile jazz festival must have at least one bigband concert, and this time they mean big, here. As one of the final performances, at 6 p.m. on March 27th, young talents of the Jazz Department of the Franz Liszt Music Academy led by Attila László will perform in front of an awe-struck audience.
The line-up continues with talents like the young Ávéd-Fenyvesi Quartet, the real class mates, Class Mates Quartet and sensational-sophisticated Linda Király and her band. Meanwhile, up and coming talents will be debuting in the ground floor’s chamber hall.
Son of Magyar jazz legend Béla Szakcsi Lakatos, Szakcsi Jr. will wrap up the festival leaving us with magical moments of music we can live on until next spring.
Hungarian Jazz Fest 2010 March 25–27
Budapest Jazz Club
1088 Budapest, Múzeum utca 7.
Tel.: +36.1.267.2610 Tickets: daily ticket: 500 HUF, three-day ticket: 1,000 HUF www.bjc.hu