“There is an angel, Sonifer, who stitches beadwork from the twelve colours of the rainbow.From the beads gathered during the day, he makes the day’s series at twilight, then repeating it he stitches his lace all night.When it is done, he touches a few links of the chain with his finger: at dawn these are gleaming, one after the other, as he gazes at the finished garland” The twelve colors - the sounds of the chromatic scale.The sequence of colours - the reticulum.The gaze on the chain - time.The gleaming beads - the sounds to be heard. This is reticular music. Dániel Váczi is one of the most versatile musicians in the Hungarian musical scene. He develops a family of musical instruments and logical games, and as a musician he roams in the boundaries of jazz and classical / contemporary classical music, and writes music for the organ of Müpa. As a musical theorist, he developed a new musical system called reticular. He has recently been a fellow at the iASK Collegium Sonorum Music Center in Kőszeg, later becoming a creative colleague there. The Dániel Multet Váczi is an expanded version of his trio founded in 2001. In their program, the reticulum concept, operating under strict rules, is combined with free improvisation. The band’s debut album was released at the end of 2018 by Future Music Records. https://danielvaczi.bandcamp.com  

(Greg Lamy is) “A guitar player whose refreshing and pure guitar sound gives birth to multiple melodic climates, underlined by a most fluid style, a musician with a promising future” Lionel Loueke New Orleans native guitarist, Greg Lamy, is a unique commuter: constantly moving between Luxemburg, New Orleans and Paris. After he finished his studies at Berklee College of Music in Boston, he was rapidly noticed while showcasing in clubs in New York and making swift tours around Europe. Greg Lamy often finds himself invited to perform in various bands and has simultaneously created his own quartet with saxophonist Johannes Müller, drummer Jean-Marc Robin and double-bass player Gautier Laurent. The Greg Lamy Quartet is an inspired and challenging formation where the pleasure of performing together and being pluralist at the same time are the decisive elements, creating a unique jazz atmosphere. Since 2006 the quartet has released four albums, the last of them, Press Enter, came out in 2017. More than just an album marked by modernity – as the titles Control Swift, Erase, Exit and Press Enter suggest –, the album’s nine original compositions (plus a bonus track) are first and foremost an invitation to a journey. The album thus seduces with a broad range of sensations, both impressionist and figurative, melancholic and energetic… Lamy’s abundant inspiration is more than ever revealed by a decade-long musical complicity with his fellow musicians. We can’t help but follow the quartet’s call: Press Enter… and enjoy the journey! greglamy.com 

American jazz pianist and composer, Thelonius Monk had a unique improvisational style and made numerous contributions to the standard jazz repertoire. Monk’s compositions and improvisations feature dissonances and angular melodic twists and are consistent with his unorthodox approach to the piano, which combined a highly percussive attack with abrupt, dramatic use of switched key releases, silences, and hesitations. His style was not universally appreciated; the poet and jazz critic Philip Larkin dismissed him as “the elephant on the keyboard”. Monk is the second-most-recorded jazz composer after Duke Elligton, which is particularly remarkable as Ellington composed more than a thousand pieces, whereas Monk wrote about 70. Monk’s Music is an album of Monk’s jazz septet, recorded in New York in 1957. Amongst the most well-known pieces of Monk’s oeuvre Ruby, My Dear and Well, You Needn’t are featuring on this one. The former is a ballad that Monk titled after Rubie Richardson, his first love. The title of this latter one was inspired by jazz singer Charles Beamon. Monk wrote a song and told Beamon he was going to name it after him, to which Beamon replied, “Well, you need not”. Tonight the complete album is presented by seven members of Modern Art Orchestra, the way it originally gained shape in the hands of Thelonius Monk. source: wikipedia

Barlast creates spacious new music with a silence echoing in the background.The silence can be heard between the notes. Everything unnecessary is stripped away.Only the name remains as ballast. From the soothing sound of a telecaster to the calling of the mänkeri, the herder’s instrument, from the rumble of a frame drum to a free double bass solo, the aural visions range from 18th century dances to heavy breathing in hazmat suits. The quartet was noted as one of the highlights in the showcase festival Tallinn Music Week 2017 and has performed in Finland, Estonia and Norway. Their debut album Ihantola, released in 2017 has been described as “a joy, taking the listener on a journey of unexpected peaks and valleys of experimental and exploratory music.” Barlast is releasing their second album in 2019 and the concert in at the Opus Jazz Club is part of the record release tour. barlast.com  The concert has been supported by The Swedish Cultural Foundation in Finland

Ambient, as a musical term first and as a musical genre in an ever broadening sense later, is more and more present from the seventies onwards, with an unbroken popularity since then, should it be a meditative, often electronic music, pieces using various sounds or noises of the environment in their musical texture, dance music or jazz. A few years ago the audience of Opus Jazz Club had the opportunity to check out the project Gadó – Fenyvesi Guitar Ambientology. Its bass player, József Barcza Horváth, has launched recently Ambientology II, having its debut at the present concert. With its excellent musicians of the Hungarian jazz scene, who know each other’s musical personalities perfectly thanks to their various other joint projects, Ambientology II creates a unique soundscape through atmospheric improvisations. Their music is, actually, a sort of a game with spaces – should they be real and sounding or imaginary, existing only in our consciousness.

“Gabor is a real genuine person. Great pianist and a fabulous composer. He has got something to show off. He is fireing!” (Joey Calderazzo)“This impressive work strikes a good balance between strict formality and smooth elegance. Freely changing the expression and the breathing from time to time in a ‘thrilling & tasty’ way.” (Japan CD review-Catfish Records) The Gábor Horváth Trio is an acoustic sounding, jazz-based unit inspired by various musical genres – for instance film music, pop, folk and even classical music.In his trio, Gábor performs with drummer Attila Gálfi, with whom he has been playing together for over twenty years, and Balázs Horváth, whose strong bass-lines give their music a characteristic sound. Their musical collaboration results in a vibrant, ever-communicating and particularly emotional music. The trio’s creativity manifests itself in the band’s wide-scale musical palette: the compositions vary from subtle lyricism to more straight-ahead songs. The trio’s debut album, Steps Away achieved great admiration not only in Hungary, but in Japan as well. Soundtrack, their recent could be the accompanying music to people’s day-to-day life, starting with the morning, awakening, up to the evening to return home.  horvathtojasgabor.com facebook.com/tojasmusic 

The music of the Polish-Israeli-Colombian quintet, Krzysztof Kobyliński PEARLS, expresses a unique multiculturalism, coming from the different roots of the artists and blending various musical genres like jazz, classical and ethno, into a homogeneous texture. The group’s repertoire includes originals written by pianist, composer and arranger Krzysztof Kobyliński, among them such pieces as The Moon, Once in America or Pink Year, the latter getting performed already by quite many jazz musicians, including Branford Marsalis. Composed in various periods of Krzysztof Kobyliński’s musical career, these works always earn the acclaim of the group’s audience wherever they perform them. KK PEARLS, in the current line-up, have been active since 2014. They played shows at the Polish Radio Trójka, at the Warsaw Summer Jazz Days Festival, or at the Palmjazz Festival, among others, had concerts abroad in many European countries as well as released two live albums as well. The leader’s compositions allow the musicians large spaces for improvisation, in which they can reveal their artistic visions. KK PEARLS is a passion combined with a subtle technique. The interplay between Krzysztof Kobyliński’s piano and the pulsating Latin American bass rhythms of Edi Sanchez or the freedom of playing by guitarist Dima Gorelik is fascinating. The percussion of Waldemar Lindner and the charm of the voice of vocalist and songwriter Reut Rivka is a fully-fledged component of the musical cocktail mixed by artists. krzysztofkobylinski.com 

The most characteristic feature of Mihály Dresch’s unbroken career is the effortless combination of Hungarian and Central-Eastern European folk music and elements of African-American jazz both in his original compositions as well as at his performances. With the same fluency, he is able to collaborate with the distinguished representatives of both genres, too, and has been participating in jazz and folk groups or projects as a member or guest for many years besides his own bands. In his String Quartet, founded a few years ago, Dresch chose his fellow musicians from outstandingly original, virtuoso and profoundly educated representatives of the Hungarian folk music scene. The unique lineup of then group, often extended to a quintet, allowed them to create a new and exciting combination of genres with more accent on the folk element this time, while, of course, keeping the signature Dresch sound. Since a while, the lineup has evolved further, and instead of one of the violas, the cimbalom has become a permanent instrument in the quartet, sometimes accompanied by an additional instrumental or vocal artist. For the present concert the outstanding figure of Hungarian folk-dance and authentic folk-singing, Hortenzia Lörincz joins the ensemble.

Santa Diver was founded in 2006 by violinist-composer Luca Kézdy and multi-instrumentalist Dávid Szesztay, her husband. The third member of the trio, Dávid Szegő, joined the trio in 2015. The three instruments and personalities represent a very unique and original musical world in the intersection of jazz, world and free music. Their sound is determined by the unusual line-up, the special narrative violin-playing of Luca Kézdy, the colorful and melodic bass lines, and the sophisticated, thrilling and energetic drumming. Their third album, Deep Diving, was released in December 2017 by NarRator Records.

“The Enchanted Castle might be the best metaphor for the world of Béla Ágoston, where anything can happen. Abandon convention all ye who enter here! Welcome to the realm of unexpected happenings and surprising encounters! Where the borders between space, time, and genres have become blurred. Even the most shameless devotee of multi-instrumentalist Ágoston can’t possibly have foreseen the deeds he commits here with his quartet KNUTDUT MEN... on their album Dunno he plays only one tenor saxophone, and moreover he makes do with pure jazz... ‘What a dark horse!’ you might say – and not without reason. After all, he makes music just like the blackest of his masters!” wrote László Marton ‘Távolodó’ in the sleeve notes of the group's debut album, Dunno, released on BMC Records. The album earned critical acclaim internationally, let's just quote Ken Waxman’s review about the album on JazzWord.com: “Perhaps there was an unknown tributary of the Mississippi river which linked to the Danube when Jazz purportedly made its journey from New Orleans to St. Louis, Memphis and beyond. Certainly the playing of the saxophonists in the Budapest-based Knutdut Men quartet come across as if they’re background was Southern American not Hungarian. During the course of six originals, all composed by tenor saxophonist Béla Ágoston, the in-the-pocket reed harmonies created by him and alto saxophonist Ákos Murányi could be coming from Hank Crawford and Don Wilkerson in Ray Charles band of the late-1950s. With most of the tracks dominated by expected call-and-response choruses from the reedists, who have the ability to improvise a half-step apart from one another therefore creating the effect of a single giant saxophone, the results are as bouncy, bully and boisterous as you would expect from a similarly constituted sessions from bands put together in the United States. Maybe there is a sort of doppelganger effect between the Magyar plain and the Delta… and elsewhere. With bassist Csaba Pengő and drummer Péter Hárságyi also open to many influences, tracks such as Tanga swing with a Kwela-like South African Township feeling. While Ágoston never abandons Coleman Hawkins-like deep-toned reed majesty, the joyous theme negotiates the distance between an African birthplace and primal Jump R&B. The unforced sonic storytelling advances without letup throughout the CD’s seven tracks with Water Divining B even including space for Pengő’s slaps bass and Hárságyi’s ticking rim shots. Moving along at a semi-martial beat drum and bugle corps echoes, this final track intriguingly mixes some traditional Austro-Hungarian tropes as part of the theme.” Summaya, the group's second album was released last year on Hunnia Records. Knutdut Men: Summaya on Spotify

The smallest big band in the world! This all-terrain trio can charm its audience anywhere in the world whether they appear in the intimacy of a club or on a big stage at a festival. Their music can be defined as libertarian, joyous and communicative. These three musketeers have played together for a quarter of a century, something sufficiently rare as to be highlighted! Those who saw them back in 2008 on the stage of MOL Budapest Jazz Festival’s ‘European Jazz Boat’ are still often recalling their concert and those magic moments in the end, having them walking and playing their crazy instruments among a completely enchanted audience. “This trio answers the question of jazz today... Do we really have to label it? Far from identity crises, there is no question here that dance, tempos and emotion are shared through the language of sound. Permanently balanced between the momentum and the suspension, Trio Grande is a group of maturity, of happiness found through experience and over time, a hymn to life and to beauty, far from any intention of fooling-around.” A. Dumas collectifdulion.eu/trio-grande  facebook.com/TRIO-Grande-Belgium 

”So ingenious is the way vocalist Lucia Cadotsch reimagines the canon of standards that the songs feel fully in the here and now. (…) Such is the spell that Cadotsch, Sandsjö and Eldh cast on these albums that it can make one feel that this is the only way age-old standards should be approached: not slavishly but fearlessly, with an unfettered imagination approaching that of the songs’ originators.” Bradley Bamberger, Downbeat ★★★★★ On their internationally acclaimed album Speak Low, released on enja/yellowbird records in 2017, Swiss singer Lucia Cadotsch, in a trio with Petter Eldh on bass and Otis Sandsjö on tenor saxophone, perform a captivating beautiful collection of modern classics like we’ve never heard them before. The record, a gorgeous sonic love letter to Lucia’s soul mates from a distant musical past, won her the ECHO Jazz Award in 2017. The absence of both a harmonic and a rhythmic instrument makes this trio really unique – live, minimalistic, raw and even symphonic. SPEAK LOW have everything they need to interpret these beautiful songs in their own unique, stirring and very contemporary way. In one place, you hear the saxophone and think of a vintage synthesizer; in another, the strings and wood of the bass sound like the kick and claps of an 808. Still: no effects. This is a real band, with musicians who can play anything and are not afraid to hold themselves back. Above all, Lucia Cadotsch lays it down straight: she sings freely and with pride, she uses her gorgeous instrument like a real storyteller. What she sings always sounds real because there is a hotline between the song and her heart. The newspaper DIE ZEIT recognizes in the native Swiss singer one of the most important voices “for the resurrection of jazz melody beyond tired scripts and singer-songwriter clichés.” Originally from Zürich, now living in Berlin, Cadotsch recorded three albums with the musical collective, Schneeweiss + Rosenrot. They won the New German Jazz Award in 2012. Together with Wanja Slavin (Echo-Award Winner for Best Saxophonist National 2014), they run “LIUN and the Science Fiction Band”, synthpop for people of the day after tomorrow. With the modern-root band Yellow Bird she released a super-dada bluegrass album, the follow up Edda Lou came out in January 2018 and together with Hayden Chisholm and the Lucerne Jazz Orchestra, she reclaimed the old time Big-Band Swing for the 21st century. The Swedish bass-player Petter Eldh, and his compatriot, Otis Sandsjö, have both won many accolades in the jazz world. Petter plays in Django Bates‚ Belovèd, in AMOK AMOR (with Peter Evans), with Kit Downes and in a number of other constellations. He has been releasing records like a madman, not least on his own label, Galatea Records. He plays about 100 concerts a year on stages all over the world. Otis is a member of the bands Farvel and Gothenburg Gadjos as well as leading his own OTIS+WEDDING and is about to make a big name for himself in the scene for his unconventional playing style. On stage together the three are a force able to work their magic on any possible night. The songs they play make up the heart of their performance and in them – everything is possible.  luciacadotsch.com 

Singer Tamás Berki and pianist Péter Sárik have been playing together for several years in various formations and in duo since 2012. Their performances full of humour, joy, playfulness and energy are very popular. Their album Minden délibáb received the Phonogram Prize in the category of “Jazz Album of the Year” in 2015. Their concert repertoire consists of old and new Berki-compositions as well as jazz-evergreens, performed in a special way, they call “auditive theatre”. 

Portrait of a Butterfly is a project by saxophonist and composer Pasquale Calò. The group is completed by Enrico Degani on guitar, Zevi Bordovach on piano and synthesizers and Michele Bussone on drums. The music is a melting pot of jazz, rock, ambient, with open space for improvisation, on structures or free. The project has been active since 2015, the group has performed in several Italian cities and in various artistic events. The album will be released in September 2019 for the Mediterranean Creative Records label. Portrait of a Butterfly is a story of resurrection, of change through Beauty. It is one and a thousand stories of love, told with delicacy, but also with the power of determination. It is the fleeting passage of a marvelous creature, its light and perfect flight, the infinite shades of color that characterize its being, but also that wake of surprise and happy wonder aroused in who is a lucky spectator of such infinite Beauty and Harmony. Portrait of a Butterfly demo on soundcloud

This jazz trio of an unusual lineup should definitely lure jazz lovers to their genuine performance, where they explore lesser mapped areas of music, from improvisation to various ways of how to avoid accustomed harmonic patterns when playing familiar melodies. Through free-flowing and unconventional expressions these three prominent representatives of the Romanian and French jazz scene will exploit some well-known musical quotes from the widespread repertoire of French music, original compositions and some jazz standards in quite a unique way. The audience might recognize not only jazz standards like Les feuilles mortes, Afro Blue or In a Sentimental Mood, but also several originals by Luiza Zan, such as Paper Boats or Horseback, familiar already to the Hungarian public from her previous concerts in our country.

With Sonaris, their album released by Hunnia Records last December, Zoltán Lantos’s ensemble, the electronic, groove-centric and simultaneously meditative, highly spiritual OpenSource opened a new chapter in its history. “Lantos's compositions provide a very special merger of jazz rock, modern mainstream and Indian music. Listening to the disc, some inexplicable power passed through my body, my heart and soul, through which I saw images and colours and I felt scents.” wrote Károly Gáspár his quite personal feelings about the album on jazzma.hu. “Zoltán Lantos is an excellent composer, and even a better arranger, his music is almost palpable. (…) The five musicians of OpenSource play flawlessly and easily, the music is like the sounds of nature, when one harks the dawn in a forest. (…) Zoltán Lantos spent more than eight years in India in the eighties and nineties, but his orientalism is far from being assertive, it even can’t be noticed immediately: Indian music melts organically and inherently into his musical mother-tongue.” Máté Csabai, Fidelio On the preent concert the excellent trumpeter, Áron Koós-Hutás, will join OpenSource as guest.

Pianist and composer Nitai Hershkovits has been described as a ‘Genuine prodigy’ by BBC music. ‘Reminiscent of a silky-toned old piano swinger such as the late Hank Jones’ (The Guardian), intertwining bliss and melancholy with skillful freedom. As a solo artist, Nitai Hershkovits’ repertoire consists mainly of original work written for piano, giving space for interpretation. Since a young age, Nitai had the privilege of touring all over the world and performing at many different venues: Village Vanguard, Salle Pleyel, Vienna Konzerthaus, l’Olympia, Alter Oper, North Sea Jazz Festival, Antibes Jazz Festival, Jazz à Vienne, Montreux Jazz Festival, Barbican Center and Tonhalle, to name a few. In 2011 Nitai joined bassist Avishai Cohen’s group (known for his long time collaboration with Chick Corea as well as for his successful band leading career). As part of Cohen’s Trio as well as of other symphonic projects, they recorded 3 albums together: A Duet - Duende (EMI/Blue Note), A chamber music project Almah (EMI/Parlaphone) and a Trio album -From Darkness (Razdaz Records). In 2016 Nitai had relocated to NY and is keeping a busy schedule, touring and recording with notable artists such as: Malmo Symphonic Orchestra, Stuttgarter Kammerorchester, Kurt Rosenwinkel, Kendrick Scott, Mike Moreno, Georgia Anne Muldrow, Robert Sadin, Theo Bleckmann, Matt Penman, Mark Turner, Marcus Gilmore, Ben Monder, Jorge Rossy, Mndsgn (Ringgo) among many others. Nitai's latest album, New Place Always is a collection of melodies that have resonated through time, long enough to evoke a sense of folkloric familiarity. After collaborating for his debut album, Nitai Hershkovits and Rejoicer take the art of Piano Solo to a new level; Eight of the tunes were written together in the studio — “I had all kinds of ideas but I wanted the music to fit the piano and the room in the studio so I wrote most of them there. The process was simple - we kept switching sides, left and right hands, each one brings his colour to a new tune”, says Nitai. Like in classical music, the rest of the tunes are through-composed, leaving space for interpretation and real-time composition as well as gathering musical ideas from Nitai’s African roots, using Western harmonies to create a new, fresh palette of sounds.

Explosive energy, unpredictable sounds, unique compositions and ecstatic improvisations - this is the ultra-modern Estonian-Lithuanian-Finnish-French group, Captain Kirke and the Klingons! The group’s leader, Estonian pianist, Kirke Karja, managed already twice to conquer Opus Jazz Club’s audience with her innovative compositions and brilliant play, first as one of the leaders of the sextet, Heliotroop, and later with her own quartet. This latter formation was by the way one of the 16 chosen groups who got the chance to performe live on the European Jazz Meeting in Bremen, in front of hundreds of jazz profesionals from all over the world, gathering at the annual jazz fair, jazzahead!Kirke is a very active and initiative musician, as her new quintet, Captain Kirke and the Klingons, can easily prove it. Kirke teamed up in her pan-European group with Lithuanian multi-reeds player Liudas Mockunas, Finnish saxophonist Mikko Immanen, French bass player Etienne Renard and her fellow-countryman, drummer Hans Kurvits on drums. Their music draws influence from a large variety of musical sources, including metal, free jazz, minimalism, expressionism and modern European jazz. These musicians have known each other for many years, having played together in universities, jazz clubs, summer courses and festivals. Though they are spread out all across Europe, the wish to discover and create something all their own brought them together for this project. In 2018 they recorded their debut album, to be released in spring of 2019.

The highly versatile saxophone and flute player, Eszter Pozsár, who has been at the Opus several times with her Trans-Formation Quartet, has recently set up a new trio under the name Contempo. Their debut album, Appassionato will be released in March. “CONTEMPORARY – what do people usually think about this word? Let’s tell the truth: in most of the people, mentioning it provokes at least forbearance…but what do we precisely mean by contemporary? FOR US – contemporary means the inherent present, everything that has an impact on us and everything how WE influence others around us. Growing up at this part of the world we were influenced by many things. European classical music – we grew up studying it, getting to know its classical „literature”, Hungarian and Balcanic folk music, jazz and many different genre of it. We made a detour in many different styles and the numerous experiences shaped us and our own musical style, enriched our repertory. Nowadays contemporary music gets criticized quite often: ‘everything had been discovered, no perspective, it is frozen’ etc. WE think that there are many ways that take us forward and we have found one that inspires us and offers new prospective. We have united everything that we had absorbed with a good grace, and we do not think about styles or labelling, we ‘just’ play music, create, compose TODAY in the 21st century for our contemporary audience.” tells Eszter Pozsár about the trio on her website. pozsareszter.hu/contempo facebook.com/Contempo 

Guitarist István Gyárfás's longtime dream of creating a Hammond trio comes to frutition with organist Mátyás Premecz as they present their first album, Organ Grinder's Suite at Opus Jazz Club with Gyuri Jeszenszky on the drums. Organ Grinder's Suite on Bandcamp Organ Grinder's Suite by Gyárfás-Premecz Organ Trio

The multi-faceted vocalist, Martina Király graduated from the Liszt Ferenc Academy of Music at the Department of Jazz. Her debut album, Ready for You, was released in 2011. Martina’s talent as songwriter was awarded in 2013 by the Hungarian Composers’ Association with the Orszáczky Jackie Prize, in the category Popular Composer of the Year. her 2016 album, Higher.Deeper, was followed last year by The Female Role, featuring beside her originals cover versions of pieces by The Neville Brothers, Jimi Hendrix and Bill Frisell, reflecting the versatility of Martina both as singer and composer. The musical material on the album represents various genres from jazz through pop-funk and progressive metal to world music. The repertoire of the live concerts by Martina is basically made up of her own soul-blues compositions, accompanied by folk and rap-inspired pieces, as well as her special interpretations of gems from pop music.

The French jazz scene has a vitality, an originality and a do-it- all and do-it-anyway mentality about it right now. It is French musicians who are blazing the new trails for contemporary European jazz. There is a wonderful open-mindedness towards all musical cultures, genres and tendencies; and yet French musicians also give off the sense of having a proper grounding in their own tradition. A musician who represents all of these tendencies ‘par excellence’ is saxophonist Emile Parisien. Born in Cahors in the wine-growing region of the Lot, he is a jazz visionary. He may have one foot in that ancient soil, but his gaze is firmly fixed on the future. The leading French newspaper Le Monde has called him “the best new thing that has happened in European jazz for a long time,” while the Hamburg radio station NDR made the point of telling its listeners to give Parisien their “undivided attention.”  The reference points on Parisien’s personal musical map are very widely spread indeed. They range from the popular folk traditions of his homeland to the compositional rigour of contemporary classical music, and also to the abstraction of free jazz. And yet everything he does has a naturalness and authenticity about it. Rather than appearing pre-meditated or constrained, his music has a flow, he traverses genres with a remarkable fleetness of foot and an effortless inevitability.  What is it that makes the simple urgency of Parisien’s music quite so enjoyable? How does he manage to combine a provocative and anarchic streak with such a captivating sense of swing? Anyone who has seen and heard him on stage will know: it is because he lives his jazz with body and soul, because there is an authenticity and honesty inflecting every breath and every note.

“Hermia, Ceccaldi and Darrifourcq give an incredible music lesson: imbrication or clash of timbres, mastery of nuances, surprise of alloys of sounds, beauty of lyric passages ... Everything here is a source of delight.” (Thierry Quénum, Jazzman) “One of the most exciting groups in Europe.” (Tony Dudley-Evans, London Jazz News)“Beyond his obvious rage (to play / to live / to surprise), this trio shows a true band sound: original, bitter and contemporary.” (Albert Laroux, Jazz news)“Spontaneity, energy and urgency of the moment” (Nicolas Dourlhès, Citizenjazz.com) – just few words from some of the enthusistic critics about the trio. A saxophone, a cello and drums. And in the middle of all that, a music of the extremes which briskly does the splits, passing without complex of a rush of tenderness to a swirl of rage. Of a baroque melody delicately shelled swelling into a noisy thunder. It isn’t nothing, since they reach doing it while keeping a particularly accurate sense of sound textures and a rather rare control of dynamics.  Valentin Ceccaldi could be presented as the new revelation of cello in Europe. From experimental jazz to classical orchestras, its rough bow and its delicate pizzicati illuminates his music and our ears. We can feel his strong complicity with Sylvain Darrifourcq who after some great collaborations (Emile Parisien 4tet, Joëlle Léandre, Tony Malaby, Akosh S, Marc Ducret) develops his unpredictable and inventive music in his own bands In Love With and MILESDAVISQUINTET!. Together, they weave the ideal groundwork for the overlapping sax of Manuel Hermia, an adventurous saxophonist who furrows the roads of world music while carrying strongly alive the primal scream of a furiously libertarian jazz. All three defend the idea of a music without borders, being nourished of all musics. A jazz of today like one says, smart and free at the same time, going from meticulous compositions to drifts without boundaries. manuel-hermia.com/index.php/en/projects/hermia-ceccaldi-darrifourcq-trio 

For L’Arbre Rouge, Orchestre Nationale de Jazz saxophonist Hugues Mayot, who ventures with ease in the most varied contexts (Radiation 10, André Minvielle, Marc Ducret, Magma ...), designed an instrumentation close to chamber music, reminiscent of the intimacy of a classical quintet, and surrounded by rare instrumentalists who all share formidable technique and a constant concern for aesthetic openness, from scholarly music to popular music, through the most daring experiments. Through minimalist and repetitive writing as a research on timbres and textures, Mayot gives a singular rhythmic dimension to his miniature orchestra, and creates a playground for improvisation which he joyously shares with his four companions in adventure: Sophie Bernado, Joachim Florent, Théo and Valentin Ceccaldi. The debut album of the quintet will be released by BMC Records on day of the concert.

Founded by French pianist Enzo Carniel and guitarist Marc-Antonio Perrio in 2012, the band House of Echo has grown out of their desire to create spaced and improvised music that reconnects and reconciles us with true listening and time. Their fascinating compositions draw a range of “soundscapes” with powerful dreamlike capacities, between melodic abstraction and elusive grooves, shimmering textures and sonic clashes, otherwise called “Echoïdes”. website Four musicians from Nantes delve into the age-old vocal repertoire revealed in the magnificent record Les voies du monde (Voices of the World). Whether they are a funeral lament that sounds like children playing, a farmer from Vendée leading his oxen to the fields, or two Inuit women laughing as they playfully sing their guttural song, these chants are at the core of mankind’s musical creativity. No Tongues’ acute modernity dances with these gems from the past and takes us on a fantastic journey to enlighten the present. website facebook The concert is being performed as part of the Jazz Migration series established by AJC to support the professional development of new jazz groups.

Strengthened by his many experiences and influences, the outstanding French cellist Vincent Courtois has developed an individual exploration of music. His creative process builds on musical relationships, the balance of personalities and energies, the impact of contrast, ideas of sound, images, incertitude and silence. Creating a musical form where freedom is paradoxically managed with utmost rigour and attentiveness, he gives collective creation a chance and each collaborator a unique position in a spirit of trust and mutual involvement.  In the spring of 2017 Vincent Courtois  started “Les Demons de Tosca”, a multidisciplinary project involving nine musicians, one comedian, one photographer and a sound-designer. It questions the notion of “demon” in the creative process. Using the libretto from Puccini’s opera, each event of the project features a new combination of players from the ensemble. One of the first concerts happened at the Opus club in the Budapest Music Center, including saxophonist and clarinettist Robin Fincker, with a taste for new experiences as well as a desire to draw from a musical spectrum that is free from stylistic concerns and Seb Brun, one of the best in the younger generation of French drummers. The libretto of Tosca served as the main thread throughout the creative process, which was a mix between acoustic and electric, with a lot of improvisation. While always remaining melodic, the music remained free but controlled, demanding but generous, deep and crystal clear, and ultimately providing for everybody present an instinctual, primitive, intimate and unique experience. After several re-listening the recording of the mentioned Opus concert, Courtois and his accomplices, in joyful accordance with BMC Records, decided to release an edited version of it, entitled Opus I. of the Demons of Tosca project.

Beats & Pieces Big Band take the big band sound to places it’s never been before, with a distinctive blend of rocking energy and precise dynamics, infectious floor-filling rhythms and widescreen arrangements, generous individual freedom and tight collective interplay. Embracing modern textures and techniques while acknowledging and celebrating their big band lineage, they’ve earned a reputation for a joyful interaction between audience and band, with songs to make you think, dance, laugh and cry. This exciting ensemble led by composer/conductor Ben Cottrell boasts 14 musicians, many of them bandleaders in their own right, with each player’s distinct musical background and individual voice being key to the collective band identity. Such is the level of trust and friendship across the group that they perform entirely from memory, effortlessly switching between super-tight ensemble playing and generous soloistic expression in the same way as a trio or quartet. A driving force of the vibrant Manchester music scene and one of the most striking ensembles of its kind, the group continues to win new fans and friends across Europe and beyond. This is their first ever concert in Hungary!  “A big band with the feel and dynamics of a small group and the force and impact of an orchestra” - AJ Dehany, London Jazz News “Fast becoming one of the foundations of the current UK jazz scene, Beats & Pieces make fun, grooving, high- impact music Mancunian style… continuing the great tradition of UK big bands” - Jez Nelson, BBC Jazz on 3  beatsnpieces.net music.beatsnpieces.net 

Born in Palermo, Sicily, Francesco Guaiana approached both jazz and classical guitar studies and thanks to a scholarship he was able to attend The Berklee College of Music in Boston at the end of the 90’s where he had the pleasure  to study with Mick Goodrick, Jon Damian, Bret Wilmott, Dave Samuels, Bruce Bartlett, Ted Peace and perform with Gary Burton, Paul Jeffrey, Dayna Stephens, Bob Moses, Ferenc Nemeth among others. In 2001 he  was  hired as staff member at Berklee College in Boston, working for Bob Stoloff and Bill Pearce. He has performed in Italy, Austria, France, Slovakia, Czech Republic, Germany, The Netherlands, Spain, Switzerland, Poland, Latvia and USA. He has recorded  a few records under his name and has taught jazz clinics in England, Spain, Portugal, Latvia, Poland, Italy. He is currently teaching Jazz guitar in A.Scontrino Music Conservatory,  Trapani Italy. The collaboration between Francesco Guaiana and Kristóf Bacsó goes back to the turn of the millennium, both of them being students at the Berklee College of Music in Boston at the time. They continued to collaborate through a successful Calabrian tour in 2007, while drummer Zsolt Sárvári Kovács, who started his career together with Bacsó at the Ferenc Liszt Academy of Music in Budapest, also met Francesco while spending some years of his life in Italy. They carried out numerous projects with prominent musicians of the vivid jazz scene of Rome. The idea to ​​melt the experience of the past few years in a new, common sound was formed from this triple acquaintance. Péter Ajtai, whom both Kristóf and Zsolt shared several groups and projects with, was asked by them to be a fourth companion for the realization of their idea. The team is presenting themselves the first time for the public on to the stage of Opus. Their music combines elements of contemporary jazz and free music with intellectual sensitivity, so characteristic for each of the four musicians.  

“between cabaret and schizophrenia” Concerto With its refreshingly innovative music, the KUHN FU demonstrates that arbitrarily drawn boundaries have no place in music-making. Founded in the Dutch city of Groningen by the German guitarist and composer Christian Kühn, the quartet includes musicians from Israel, England, and Turkey. They classify their music as a post romantic jazz/rock disorder, which can sound as viscous as lava or take on manic dimensions that lead to hard clashes. KUHN FU’s sonic tones are propelled by distorted guitar sounds as well as Ziv Taubenfeld’s bass clarinet – an essential improvisational tool. Audiences are taken on an emotional soundtrip where they explore absurd melodies amid the heavy buzz of early rock music. Their third record Chain the Snake will be released by Berthold Records March 22nd. kuhnfumusic.com  facebook.com/kuhnfumusic  KUHNSPIRACY by KUHN FU  

Rebellion(s) is a brand new project of two outstanding reed-players – Sylvain Rifflet from France and Jon Irabagon from the US. Their program is inspired by those revolts, rebellions, revolutions and freedom-fights which marked the path of both nations leading to democracy – from a musical point of view. While in France most of the music written in revolt periods were songs, protest songs or hymns, in the United States jazz musicians have always been involved in composing music for and about rebellions, especially during the long fight for civil rights. It’s enough just to mention John Coltrane’s Alabama, or the music by Archie Shepp, Sun Ra, Pharoah Sanders and many others... Sylvain and Jon have researched music penned during or after riots and revolutions, compositions written about or inspired by them. They think that the link between rebellion and music still exists: composition and improvisation, using new forms and taking new aspects, are proper ways to express any kind of revolt. Using themes from their research and composing entirely new ones, they built a set of pieces which they started to work on with two further key figures of the French and US jazz scene: Jim Black on drums and Sébastien Boisseau on double bass. The result is a complex music melting influences of jazz, free jazz, repetitive and minimalist music through fluent improvisation. The project, supported by French-American Jazz Exchange 2018, will have its debut just 3 days preceding the Opus concert, on April 3, 2019 at the legendary Banlieues Bleues Festival. jmp.fr  sylvainrifflet.com  jonirabagon.com  facebook.com/jimblackdrums  sebastienboisseau.com 

My Hope, the first album of the Mário Rafael Trio, was released in the winter of 2017. Preparing themselves for their second one, the Junior Prima Prize-winning pianist-frontman decided to expand his formation into a five-person outfit by a DJ and a singer, allowing thus the pieces to combine much more layers of music than before. Of course, experimentation and improvisation still had priority in the process of creation, but in addition to jazz, many elements from popular music of the present appear in the new pieces, with a prominent role on use of electronics.

Looking for a band that unites a conceptual approach with refreshing creativity and an explosive spontaneity? Look no further: active since 2011, Too Noisy Fish has already become a remarkable force in Belgian jazz. The fact that the musicians – pianist Peter Vandenberghe, bass player Kristof Roseeuw and drummer Teun Verbruggen – have also been Flat Earth Society’s rhythm section since 1999 (!) definitely helps. These people have been refining the art of interaction for years and have become experts at it. In their hands, music turns into clay, something to mold according to their needs. Since its inception, the band has toyed with a few recurring ideas and contradictions. Strong contrasts and tumultuous dynamics are often at its core. Vandenberghe’s compositions often include diametrically opposed ideas, with music that can be both direct and intricately layered, delicate/refined as well as hyperkinetic and forceful. It is often tightly executed and possessed by a healthy dose of humor and nonsense, but also aiming for something more than postmodern irony. It's like a mirror to life, in all its unpredictability and iridescence. Joy and frustration, but also the ability to put things in their right perspective. Fast Easy Sick (2011) was a debut that turned heads, as the band managed to combine rock & roll intensity with avant-garde boldness, delving into jazz’s immense history while also turning to the margins for inspiration. Follow-up Fight Eat Sleep (2013) was recorded by Oz Fritz (Tom Waits, John Cale) and became a confirmation of all their strengths. Resolutely wild at heart and eternally curious, the band continued to build up and break down, with a tremendous love for the genre and a reckless abandon that turned everything upside down. Brash expressionism, eerie film samples and a relentless energy combined in an 11-part juggernaut. After Nightwatch (2016), a project with lauded author Dimitri Verhulst and video artists Trisha De Cuyper and Jan Lapeire, the band will return to Oz Fritz to record album #3: Furious Empathic Silence. The next step in their creative and existential quest. Taking their inspiration from 20th century composers (Ives, Ravel, Messiaen), jazz icons (Miles, Monk, Cecil Taylor), hiphop and other influences, the trio once again sets out to create music that will surely ask questions (maybe even the right ones) and perhaps offer answers. Or not. In any case, the journey once again promises to be colorful, daring and filled with surprises.  toonoisyfish.be 

Three of the most prominent and profound improvisers of Lithuanian jazz scene make up Infiltrators, a group distinguished by their unique usage of acoustic instruments paired with live electronics and by their music, a completely undescriptable and unpredictable act of pure creativity, full of wisdom, spirituality and energy. “It is a spontaneous act, a synergy of three talented people, which takes you away from the present to eternity… Finding a definition for the music that this trio plays might be an inconceivably tough task… Infiltrators play in their own manner and approach new valleys of sound where no one has ever been before.” (All About Jazz) “The fusion of the experimental music, free jazz and ambient music, whatever you name them, is a hard task for anyone to identify the artworks that are born out of the wordless space. They meet in order to any primary cliché, stereotype or image shaped up in your head while going to the concert would break like a wave into the pier. They are here to show that any stereotype will fall apart in front of the harmony being born here and now.” (D. Razauskas) Though every musician of the trio has a wide range of experience on his own, the goal of Infiltrators, as they see it, is to pay attention to the universal language of music, step through the borders of traditional musicianship and establish a connection between artist and listener on a very subtle spiritual level. The trio has been successfully performing in Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Poland and Ukraine – it's time for them to enter the stage of Opus, finally. This concert is presented by Vilnius Jazz Festival allaboutjazz.com/infiltrators  Infiltrators by Trio Infiltrators

“When eclectic postmodern chamber jazz meets rock. Rich with detail and a charming compositional finish that leaves you yearning for the unexpected.” Andreas Felber, OE1/WDR 3 Jazznacht The Vienna-based post-jazz group Sketchbook Quartet consists of four young musicians who share their interest in the modern creative improvised sound. They try to break through genre-borders and play a mixture of prog-rock with chamber jazz and a set of strong rhythms that shift around. The unorthodox instrumentation and elaborated compositions combined with their passion guarantee a young, fresh and vibrating sound. “Very enjoyable album, full of great fun, lot's of changes in style and rhythm all the way through it. The interesting lineup gives it an unusual sound. It seems to move between straight ahead jazz, surfing rock and lots of other stuff in between.” thejazz.co.uk - about their album When Was The Last Time Vol. I., released April 15, 2018  sketchbookquartet.com facebook.com/sketchbookquartet  When Was The Last Time Vol. I by Sketchbook Quartet

The music of András Dés Trio has no truck with distinctions between genres, while it successfully manages to eschew the congenital defects often resulting from the fusing of genres; it continually seeks for the new, but through the use of familiar musical elements it creates a comfortable acoustic homeliness for the listener; it radiates enthusiasm, and even in its most serious moments it has a message for us: there is nothing more marvellous than music. It takes its inspiration from a variety of sources, both traditional and non-traditional. Look for jazz and you won’t find it. But if you allow the timbral suggestibility of the music to percolate, you will enjoy a rich tapestry of entwining voices, sound-worlds, and musical horizons. “The creativity of the musicians is so strong that we don’t see what else could be added to this orchestral trio. Finely crafted guitars mix with the countless percussions of András Dés, whom his sons call perhaps the worst singer in the world, but who turns out to be one of the most inventive percussionists of today, and not only in Hungary. His research is based on the melody, and all is a pretense to emphasize the notes of the guitars. The trio’s symphony lies between the autocracy of classical music and the anarchy of free jazz, somewhere where an underlying framework, suggested and not limited, almost watermarked, offers a space for exchange, listening, and self-expression. In a totally free and open approach, the music resounds as evidence, a harmony rises slowly to hatch the idea of ​​tolerance, dear to the composer.” Raphaël Benoit, Citizenjazz

The music produced and performed by the Hungarian based ensemble Tariqa is simultaneously reminiscent of the proto world-music innovations of John Coltrane’s Africa Brass in the 60s and the 70s futuristic Sufi inspired jazz of the Human Arts Ensemble. Led by Saïd Tichiti originally from the Moroccan Sahara, Tariqa’s ecstatic momentum is firmly based on gnawa drumming and guembri bass lines spiced by rippling carpathian cimbalom, violins and flute. Top this all with Saharian desert blues vocals and horn parts full of urgent urban American howling and Klezmer screams, and the effect is nothing less than 21st century musical bliss. Tariqa’s new CD is a musical breakthrough Bartok, Coltrane and the late Ali Farka Toure would all likely relate to. Blessed and possessed by the powerful spirits that inhabit the Euro-Asian-African crossroads that shaped and continue to shape our destiny- Tariqa swings and rocks hard to a warm universal musical embrace. Darrell Jónsson tariqa.bandcamp.com 

“From complex yet readable convoluted patterns, to unrelenting courses under vibrant sparks of freedom, this simply is jazz, jazz today and jazz tomorrow!” Xavier Prévost, Jazz Magazine, January 2017 By creating this group in 2014, the marvellous and fascinating multi-faceted flutist, Sylvaine Hélary, wanted to explore a way of composing that drew its inspiration as much from her contemporary music education, her encounters with musicians from New-York (Tim Berne, Kris Davis, Tony Malaby, Ralph Alessi) and her wild years playing unclassifiable pop music (Martine à la plage, Fantazio). Spring Roll’s instrumentation is pretty uncommon. Flutes, a saxophone or clarinet, a piano, a double bass, mostly bells or keyboards. To which can be added an analog synthesizer and a ring modulator that allows at some moments live treatments of the piano. The partition takes us between the most stripped-down minimalism and an orchestral maelstrom. Building together such sounds never heard before, this is what drives above all the four musicians of this band. It can easily be linked to New Music and its way of sharing improvisations and compositions. Sylvaine Hélary “has appropriated the musical territories where improvisation, contemporary music, sonic poetry, musical theatre, uncommon pop-music and ultra-modern post-jazz exchange their proprieties and mingle their identities [...] This band is ideal for the flute-player to experiment on hybrid compositions that build bridges between the repetitive and hypnotic universe of Morton Feldman and the progressive and self-generated patterns of the young New York generation [...] This sensorial music enchants us by its intelligence, its refinement, its freshness and great maturity.” Stéphane Ollivier, Jazz Magazine Printemps, the group's first album was released in 2015 on Ayler Records while their next, Big Apple’s Flavor, appears in March 2019 on Clean Feed. sylvainehelary.com