One of Hungary’s outstanding jazz guitarists, Bálint Gyémánt renewed his trio with young musicians. The guiding principles of the team’s collaborative work are freedom, experimentation, and exploration of new possibilities – each being a core part of jazz since the beginning. “The trio is my personal creative workshop where I can work with exceptional, inspiring artists who are also my friends. Although we perform my compositions, my partners always play a major role in creating the final sound. Each and every formation I play in I feel as my own, but the trio reflects my own musical language most accurately. Stretching the boundaries and finding new musical directions has always been important to me, which is why I wanted to create this fresh concept together with a new rhythm section”, says Bálint Gyémánt, working with Vince Bartók and Dániel Ferenc Szabó in his renewed trio. The young musicians are outstanding members of their generation who not only speak fluently the traditional language of jazz, but most modern trends have a major influence on their instrumental techniques as well. One of the special features of the trio’s sound is the the simultaneous presence of electronic and acoustic sounds of the drums. So while the band still remains a classical jazz trio, thanks to the technical equipment and effects their sonic colours became much more modern, allowing the musicians more creativity. According to Bálint Gyémánt, Pyramidion, the debut song of the trio, tells also about the state of mind behind the change: “For me, this song symbolizes faith in myself. It symbolizes that I should carry out my plans boldly. Vince Bartók and Dániel Ferenc Szabó are my true companions in this musical adventure. Whether it is a brand new composition or even rethinking of some of my earlier ones, I feel that our work moved to a completely different dimension.” The renewed repertoire includes also an arrangement of a traditional Hungarian folk song, connected to Bálint’s visit to the US last year. He left for Washington for just a single concert, where he performed in duo with Eden Ladin, the Israeli-born American pianist. He wanted to take something of his own musical roots with him to this journey, so he chose the well known folk song, Tavaszi szél vizet áraszt (Flood comes with spring winds). facebook.com/gyemantbalint  This concert is supported by NKA Hangfoglaló Program.

Imre Kőszegi, awarded with the Liszt Prize and the Officer’s Cross of the Order of Merit by the Republic of Hungary, is one of the most prominant drummers in Hungarian jazz life. During his career spanning over sixty years, Kőszegi has played with such Hungarian and international stars as Aladár Pege, Dezső Lakatos “Ablakos”, György Vukán, Béla Szakcsi Lakatos, Frank Zappa, Teddy Wilson, Kenny Wheeler, Art Farmer, Frank Foster, Charlie Mariano, Steve Grossman, Gary Bartz, Lew Tabackin or Trilok Gurtu, and has performed in the most significant concert halls, festivals and clubs in Europe and Hungary. Kőszegi, an extremely active musician up to this day, was last seen in Opus as member of the new quintet of Béla Szakcsi Lakatos. This time, however, he is arriving to the club with the most recent quintet of his own, the Kőszegi Rhythm & Brass & Electronic in which the long-standing Kőszegi-Rozsnyói-Orbán trio is extended with two outstanding talents of the young Hungarian jazz generation, trumpeter Balázs Pecze and guitarist Bence Bécsy. This concert is supported by NKA Hangfoglaló Program.

Deus Ex Quartet, with outstanding musicians of the local underground scene, is one of the most promising experimental Hungarian jazz outfits of the present. The members have known each other since their childhood – Kristóf Velsz and the Csernovszky brothers belong to the same family, actually – and this natural harmony among them is strengthened by the fact that all of them are contributing also as composers in the music of the quartet. Founded in Budapest in 2016, Deus Ex’s music blends with surprising naturalness classical and folk music with improvisational jazz. In their pieces, we can find elements taken from drum’n’bass, contemporary jazz, Hungarian folk music, drone metal, contemporary music or bossanova, all organically integrated into the structure of their compositions. After three years of existence, the band released their debut in January 2019, in the form of an EP trilogy, containing discs of different concepts, entitled Vein Blossom, Deep Sea and Horus. Their debut at the Opus certainly promises to be one of the highlights of the club’s December concerts.  Vein Blossom by Deus Ex Quartet Deep Sea by Deus Ex Quartet Horus by Deus Ex Quartet This concert is supported by NKA Hangfoglaló Program.  

This year, the Adyton Free Music Community celebrated its fifth anniversary. Among other activities, the members gather each August in Nagymaros or a few days, to focus on different aspects of free music together, while each December they organize Adyton Christmas where they disclose their experiences of the summer camp and also commemorate the legendary Kassák Christmases led by the late György Szabados. This is the second time that Opus Jazz Club hosts the event, where the Grencso Collective Circle and invited participants of the summer reunion will give a concert, preceded by a short documentary film by Gabriella Medgyesi, recalling the events of this summer in Nagymaros. “The fifth Adyton free music workshop was the first one I was involved with. The experience re-confirmed for me that free improvisation is in fact, at its core, creative association: We can only improvise freely with those who are willing to associate with us creatively. The question was this: How can a workshop bridge the different perspectives and levels of experience in performance and practice, in a way that allows all of us to participate and develop our own sense of what free improvisation can be and help us to become? It comes to this—from the most technically complex performances to basic human relations: Bring your heart and bring your ears. Be ready to play from the heart and listen for everyone. Music is in the air at all times, and we are free to pluck it together while we can, in a way that helps us all know that the music remains with us and without us. It is in our hearts that we feel the presence of the music, and it is through our ears that we commit to one another. We can make many types of music without listening to one another well. But we cannot improvise freely together without the commitment to listen as deeply as we can to one another. One way to think of it is as a spiritual practice.I think we had a tremendous time. Knowing that we would be together for four days helped us to be open to trying different things and seeing what worked and how it worked. We knew we could ask questions and exchange ideas.”   Lewis Jordan adytonalapitvany.hu 

The duo of two prominent Hungarian violinists representing two generations of the creative jazz scene gave only a single concert so far: hey had their debut in May with a full house at Nyitott Műhely. Opus Jazz Club is now proud to present their joint project, Stringstory which features the electronically modified sounds of two violins on a journey from classical Indian music to modern creative music and beyond.

Singer Veronika Harcsa and guitarist Bálint Gyémánt were classmates at the jazz department of the Liszt Ferenc Academy of Music. Altough Veronika continued her studies in Brussels while Bálint in Oslo, they became each other’s most important fellow-musicians. To date, they have collaborated on eight albums and on countless festival and club concerts in 25 countries across the world. In recent years, their acoustic duo have become their most important joint formation, and although their latest record, Shapeshifter, has been recorded in a quartet with two Belgian musicians, still the duo remained the core of their collaboration. They’ve worked out how to get the most out of a sound with just one guitar and vocals, and with their personally-inspired songs that carry depth, liberation and humour. On their concert the audience can witness a unique encounter of contemporary jazz and improvised pop music.  harcsaveronika.hu gyemantbalint.eu 

Opus Jazz Club is closing the year again with a concert of the renowned representatives of Hungarian jazz, the Dresch Quartet. Mihály Dresch is one of the most influential nurturers of a fertile fusion between folk music and jazz. Oriented towards his Middle European legacy, Dresch never forgets his equally powerful jazz roots. His ensemble melds tuneful melodies with Hungarian folk, dirge-like balladry, hyper-mode bop and progressive jazz via an uplifting mode of operations amid high-flying motifs and buoyant storylines. Compared to the quartet’s latest performance at Opus in August, this festive concert offers two novelties. László Csízi, one of the most engaged and versatile young percussionist of the country, is taking over the baton from István Baló, who thus can have more time on his own new projects. The other is that Mihály Dresch invited to the concert the Fonogram- and Harmonia-Award-winner viola player Róbert Lakatos, member of the orchestra Solistes Européens, Luxembourg, who besides classical music deals also a lot with Hungarian folk music to get the different genres closer to each other. We can be sure that the distinct musical personality of the two new performers in this line-up, having its debut on the present concert, will generate further energies in Dresch and his bandmates to go ahead on the path they are consistently pursuing since decades.  This concert is supported by NKA Hangfoglaló Program.

The two versatile and open-minded musicians, Szilárd Mezei from Vojvodina, and Gergely Ittzés, who recently moved his headquarters to China, have collaborated on numerous occasions in a variety of formations, studios, and stages. Their performances are mostly based on Mezei’s compositions or free improvisations, but they have also worked together with theatrical music, and Mezei even dedicated his 40-minute flute concerto to Gergely Ittzés who premiered it in 2018. The album Stormy Silence is a recording from a few years ago, released in March 2019 on the English FMR label. On the session the acclaimed trio was joined on flutes of various tunes by Ittzés, who was never afraid to risk some excursions off the field of classical and contemprary music. On the album, beside typical themes by Szilárd Mezei, also two compositions of the flutist are featured.   This concert is supported by NKA Hangfoglaló Program.

Just like the olympic 100m dash, a concert by the Amsterdam free-funk trio DASH! is a profound, almost physical experience. Invariably, audiences rave about how the band combines complex interplay with a committed yet easy going stage presence. With deceptively simple material, DASH! creates a musical universe all of its own, a universe in which only the notes that matter are played in a highly transparent fashion. This results in a very intense, minimalistic and almost hypnotic band sound filled with moments of uncurbed swing, volcanic eruptions and whispering melodies. DASH! started in 2004 as an octet and restarted in 2012 in its current trio line up. Leader Maarten Ornstein is an award-winning saxophonist and clarinetist who works with leading musicians from jazz, classical and Arabic music. He played at the Opus with Sunna Gunlaugs in 2017. His eclectic playing has been featured on over 30 CD’s by a wide variety of international ensembles, including his own. Completing the trio are bassist Alex Oele and drummer Eric Hoeke, both among the most highly praised musicians in The Netherlands and members of bands such as SFeQ, Kraak & Smaak and Zuco103. DASH! released their fourth album, Rewired, on Zennez Records in the end of 2019.  maartenornstein.com 

From the big to the small, from the orchestra to the septet: Basel-based saxophonist Sarah Chaksad, born in 1983 in Wohlen, takes a rather unusual approach. Having caused quite a stir with both her 16-piece Sarah Chaksad Orchestra and the all-ladies 15-piece International Female Musicians Collective (IFMC) as leader and composer, she now brings together Songlines, an European septet with three female and four male musicians – a group with outstanding personalities, well-known on international stages. Beside Sarah Chaksad’s alto saxophone, Hildegunn Øiseth, the Norwegian trumpet player from the IFMC is one of the party who lends a special touch to every sound – sometimes by using her extraordinary instument of goat horn. Lisette Spinnler is one of the most renowned vocal artists in Switzerland, whose special talent lies in her spontaneous, pleasurable and exuberant improvisation. The Hans Koller prize winner Tyrolean saxophonist Christoph “Pepe” Auer, well known already for visitors of Opus, adds his striking bass clarinet effortlessly to the sound. His compatriot Marc Mezgolits, studying in Basel, was nominated as bass guitarist for the Focusyear Band 19 contributes with his instrument a lot to making the sound so fresh and downright hip. At the piano we find the brilliant, also rhythmically immensely effective, independent and cosmopolitan Malcolm Braff while at the the drums of the extremely versatile Gregor Hilbe, another frequent player at the Opus, who also feels at ease in ethno and electronic projects. Sarah Chaksad writes powerful and emotionally charged music and this applies both to her former and her new compositions. Due to the smaller format and the selected musicians the pieces receive an additional esprit, more pressure, increased passion and intensity. Here, where individuality plays a much greater role and is more distinctive than in the orchestra, performed by these formative personalities, Sarah Chaksad’s music gets winged: rhythmically, melodiously and by surprising twists and combinations. The debut album of the septet with ten compositions, recorded in July 2019 comes out in the beginning of 2020. sarahchaksad.com 

The songs featured at the concert are all part of thirty-year-old pianist Gábor Tamaskó's first self-composed material which, while comprised of separate pieces, is intended to present a particular musical arc. The album pays a sedulous obeisance to the giants who have influenced the author a lot in the last ten years, so the songs are filled with specific references and quotes to the wonderful creations of J. S. Bach, Béla Bartók, John Coltrane, László Krasznahorkai, Thelonious Monk, Brad Mehldau, György Kurtág and János Pilinszky. His album, Songs I, to be released digitally only, will be premiered at the Opus and this concert will be also Gábor’s debut at the club. His companions in the show are all well-known young artists who, with their individuality and spirit, will conjure a clourful carpet from the threads of the songs. Gábor Tamaskó, born in Budapest, has been dealing with guitar, singing and piano since he was fourteen. He touched on the jazz genre relatively late, spending the first half of his musical adventures studying and interpreting traditional blues and American country-folk songs, which he continues to this day. From the outset, he has been concerned with the idea how he could present art that touches him, whether it be literature, fine art or music, in a way to be related and in interaction with one another. soundcloud.com/tamaskogabor 

Enchanting mediterranean mood, Middle Eastern trance, dreamy rumba, dramatic bursts – just a few of the worlds evoked by the Bujdosó Trio's music. Their style defies labelling because it feeds on countless sources and its recipe is unique: the intrumental music receives psychedelic seasoning by subtly portioned effects, flavours of film music emerge over and over again, and the sound might as well parallel the scrapy quality of the works by New York experimental artists like John Zorn or Marc Ribot. NATIONAL AMNESIA INSTITUTE by TRIO BUJDOSÓ

chuffDRONE combines five charismatic musicians, with their own individual approach to Jazz. Five mindful team players who get involved in each other’s musical performance with passionate commitment. In their compositions they intelligently as well as intuitively provide controlled outlets for uncontrollable eruptions, they orchestrate silence and transform ecstasy into rhythm. chuffDRONE unites energy with poetry, mischief with perfection. By counting on the power of the collective, the dividing line between composition and improvisation disappears, the different instruments merge into a pulsating sound charged with boundless energy, which creates a powerful attraction that the listeners can hardly resist. chuffdrone.com 

Saxophone Colossus, the studio album by American jazz saxophonist Sonny Rollins, was recorded on June 22, 1956, with producers Bob Weinstock and Rudy Van Gelder at the latter’s legendary studio in Hackensack, New Jersey. Rollins led a quartet on the album that included pianist Tommy Flanagan, bassist Doug Watkins, and drummer Max Roach. Saxophone Colossus was released by Prestige Records to critical success and helped establish Rollins as a prominent jazz artist. Reviewing in April 1957, Billboard said “Rollins’ latest effort should really start musicians buzzing”, as “the tenorman is one of the most vigorous, dynamic and inventine of modern jazzmen”, and “every track is packed with surprises, tho Rollins develops each solo with great architectural logic”. Ralph J. Gleason reviewed the album later in June for DownBeat, writing: “Almost as if in answer to the charge that there is a lack of grace and beauty in the work of the New York hard-swingers comes this album in which Rollins displays humor, gentleness, a delicate feeling for beauty in line, and a puckish sense of humor. And all done with the uncompromising swinging that has characterized them all along.” In 2017, Saxophone Colossus was selected for preservation in the National Recording Registry by the Library of Congress as being “culturally, historically, or artistically significant.” source: wikipedia

“In May of 2018, István Grencsó invited me to participate in a project he organized for his Collective, a quintet of remarkable musicians. This was my first direct encounter with István’s beautiful, energized music, and his incredible work as a multi-instrumentalist, we have met again since and plan to continue our collaboration into the future. With good reason – our creative connection perhaps started in a mutual respect for the music of Rahsaan Roland Kirk, but it quickly built from there; I could hear István’s profound knowledge of the history of American and European free jazz, which he has used to develop his own unique pieces and personal approach to improvisation. In István Grencsó’s case, both his composing and playing extend well past mere technique into a deeper realm, called art.”Ken Vandermark “Is there such a thing as coincidence? Perhaps. But in the encounter between István Grencsó and Ken Vandermark some kind of necessity seems to have been at work. If we compare the careers followed by these two artists in the last decade and a half or so, it seems as if their paths have intertwined, with parallels and intersections. This is far from being self-evident, because a fundamental consideration for both of them is constant renewal, and the search for ever newer forms of expression. In the musical idioms of both Grencsó and Vandermark, we hear the effect of external influences on them, and changes within them. As well as their natural predispositions, they are led in this direction by the artists who have influenced and inspired them.”from Zsolt Németh’s booklet text This concert is supported by NKA Hangfoglaló Program.

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, had its debut on April 3, 2019 at the legendary Banlieues Bleues Festival, followed just 3 days later with a termendous show at the Opus. Following the present concert the quartet will record at the BMC studio the material for their debut album, te be released on BMC records in fall 2020. jmp.fr  sylvainrifflet.com  jonirabagon.com  facebook.com/jimblackdrums  sebastienboisseau.com 

Hurdy gurdy - cimbalom - percussion. Raise your hand who has already met such a set of instruments! And if we add the names of the musicians of this extraordinary lineup, each of them pioneers of their instruments, extending musical and instrumental borders, it might not take long to declare that this concert would offer an extraordinary experience. The three outstanding musicians will be playing in a trio for the first time, but chances are that a long musical friendship will start on January 22 at the Opus Jazz Club. matthias.loibner.net mikloslukacs.com  facebook.com/desandras 

Guitarist-composer Tibor Eichinger released his first jazz album, Message from the Garden, in 1999 on Fono Recods, which has since been followed by numerous others both of his own groups and featuring him as member of other bands. Zen-piglet and the Others, the brand new album of the Eichinger Trio is in the meantime already the guitarist’s 20th in the row! On this occasion he decided to make an unusual album by inviting to the recording sessions, as well as to the present concert, several fellow-musicians from those whom he had previously made recordings with. Of course there are also compositions there, written just for the passionate, accustomed playing of his trio with bassist István Megyaszay and drummer Zsolt Madai. Obviously, the musical diversity of Eichinger and his inclination to grotesque are also fundamental features of this album. Jazz, rock, funk, Latin, contemporary, free – all fit into Eichinger’s musical set, both in his compositions and his striking guitar playing. This diversity is further enhanced by the presence of guests of quite different musical characters.

The quartet was formed in 2017 by Attila Rieger and Péter Rozsnyói whom both graduated at the Jazz department of the Ferenc Liszt Music Academy in 2004. Their common work is inspired by the appreciation of great performers and composers of the swing and bebop era. The special sound of their lineup is marked by signature sound of the Fender Rhodes, the analogue electric piano of the 70s. The painstaking rhythm section of Zoltán Oláh and László Csízi is the precise engine of the quartet. Their performances commemorate musicians like Wes Montgomery, Duke Pearsons, Bobby Timmons or Phineas Newborn. In the repertoire of the orchestra, however, they also have their own compositions. Their play is characterized by the joy of dynamism and coexistence, in addition to cleanliness.

Resulting from the meeting of D.U.O. (Christine Bertocchi and Guillaume Orti) and BALANCE (János Ávéd, Márton Fenyvesi and Ákos Benkó), with the expertise in electronic processing of Olivier Sens, this new project is exploring the relationships between acoustic music, electronic sound transformation and video mapping. By using the collaborative work by two French artists, the drawer Yann Bagot and video maker Didier Legaré-Gravel, TWINNING creates a dream-like atmosphere where sound and image activities depend from each other. Alternating between original compositions and oriented improvisations in a caleidoscopic manner, the audience is invited to embark for an abstract journey through new audio and visual landscapes. The project is supported by DRAC Bourgogne Franche-Comté and Spédidam.

Choose Cheese is a young jazz group “with aesthetic consistency avoiding any compromises”, as Kornél Zipernyovszky put it in Magyar Narancs. There are many sources in the music of the quartet – mainstream, avant-garde and free jazz, blues, Hungarian folk music, contemporary and classical music – and it is important to them to summon iconic figures of international and Hungarian music. At the same time, their purpose is to create from existing or non-existing style elements more in their music than the just the sum total of them. During their performances, in their own compositions, improvisations, or self-decomposing free improvisations, they emphasize compositional and improvisation techniques, different from those of the mainstream. Their most common means is melodic, linear and collective improvisation, and the steady rolling of each other’s ideas. The group is an open formation, so they often invite guests to their performances, like for their Opus debut last August the talented young pianist, Tamás Papp. For this year's concert, they are daring something even bigger: in the first part of the concert the quartet plays from their existing reperoire, while for the second part a very powerful piano and wind instruments section will be added to perform the most recent piece of the Pozsár-pupil leader, Márton Menyhért, composed specially for this occasion. As Márton puts it, “a piece with a quite different instrumentation and composition technique than used in jazz will be heard, played by a larger apparatus. The material may sound like jazz from afar, but reveals itself as something completely different while listening closely.”  This concert is supported by NKA Hangfoglaló Program.

Two awards and the audience prize at the world biggest jazz-piano-solo competition of the jazzfestival Montreux (CH), a lot of enthusiastic and international reviews for his CDs and tours all over the globe with his own projects – David Helbock, the pianoplayer coming from a small little village in Austria called Koblach, has with no doubt a great international musical career. Since 2016 he is an exclusive artist with the well-known German jazz label, ACT-Music, with whom he released already two albums – Into the Mystic (2016) and Tour d’Horizon (2018) before his recent one in August 2019, a solopiano album, entitled Playing John Williams.   The new program of Helbock’s 4th solopiano album – former ones included Emotions (2003), Time (2007) and Purple (2012) – deals with the music of John Williams, one of the most famous film music composers of all time, who wrote nearly all the scores to Steven Spielberg’s blockbusters. With Playing John Williams, Helbock connects seamlessly to two of his former projects. On Purple (2012, Traumton) the pianist dealt with compositions of the legendary pop artist Prince and already back then he transferred and reduced pop culture into his unique and creative solopiano language, while his trio album Into the Mystic featured mystical stories from different mythologies, and there they touched the music of John Williams already, playing an arrangement of his film music for Star Wars – a film full of cross connections between different mythological elements. In David Helbock’s present program film music from blockbusters like Indiana Jones, Harry Potter to Jaws or Schindler’s List are reduced to their essence and shine like new in unique, creative and jazzy solopiano arrangements.

After two decades of performing in different ensembles, like Vanilla Riot trio, Trus!, Velkro, Litošt, or the Borderless Orchestra / Senza Confini Orchestra, saxophonist Boštjan Simon formed in 2017 his own Slovenian-Italian quintet, entitled There Be Monsters, after an English term used to designate, in old maps, realms of unknown, unexplored territories supposed to be inhabited by monsters and other mythological creatures. As Boštjan puts it, the band’s music “focuses on the area of ​​the dividing line between familiar and unknown, composed and open soundscapes.” Following the 2017 debut of There Be Monsters on the Klopotec label, the quintet released their sophomore album, The Ark, in 2019, where musicians found inspiration in the polyrhythmic keys of African Pygmies, archaic blues and the tradition of improvised music.  The Ark by Boštjan Simon: There Be Monsters

Israeli born bass player, producer and composer, Liran Donin, is currently touring his debut album 8 Songs out on Cavalo Records to some rave reviews (Best 10 Jazz Albums of 2018 by The Guardian, 10 Best Releases of 2018 by Jazzwise magazine). With Liran’s distinctive powerhouse groove and his virtuosic approach to electric and double bass, his innovative sound brings together both his long-standing involvement at the forefront of the jazz music scene alongside his musical background. Donin has worked alongside an array of cutting edge artists and bands spanning a wide musical spectrum such as Led Bib, Polar Bear, Shabaka Hutchins, Malatu Astatke, Chrissie Hynde etc. His exciting and high energy band, 1000 Boats, featuring world class musicians as Josh Arcoleo (Mark Guiliana) tenor sax, Chris Williams (Let Spin) alto sax, Maria Chiara Argiro (These New Puritans) piano and Ben Brown (Waaju) on drums, were met with standing ovations at recent sold out gigs across the UK and Europe and currently is preparing to release a live album recorded in Nijmegen Music Meeting Jazz Festival with its first single to see light in 22/11/2019.  lirandonin.com

“Spotted early on as one of the most vibrant hopes of the Hungarian scene, saxophonist Viktor Tóth soon developed his own style influenced strongly by Ornette Coleman. With bass player György Orbán, a pillar of several groups of Béla Szakcsi Lakatos and the famous cimbalom player Miklós Lukács he offers a formula without battery, very open and lyrical, where his warm play makes one think on Lee Konitz.Lukács has a role which could be that of the piano, but the particular timbre of his instrument carries the trio in a muffled atmosphere and his ability to play a rhythmic melody releases the bass, which thus offers brilliant soliloquies. One might think that the cimbalom brings just a "Hungarian" patina to a rather conventional jazz construction; fortunately the always malleable Lukács avoids offering any ‘world’ temptation to Viktor Tóth’s wide range of timbres.”Franpi Barriaux - CitzenJazz tothviktor.hu

“A new prog-jazz supergroup”  Jazzwise“British Punk Jazz with a wiry electrical crackle”  Uncut“An original identity that promises to be one of UK jazz's best...”  The Guardian“Eclectic, impassioned and mind-blowing, Let Spin have shifted up a few more gears into the stratosphere – and it's a blast”  LondonJazz Let Spin are a versatile post-jazz four piece with an egalitarian musical ethos. Comprising composer-instrumentalists Moss Freed (guitar), Ruth Goller (bass), Finlay Panter (drums), and Chris Williams (saxophone), the group formed in 2012, when Freed invited three of his favourite musicians to fill a one-off series of live dates at short notice. Recognising an irrepressible musical connection, they continued in earnest, developing their sound over a pair of critically-acclaimed studio albums for Efpi Records, and a number of live shows throughout the UK. As with Phronesis and The Bad Plus, each band member composes for the group, with arrangements often forged collectively in rehearsal, and all decisions made democratically. Each contributes an equal number of compositions to every album, and when a decision is to be made, everyone has their say until a unanimous agreement is reached. Their critically-acclaimed albums Let Spin (2014) and Let Go (2015), exemplify the success of this approach, highlighting the personalities and strengths of each member, alongside the sonic vision of the group as a whole. Their forthcoming third album, scheduled for release on Efpi Records in Spring 2020, extends that vision further. Created in close collaboration with producer Alex Killpartrick, the eight-track collection is a triumph in experimental post-jazz, showcasing the band's ever-broadening web of musical influences, deepening interest in production techniques, and individual progression as composers and performers. With their particular blend of elusive melodies, heavy grooves, euphoric improv and playfulness with time, Let Spin’s electrifying live shows have left UK audiences awe-struck. Their inspirations are far-reaching: from Rage Against The Machine, to Hermeto Pascoal; Bill Frisell to J. S. Bach – coalesced into a sound that is truly their own. The enthusiasm of each performer has led them to work with some of contemporary jazz’s most exciting acts: Laura Jurd, Sarathy Korwar, Led Bib, Beats & Pieces Big Band and Melt Yourself Down amongst others. Yet ultimately, it is within this combination that their creativity truly shines. facebook.com/LetSpin 

What remains of a love affair that has ended? For Susana Sawoff and Raphael Meinhart the answer is music. The two have reunited as an artistic duo to form EXIT UNIVERSE. Their debut Because the World is Round reveals a unique symbiosis between the two: in perfectly balanced soundscapes thirteen songs unveil a touching intimacy and emotional depth. Their music meanders between Jazz, Indie and Neo classic and reminds us of Chilly Gonzales, Steve Reich und Radiohead. They playfully create haunting melodies, weaving piano, vocals, vibraphone, marimba, drum pad and a glockenspiel into a colourful tapestry of sound that just might put a spell on you. Raphael Meinhart and Susana Sawoff are EXIT UNIVERSE. Privately they once were a pair, and now they are just that musically, proving the old adage that opposites attract each other. He being the laconic avant-garde musician and she the eloquent, instinctive voice. He, the academically trained vibraphonist and she the self-taught pianist. On their first album together the ethereal lightness of the vibraphone meets the dark melancholy of the grand piano. For Susana EXIT UNIVERSE is not just another band-project: “There’s a reason why twosomes work so well. A duo is like matrimony. It can only work after a creative and personal encounter.” In Because the World is Round EXIT UNIVERSE celebrates nothing less than the beauty of all that is finite. Whereas the word “celebrate” may be bit exaggerated, because what Susana and Raphael do is dance and play poetically with the passing of things. The Broadcasting Commission of Hessen in Germany once wrote about Susana that “When this lady sings the sun rises”. The inexplicable, bittersweet moments of the last sun rays of a waning afternoon also herald a new day. There cannot be more fitting music to celebrate this magic.

G À N N A is the Berlin based ensemble of the Ukrainian singer Ganna Gryniva that features international talents of young up and coming musicians of the European music scene. The music courageously bridges several worlds from jazz to folklore to experimental and neoclassical esthetics. Inspired by several musical research travels in various regions of Ukraine,  G À N N A  awakens the Ukrainian folklore for a second spring and takes its listeners on a journey. Highly virtuoso and playful, but also full of melancholy, the musicians immerse themselves in the history and the mystery of the various music traditions and create a neo-native language. G À N N A  is an active part of the jazz and world music scene in Germany and Europe. They had the opportunity to present their music to national and international audiences, like at the Preveza Jazz Festival in Greece, Urban Music Hall in Odessa, Jazz Club 32 in Kiev, Jazzmile Thuringia, various locations in Berlin and many more. Upcoming concerts will take place in Konzerthaus Berlin, A-Trane Jazz Club Berlin and others. The ensemble has been for three times awarded the Berlin Senat grant to support  G À N N A´s tours throughout Germany. In October 2018, G À N N A  received the Thuringia Jazz Mile Award as “Newcomer of the Year”. In the same year, the band was awarded a New Liszt Foundation scholarship supporting the recording of their debut-album, D Y K I  L Y S  (Wild Fox in Ukrainian), which will be released in August 2020, in cooperation of Double Moon Records and Jazz Thing Next Generation. ganna-gryniva.de facebook.com/GannaDykiLys 

“The Coltrane Quartet of the 21st Century”  CD Journal, Japan“A Volcano on the Ocean Floor”  Carlo Wolff, Downbeat Magazine, US“Oded Tzur is one of the great musical thinkers of our time”  Wolf Kampmann, DE“If music has the potential to tell stories, saxophonist Oded Tzur proves himself one of the jazz world’s premier storytellers on Translator’s Note” Dan Mcclenaghan, All About Jazz, US“In the way that Coltrane found the deepest possible kinship to religious devotion in a record like A Love Supreme, Tzur is finding a kinship just as deep and just as simple in essence with poetry and storytelling. The result is music of extraordinary power and beauty and, hallelujah, stunning 21st century originality.” Jeff Simon, Buffalo News, US New York City based saxophonist, composer and bandleader, Oded Tzur draws influence from the art of storytelling and explores relationships between ancient and modern musical traditions. His two albums on Enja Records have earned his music the title: “A new type of Swing”, and won extraordinary critical acclaim in Japan, South Africa, Europe, Russia and the US. Tzur’s unique language of improvisation takes the listener on a journey many describe as “musical storytelling”, and evokes deep contrasts between silent passages and dramatic crescendos. odedtzur.com 

Ground-shaking grooves, hammering rhythms and wailing melodies, layered with explosive no-holds-barred improvisations: GORILLA MASK is a type of sonic madness roaring with a restless, implacable energy that totters dangerously on the verge of total chaos. They craft spirals of sound in 4 or 5 dimensions, jabbing you in the ribs as they mess with your brain; the ebb and flow of an acutely aware trio of musicians who know what they want and know how to get it. Canadian ex-pat Peter Van Huffel is a saxophonist out of Coltrane, Ayler and Zorn, but he frames his improvisational forays in the context of a trio with hard rock dynamics, riding the churn of Roland Fidezius’ frenetic bass and Rudi Fischerlehner’s pulsating drum kit like a surfer on the biggest wave he’s ever seen. GORILLA MASK is the product of a constantly active, hyper-intelligent hive-mind of three virtuosos; their music a mishmash of punk, rock and metal influences rooted in jazz, free-improvisation and the modern avant-garde. A collision of styles which form the key to the band’s identity. This is bold, audacious 21st Century improvised music writ huge, with innumerable influences and tendencies, gritty and urban, intellectual and ready to run a marathon.* Brain Drain, the fourth album from Gorilla Mask appeared in 2019 on the renowned Portuguese label, Clean Feed Records, celebrating the band’s 10th anniversary. The recording exhibits the band’s development over the past decade, displaying strong compositional concepts, intricate melodies and rhythms, and energetic improvisations. *Text adapted from the liner notes to HOWL! (2012, Between the Lines) and Bite my Blues (2014, Clean Feed) by Dave Wayne (Santa Fe, NM, USA) gorillamaskmusic.com