The group, founded in 2002, developed a special sound for its composed and improvised chamber music by combining instruments, rather uncommon in jazz, like the Bulgarian gadulka, or the African array mbira with the more traditional setting of guitar, saxophone, double bass and drums. The name Ektar comes from the Indian word 'ek-tar'which means one string. Indeed, the five musicians play and improvise in such harmony as if they were all playing on a single instrument.

“Andrew Robb and Marton Juhasz on bass and drums are all about close ensemble interaction, and sometimes it’s as if their sounds were coming out from the inside of Benzie’s piano... Benzie’s playing has a hushed yet yearning quality to it; an exquisite touch and elegant virtuosity make for a thoroughly engaging listen.” Jazzwise Winner of the BBC Scottish Young Jazz Musician of the Year at only 17, and Berklee College of Music’s prestigious Billboard Award, pianist/composer Alan Benzie is one of the UK’s most exciting talents. He is joined by friends and long time collaborators Andrew Robb on bass (BBC Scottish Young Jazz Musician of the Year 2009; Bass Europe Competition Winner 2018) and Márton Juhász on drums (Foundation for Hungarian Percussion Culture Award 2010; “Drummer of the Year” 2014 and 2015, JazzMa reader’s poll). Their debut album, Traveller’s Tales and 2018 release Little Mysteries have both garnered glowing reviews, with the latter also winning Best Album in the 2018 Scottish Jazz Awards. They have been delighting audiences throughout the UK and Europe over the last few years, including at London International Jazz Festival and United Europe Jazz Festival, as well as being the featured artists on BBC Radio 3’s “Jazz Line-Up”, Austrian National Radio and BBC Scotland’s “The Jazz House” and “Jazz Nights”. The music is rooted in European and American jazz, but is influenced by impressionist piano music and film music, and Benzie’s love of Japanese animation gives a visual, storytelling quality. From sensitive, magical textures to virtuosic explosions of energy, the trio are both sophisticated and accessible, with the warmth, empathy and interplay that can only be achieved through great friendship and years of making music together. alanbenzie.com martonjuhasz.com andrewrobbmusic.com facebook.com/alanbenziemusic 

Szilvia Bognár, soloist in countless productions, is one of the most sought-after singers of Hungarian folk and world music. She appeared with famous artists like Márta Sebestyén, Andrea Rost or Ferenc Sebő, András Lovasi, András Berecz. So far, she has made six albums with her own compositions, ranging from Renaissance chants through children’s songs to progressive world music. On the repertoire of her new world music formation, the Szilvia Bognár Sextet, Hungarian, Gypsy, Bulgarian and Greek songs are played in an unconventional line-up and arrangement, as three worlds meet in the program – folk music, jazz and North Indian classical music. Preserving the essentially acoustic sound and the natural quality of traditional performance, they sail safely through a variety of different styles of music and traditional melodies.

You just have to say it, and in this case, it’s no exaggeration: there has never been an album like Wünschen (Wishing). Something comparable? No way! The compelling strength of this cycle of songs lies in the unity of its contradictions, expressed in the subject matter and the choice of musical resources. This is an album as all-encompassing as life itself, and as colorful and unpredictable as a Coen brothers film. Erik Leuthäuser is a young singer from Berlin. The various histories and origins of the songs on Leuthäuser’s album tell a lot about the man himself. He reinterprets some of the songs, such as Friedrich Hollaender’s Wenn ich mir was wünschen dürfte (If I could make a wish). Others are musical versions of poems and songs, as is the case with a piece from Dorothea “Dota” Kehr. We have jazz standards from Wayne Shorter and Duke Ellington supplemented with Leuthäuser’s German texts. And then there are Erik Leuthäuser’s own compositions. Some of the pieces on the album are familiar, having already been recorded at one time or another. Yet Leuthäuser’s interpretations are by no means cover versions; rather he appropriates the pieces and makes them his own. When Erik sings these pieces, they sound as if they belong exclusively to Leuthäuser and his listeners. In the end, it doesn’t really matter where the pieces came from or how Leuthäuser happened upon them; now they simply belong to him: "It’s all very personal. I’m not concerned about the stylistics or a particular target audience. I have simply tied all my musical ideas together and created music out of them." A major reason why this musical portrait is so multi-faceted lies in Leuthäuser’s fellow musicians’ ability to immerse themselves in the singer’s musical language. The brothers Bernhard and Peter Meyer on guitar and bass are melting all influences of jazz-improvisation, experimental sounds, prog and indie rock, eletronic and Neue Musik together creating a unique and unheard style, that makes them remarkable voices of a new generation of jazz musicians. As a result they have been nominated two times for the Echo Jazz (the German Grammy for jazz). Joining them is the drummer Andi Haberl, known as the drummer from The Notwist. Coming from a jazz background, he has a technical mastery the likes of which is rarely seen. But this is coupled with a true playfulness and love of experimentation which is what really defines Haberl’s style.

It's really unnecessary to introduce the participants of tonight's concert, as each of them has been on the stage of Opus several times, both as leaders and members of different groups. Their current performance, however, is really unique because they join each other for the first time in the present quartet lineup. It is actually a next link in a strong chain of three different duos. Veronika Harcsa and Albert Márkos have been creative partners for many years in experimental, alternative productions. Peter and Bernhard Meyer are not only brothers, but also their closest colleagues, and Veronika gave one of her most memorable duo concerts in Berlin with Peter Meyer. facebook.com/harcsaveronika meyer-music.de 

The distinctive vocal style of Shirley Horn was already nearly fully formed on Loads of Love, one of the singer’s earliest recordings. The album, arranged and conducted by Jimmy Jones, was released by Mercury Records in 1963, and featured a nice list of prestigious musicians, such as Gerry Mulligan, Kenny Burrell, Al Cohn, or Hank Jones.

“Mangy chamber punk jazz” Andreas Felber, Der Standard Are these guys playing jazz counteracted by rock elements, or is it the other way around? Aren’t we rather listening to a rock band infiltrated by jazz? Indeed the tractor this mini-orchestra is firing up defies any purity requirements in jazz, indie, rock’n’roll etc. Pure anarchy: a bassless jazz trio, a rock band minus a singer. But is it really that simple? Edi Nulz allows the bass clarinet to be a solo instrument, a vocalist and a bass instrument, all at once. From time to time the guitar, too, indulges in low- frequency joys. The drums rumble in an expertly slipshod way, adding the finishing touches to this musical alloy of grandiose grotesque and gleeful nonsense. Edi Nulz walks the line between musical amalgam and bastard, often throwing the beat only to find back to track at one fell swoop or with a little sleight of hand. Last but not least, their devil-may-care handling of styles and effects means these guys are having the time of their lives – which also holds true for their audiences. Thus each Edi Nulz concert turns into a joyful tightrope walk between insanity and precision, precision and frenzy or frenzy and tennis. Grand audio drama, baby.  Back in February 2016, the trio had already rolled over the audience of Opus, now it’s time again for the next craze, especially with the band presenting their frenetic album, El Perro Grande (The Big Dog), released last year. edi-nulz.com     El Perro Grande by Edi Nulz

Junior Prima and Montreux prize-winner singer Nikoletta Szőke is one of Hungary’s most popular jazz vocalists. Beside her numerous concerts and festival apparances in her home country, she has performed in New York, Tokyo, Brussels, Copenhagen, London and Berlin, with such artists as Michel Legrand, Bobby McFerrin, Kurt Elling or Gregory Hutchinson. She has released seven solo albums so far. Moonglow, her most recent one was produced by Grammy Award winner Helik Hadar. Nikoletta’s musicians are among the finest ones of the country. In the spring of 2017, Nikoletta released her first song in Hungarian, entitled Az út hadd vigyen (Let the road take you). Since then she publishes new songs regularly, like most recently, Ha valaha szerettél (If you ever loved me) which already has over 35,000 views. 

The Rákfogó group is over forty years old. This statement is true, even though that the original Béla Szakcsi Lakatos - Gyula Babos - Mihály Ráduly - Jackie Orszáczky - Imre Kőszegi line-up operated only for a short time, between 1972 and 1974. However, the influence of this Hungarian jazz-rock flagship lasted for decades and had a decisive influence not only on the career of the members of the legendary line-up but also on the development of the whole Hungarian jazz life. Although György Orbán, unlike Orszáczky, plays double bass instead of electric bass, the band didn’t change their course to a more classical jazz sound. Just on the contrary, while Szakcsi is still playing exclusively on Fender Rhodes and the guitar of the recently departed Gyula Babos resembled the original sound, both the brilliant young guitarist Márton Fenyvesi, as the trumpeter Kornél Fekete-Kovács use a lot of electronic effects making it even more up-to-date. Imre Kőszegi’s drumming breaks with the tradition of bebop, making his play more colorful and original, especially by using cymbals and accessories specially made for this project. This all makes clear that Rákfogó is by no means a tribute band, and while the repertoire may include pieces by the original line-up, they – just like like some standards by Davis, Coltrane or Zawinul – appear in a new, revised form, evoking the experimental, form-breaking, freedom-craving spirit of the founders. 

Dave Frank is one of the busiest jazz educators and solo pianists on the planet. He was a co-founder of the New York School of Jazz, an Associtae Professor of Piano at Berklee College of Music in Boston from 1987-2005, and is the author of Hal Leonard’s best selling book series Joy of Improv. Dave has been directing the Dave Frank School of Jazz in NYC since 2010, and teaches jazz students both live at his studio in NYC and worldwide over Skype 7 days per week. Dave has 5 critically acclaimed CD’s on the Jazzheads label, and has developed an archive of 50 in-depth jazz master classes, all free at davefrankjazz.com.

Sándor Molnár is one of the most versatile and outstanding saxophonists of his generation. After graduating from the Liszt Ferenc Academy of Music, he obtained diploma at the Graz Academy of Music. His name is familiar both on the Hungarian and the international jazz scene, he plays regularly with Róbert Szakcsi Lakatos, Nikoletta Szőke and Tzumo and he performed also with his former quartet at the Opus., as well as his former quartet in Opus. In his current, renewed formation, his own compositions come to the fore, through which he presents a previously unknown side of him. In his exploratory compositions he is seeking for new ways of expression, using both the effects of experimental jazz and unmistakable post-bop elements. In order to realize his musical ideas, he chose Krisztián Oláh, György Orbán and András Pecek Lakatos for his partners, as all of them are improvisational artists with similar musical aspirations, and with whom they can create a constantly changing, vivid musical atmosphere. (On the concert Ellemér Balázs replaces András Pecek Lakatos due to another performance of him abroad.)

O-Janà (from the word Janara – “witch” in Neapolitan) is a duo that brings together singer Ludovica Manzo and electronic musician/pianist Alessandra Bossa, two composers and improvisers with different backgrounds. The combination of these two artists, each charged with spontaneity, curiosity and audacity, is exciting and the result of it is a music which moves from electronics through songwriting to free-improvisation.Their album Inland Images is a label-free journey between icy abstraction and vibrant pulsation through boundless territories, where song, melody and chamber music find a place along with neoclassical and jazz nuances. The entire album is a life story lived by the artists who have established a dialogue from very distant places and latitudes, and this is why it is a work of contemporary and international breath. Massimiliano Milesi’s OOFTH project, which was released on the AUAND label this year, is inspired by the surreal and paradoxical atmospheres that permeate the novel The Ifth of Oofth by the science fiction writer Walter Tevis. The original compositions of the leader often refer to the soundtracks of cinematic science fiction: as in Tevis’ story, the temporal flow becomes sometimes ambiguous and muddy, ferrying the sound images from one situation to another. The sidereal atmospheres generated by the electronic instruments suggest the sense of disorientation, experienced by the protagonists of the Tevis story.  NEW ITALIAN JAZZ GENERATION   –   Presented in collaboration with I-Jazz association

The progressive  / experimental / crossover jazz trio, Hobby Horse, is a figurehead of the rapidly developing new Italian jazz scene, but equally comfortable playing underground rock venues and dance clubs. During the eight years of their intense activity, they released six albums and did innumerous concerts throughout Europe and North America. Hobby Horse’s music is a wildly unpredictable mix of styles, a melting pot of musical languages ranging from slam poetry to techno to psychedelic bossanova, prog rock, hip-hop and chamber music. Passing from hypnotic drones to violent explosions of noise, they manage to maintain an underlying sense of balance, shared exploration and discovery, sculpting their sets into an overarching form which maintains artistic coherence despite (or perhaps due to) the drastic contrasts it contains. hobbyhorse3.com  Helm by Hobby Horse NEW ITALIAN JAZZ GENERATION   –   Presented in collaboration with I-Jazz association

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”. 

After completing the Ferenc Liszt Academy of Music, guitarist Csaba Czirják studied at the Berklee College of Music in Boston. Following his return to Hungary he soon became well-known by his versatility in different genres and lineups. The music of the Csaba Czirják Trio, founded in 2017,  provides a wide space for interaction between instruments, giving the complex harmony structures of the guitar, in collaboration with the rhythmic concept of bass and drums. The communication between the instruments, close to mind-reading – a key feature of jazz improvisation –, creates an exciting sound experience in such a minimal set-up of instruments. Markoláb, the trio’s 2017 debut was followed recently by their sophomore album, Emma, with seven original compositions on it. The present concert, featuring as special guest one of the most versatile and exciting musical personalities of the younger Hungarion jazz generation, Áron Tálas, builds its program mostly on the new album’s pieces. 

The incredibly gifted young alto-saxophonist Sándor “Soso” Lakatos has been playing professionally since the age of 12. Having made his mark on the Hungarian jazz world before the age of 20, he went to Holland to further his studies where he was tutored by the world’s leading jazzmen, like Miguel Zenon, Branford Marsalis, Gerard Presencer and Brad Mehldau, just to name a few. Since his return he is enriching the Hungarian jazz scene with his brilliant, incredibly intelligent and inventive playing. He is member of several groups like Balázs Bágyi New Quartet, Tzumo Exclusive or the Bart’z eColony Band. Since a couple of years, Soso leads his own quartet with various lineups. 

The fiery, emotional singer Elsa Valle from Cuba, home of frenetic rhythms and divine melodies, is a great favorite of the Hungarian audience. Her band, Afrocando, is made up of well-known musicians on the Hungarian jazz scene, featuring among them Elsa's husband, Gábor Winand, one of Europe's most singular jazz singers, who also plays the keyboards in addition to the saxophone. The virtuoso pianist Béla Szakcsi Lakatos, Jr. and the excellent rhythm section take care of the dense musical texture of the songs. facebook.com/Elsa-Valle-Official 

“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

Guitarist and composer Gábor Gadó is known for transmitting his latest ideas through a diversity of lineups, both at concerts and on records. Back in 1997 he already formed a quartet once without the traditional jazz rhythm section consisting of drums & double-bass, and has since been engaged in the idea of creating such a group again. One of Gadó’s long-time music partners is Belgian trumpeter Laurent Blondiau who is one of the founders of the long-established Flemish group Mâäk's Spirit which performed at Opus in 2016. In recent years Gadó and Blondiau have released a duo album on BMC Records and had numerous concerts all around Europe. In Belgium, the strong culture of wind instruments as well as the strong affinity to lineups doing away with the rhythm section got Gadó to form a new quartet with Blondiau and two of his long-time fellow-musicians, the saxophonist Ben Sluijs and tuba player Michel Massot (known from Trio Grande which performed at Opus this spring with Flanders on the Move), finally making his old idea come true. Gadó and his quartet pay homage to one of the most important composers of the 20th century, Alfred Schnittke – without actually playing anything from his oeuvre. Their tribute, according to Gadó, “is realized in terms of the starting principle, similar to ignite a torch form another one’s flames: the fire itself is the same – but there are two torches burning.”

“The Quartet of Zsolt Bende presents a contemporary version of what is still best described as straight ahead jazz. This album imparts a cogent revision of the idiom - unpretentious musical stories delivered with drive and potency, immediately capturing the imagination of the listener. The original compositions are inspired by hard-earned life experiences of travel and change, but somehow they also manage to communicate an unspoken truth - that none of those things would mean much without persistence. The balanced composure of the bandleader's guitar playing sets the tone for the session. His cool-headed yet powerful ardour suffuses through the quartet, a group re-formed in 2016 after a long period of practice and introspection for Bende. The state-of the art technology of the studio captures every nuance. Bende was raised in Tirgu Mures/Romania, fell in love with jazz in Budapest, and soon found himself in Boston at Berklee, graduating with a distinction. Since then he has steadily worked the European jazz circuit, touring and teaching most extensively in the UK. His presence is now having a fitting impact on the Hungarian jazz scene. In the full-blooded pianist József Balázs, versatile bassist György Orbán, and tasteful drummer Elemér Balázs, Bende has found the perfect interflow of empathy and contrast in which to weave his fluent melodies with an easy charm that makes you feel you are listening to a new story told by an old friend.” wrote Kornél Zipernovszky about Cycle of Change, the tecent album of Zsolt Bende Quartet. 

The last one of Adderly’s albums with the Riverside label, Cannonball’s Bossa Nova was recorded in late 1962 with the Bossa Rio Sextet of Brazil, led by Sergio Mendes on piano. The group included among others the future Weather Report percussionist, Dom Um Romao, and the sessions featured on five cuts Paulo Moura on alto saxophone with Pedro Paulo on trumpet. Though the album’s critical reception wasn’t too enthusiastic in the beginning, it soon became a very successful one, proved also by the fact that after Adderly’s move to Capitol it was reissued there several times as well. “Anchored by Brazilian composer and pianist Sergio Mendes’s band, Adderley’s singing sax lines float over the sunny Rio rhythms, owing more to Benny Carter than Charlie Parker. The renditions of Antonio Carlos Jobim’s standards Corcovado and Once I Loved and Joao Donato’s Minha Saudades are comparable to Stan Getz’s legendary records from the same period, showing anew that jazz and South American music have learned much from each other.” Eugene Holley Jr., amazon.com

Raised in Israel, Omer Klein studied with Danilo Pérez at Boston’s New England Conservatory, and then with Fred Hersch in New York. Soon becoming a key player of that city’s jazz scene, Klein now lives in Germany. In 2018, his Sleepwalkers album won the ECHO Award, which is often called the German Grammy Award. “Klein shows with his speed, touch, refinement, and creativity, that he belongs to the small group of master pianists,” wrote the critic of Süddeutsche Zeitung. The New York Times called him a “borderless” musician, and the Westdeutsche Zeitung described him as “astonishing.” Since the internationally praised record, Fearless Friday (2015), his trio has become one of the most sought-after jazz bands. To the upcoming Budapest concert they arrive with their latest album, Radio Mediteran.

The Chris Devil Trio was founded in 2011 by then jazz students from the Ferenc Liszt Academy of Music. Their program is made up of their own compositions and standards, played in a unique way. From the beginning each of them have been involved in the teamwork also as a composer. The different musical worlds of the members result in the trio’s exciting and multifaceted musical character. Their common purpose is to strive for experimentation by bending the limits of a set-up omitting harmony instrument, sometimes by means of traditional or fusion jazz, sometimes by that of free improvisational music. Last year the trio recorded the material for their first album which will be available the first time on the prsent album debut concert at the Opus Jazz Club.

Zita Gereben, one of the outstanding singers of the young generation, was first recognized as the vocalist of pop groups like Emil.RuleZ and the Gringo Star. However, Zita’s musical career is much more diverse. A large number of successful club concerts and festivals are proving her routine to adapt her velvety voice in a wide range of genres. On their third album, My Festival, Zita Gereben and her group are blending acoustic sound with electronic dance music, jazz, R'n'B and funk, resulting in an exciting pop music, where, like on the various stages in a festival, everyone can find the genre he likes the best. The diversity of songs, however, reflects a unified style that is sophisticatedly mixed with the melodic world so typical of Zita.

The Párniczky Quartet forged a unique signature sound that originates in jazz, contemporary classical and Hungarian folk music. The band was formed in 2016 with the aim of playing adaptations of Béla Bartók’s pieces, as well as of getting inspired in their improvisations by Bartók’s artistic world. As Raphaël Benoit from Citizen Jazz put it: „Bartók’s music is airy and creates a characteristic space. And this musical space is what the Párniczky Quartet can grasp, and give back freely and perfectly. Mastery and fresh impetus for Bartók's repertoire.”  András Párniczky and his bandmates, Péter Bede and István Baló, played with Nigun, the guitarist’s other group, more than 300 gigs around the world, including venues like the New York Guggenheim Museum, Brussels Bravo Art Festival, Athens Technopolis Jazz Festival or Klezmor Festival Vienna. Marcell Gyányi, one of the most respected young representatives of his instrument not only in Hungary but also in Europe, joined them recently on double bass. Their first album, Bartók Electrified, mentioned by W. Royal Stokes (Jazz Times, The Washington Post) as one of the notable releases of 2018, was released on BMC Records. „Bartók Electrified is a consistent, great continuation of the outstanding composer of modern music.”  wrote Mathias Bäumel in JazzZeitung about the album. Its repertoire was performed with the collaboration of Frank Möbus and Daniel Erdmann at the MÜPa, while recently the quartet has been touring with Carlos Bica and Dejan Terzic.  parniczkyandras.hu facebook.com/Parniczky.Quartet 

“Blaser is one of the most globally recognized performers on his instrument.” Berliner Zeitung At a time when there are more musicians in the world trying to be heard than ever before, rare gems like Samuel Blaser seem, paradoxically, to rise above it all. Since his 2007 debut as a leader, Blaser has grown at an almost incomprehensible rate, from straight-ahead hard bopper in his mid-twenties to innovative free player and ever-searching composer and bandleader in his early thirties, one whose improvisational strength has received high praise from media the world over. He has achieved a rare prominence as one of his generation's most wildly elegant, relentlessly forward-thinking and undeniably virtuous trombonists. With a history of work in Switzerland, NY and Berlin, Blaser brings now his multi-national trio with avant improvising guitarist Marc Ducret and drummer Peter Bruun to the stage of Opus for a set of extended improvisations, all three players displaying a unique language of incisive and fascinating free jazz. The Samuel Blaser Trio has played together extensively in recent years, developing a kinetic language and an active sense of restrained interplay, with each capable of taking one of the other’s musical ideas and pressing it into action. The shape-shifting trio can march, tumble, groove, simmer or flare up, depending on the needs of the moment. Since 2013 the trio has performed over 100 shows in Europe, North America, South America and Asia including the Willisau Jazz Festival, Switzerland; Jazzdor Festival, France; Atlantique Jazz Festival, France; Umea Jazz Festival, Sweden; Cheltenham Jazz Festival, UK; London Jazz Festival, UK; Jazz Jantar, Poland; Sarajevo Jazz Festival, Bosnia; What’s Next, Netherlands; Shenzhen Jazz Festival, China and the Guangzhou Jazz Festival, China. samuelblaser.com 

“The joint project of the two most outstanding representatives on reeds in the Hungarian ethno-jazz, Mihály Borbély and Mihály Dresch, creates a new quality, indescribable with usual terms, or definitions of genre. The sometimes melancholic musical world they share is characterized by a genuine taste and emotional richness in the use of elements taken from jazz as well as from motives of the Carpathian Basin’s folk music.” Dániel Végh, Fidelio 

Jorge Torrecillas Ensamble, established in mid-2011, was born with the aim to create original compositions by experimenting with new timbral and rhythmic possibilities of established patterns from contemporary jazz, avant-garde, new music and collective improvisation. Counterpoint, polytonality and polymodality play important role in these compositions along with elements of serial music. Although these features may be more typical in contemporary music, the Ensamble effortlessly combines them with jazz ‘grooves’. A lot of free improvisation allows the musicians further means of artistic creation, based on their intuition and skills.  After the 2013 self-produced release of their debut, Indigo, they toured intensively in Argentina and Uruguay, while their 2017 sophomore album, Una búsqueda infinita issued on Discordian Records, Barcelona, brought them the possibility to play already on the European continent as well. Una búsqueda infinita by Jorge Torrecillas Ensamble

The Szilárd Mezei Quartet was formed in 2017 as an expanded formation of the Szilárd Mezei Trio, active since 2000, when vibraphone player Ivan Burka from Novi Sad joined the trio of Szilárd Mezei - Ervin Malina - István Csík. Their repertoire consists of Szilárd Mezei’s compositions, where improvisation plays a major role. The quartet’s music covers a very wide spectrum, ranging from completely free improvisation to strictly written compositions, based on Hungarian folk music, contemporary music and modern jazz, with the distinctive sound provided by the two strings / two percussions line-up, where each member takes part as a soloist. The members of the trio are also members of Mezei’s larger formations – quintet, septet, ensemble – some of them familiar already to visitors of the Opus Jazz Club as well. They have given concerts in several European cities, like Belgrade, Novi Sad, Budapest, Krakow, Graz, Klagenfurt, Ljubljana, Sibiu, Győr, Kanjiža, just to name a few.  facebook.com/Szilárd-Mezei-Quartet 

„Every piece is an experience!” Albert Hosp, Radio Ö1 Both Lorenz Raab (Volksoper Vienna, XY-Band, Bleu, Helbock/Raab, etc) and Christof Dienz (Die Knoedel, Quadrat:sch, XY-Band, Phace, etc) are very well known musicians of the Viennese music scene. After having a very long-time musical relationship in many different bands and ensembles they recently founded RaaDie, a duo where trumpet meets e-zither and electronics. Their compositions flow quietly, with endless melodies of the trumpet accompanied by filigree sounds and rhythms from the e-zither, giving enough time for dramaturgic development a lot of free space for improvisation. Despite the bare-boned lineup the music of RaaDie opens big spaces and the audience might have the feeling both musicians play more instruments simultaneously. Vast Potential, the duo’s debut-album was released in the beginning of 2019 on the Berlin-based Traumton label. lorenzraab.at dienz.at 

Kamil Piotrowicz Sextet was established by Polish pianist and composer of the young jazz generation, Kamil Piotrowicz. The band released two albums, Product Placement (2018) and Popular Music (2016), both nominated for the Polish Phonographic Academy’s Fryderyk award - the Polish equivalent of a Grammy. The group played at the most important festivals in Poland, like Jazz Jantar in Gdańsk, Jazz nad Odrą in Wrocław, Jazz Jamboree in Warsaw, Summer Jazz Academy in Łódź or Komeda Jazz Festival in Słupsk. Music of the band is based on original compositions of the leader. After finishing his bachelors at the Academy of Music in Gdańsk, Kamil Piotrowicz moved to Copenhagen where he completed a masters degree at the Rhythmic Music Conservatory. He was awarded with several prizes including the ‘Young Creator of Culture’ of the city of Gdańsk or the West-Pomeranian ‚Pro Arte’ Cultural Award. He is founder of the independent label Howard Records and is actively working with the groups Kamil Piotrowicz Sextet, LAWAAI, Wojtczak / Piotrowicz, HAŁVVA or The President. Kamil performed all over Europe and his approach to the piano is characterised by meticulous technique, virtuosity and immersive sensibility.

Forthright Stories are fragments of various extreme emotions, important moments of my life and breakthroughs. Forthright Stories is a palette of colors enchanted in monochromatic, seemingly banal, esthetics. The simplicity of black and white and its profundity are building graphical consonance with sounds, resulting in a meta-entity (lub zamiast “a meta-entity” “an entity”). This album is my invitation to you, to discover elusive Forthright Stories. For me, the most important element of the creation is authenticity and sincerity. In painting a verbal impression concerning the music created by the Kasia Pietrzko Trio, it’s important to point out the freshness, clarity and transparency of the compositions. Moreover, the group’s playing is characterized by care for a high-quality sound. What’s most important in the group’s artistic creations are emotions, which become the overriding meta-language in their musical tale. Forthright Stories are genuinely a reflection of intentions which have accompanied me incessantly, throughout the creation of this album. These are fragments of many intense emotions, important moments in life, breakthroughs and, ultimately, a palette of enchanting colors within a seemingly monochromatic, banal aesthetic. The simplicity of black and white - and at the same time their enormous depth – graphically form, together with the sounds on the album, an entirety, a whole which I place in your hands, to convey a heartfelt invitation to discover something difficult to grasp in our native language, "Forthright Stories". The most essential elements in creating are authenticity and honesty.

“Entropy despite all appearances is not chaos – it's freedom in chaos and chaos in freedom.”  That's the motto of Entropia Ensemble, a quartet formed in 2016 in Łódź. They turn chaos into strength, forming their stylistically diverse compositions to highly individual, distinct and accessible creations in an endless search for their own self. The quartet’s debut album was released on Alpaka Records in November 2018. “Entropia Ensemble is proof of the exceptional musical consciousness and maturity of these four young musicians. It is not just a thoroughly conceived music. What can be felt is youthful energy, passion and most of all, the immense joy of playing together (passionate jamming in Łódź clubs has paid off after all). I dare to say that Entropia Ensemble is the cream of the crop among Polish jazz albums of 2018” - wrote Jędrzej Janicki about the album in Jazz Press magazine. Marcin Pater Trio is a group of three friends, alumni of the Faculty of Jazz and Popular Music of Karol Szymanowski Academy of Music in Katowice, Poland. The idea of forming the trio was born on initiative of the vibraphonist Marcin Pater. They primarily play Pater’s compositions which oscillate around widely understood jazz. Their music is characterized by light and lilting melodies played by vibraphone which is leading the band. The vibraphone as the lead instrument gives them an original sound which makes the band unconventional. The Marcin Pater Trio has won the Grand Prix at the Jazz Juniors Contest in 2018 in Cracow, Poland. They have won both the first prize as well as the best composition for their piece, Take Down at the Sibiu Jazz Contest in Romania. Additionally, they were honored with the first place on RCK PRO Jazz Festival in Kołobrzeg, Poland, and they were finalists of the B-Jazz International Contest in Leuven, Belgium. facebook.com/marcinpatertrio facebook.com/entropia.ensemble   

Austrian band Shake Stew has become something of a phenomenon. With their premiere at Jazzfestival Saalfelden 2016 and their following debut The Golden Fang they seemingly exploded into the scene out of nowhere. Since then their high energy mixture of hypnotic afrobeat and jazz grooves has made them enormously successful not only on home turf but across Europe. Led by rising star bassist Lukas Kranzelbinder they quickly became one of the hottest live acts on the circuit, while the impact of their second album Rise and Rise again (featuring Shabaka Hutchings) enabled them to spread their unique sound further afield, including an extensive tour of Canada, Mexico, Morocco and stand out shows at prestigious festivals like Montreal, Rochester and North Sea Jazz Festival. The band has also attracted the attention of Germany’s leading newspaper Die Zeit who, in an unusual move, sent one of its writers to spend 5 days with them to cover the formations summer residence at Jazzclub Unterfahrt; the resulting feature was euphoric in its praise: “What I heard blew me away. Captivating rhythms, melting brass, hypnotic funk-beat-swing-afro-jazz-rock-rhythm-and-something. I was glued to my seat and could barely get up. […] Meanwhile I know that other listeners had similar initiation experiences; something comes from this band that is new and special - and very attractive.” Anyone who had the chance to witness the first station of the septet’s exclusive 4-concerts mini-tour with Shabaka Hutchings at the Opus Jazz Club preceding the album’s recording sessions can confirm the above. Riding on all this success Shake Stew are now preparing to release their third studio album Gris Gris on 1 November. Not content to do anything by halves (their first single was 19 minutes long), Gris Gris is a double album of what they do best: A high-octane mix of fiery jazz and trance-like groove injections combined with mysterious soundscapes and spiritual free jazz eruptions - or as one Austrian newspaper described them “an intergalactic road movie for the ears!” shakestew.com facebook.com/shakestew youtube.com/shakestew 

“To speak of musical categories or crossover for that matter is obsolete. Every single song stands as it is as an original work of art and is therefore suited for opening up the barriers between rusty structures of thought.”  Südostschweiz, CH – 12.3.2018 “Lia Pale fits into this model like no other: her wonderful jazz voice is fragile and determined, earthy and expressive, challenging and flattering, and can turn supposedly sober themes of classical music or poetry into genuine musical plays.”  soultrain.de, D – 01/2018 After Schubert’s Winterreise (performed at the Opus in April 2014) and an album with songs by Schumann, singer Lia Pale and pianist/arranger mathias rüegg present their reading (in English) of 15 Brahms songs as the keystone of a trilogy where the classical model and the interpretation of a long-experienced jazz tradition shine through one another with the same iridescent and irritating light. Even with all the beautiful solos of Joris Roelofs, Ingrid Oberkanins and Johannes Strasser, they are no ‘jazzed-up songs’, but witty arrangements close to the originals, yet at a smart distance from them. Which means that the originals in Pale’s even, finely vibrating voice never tip over into the sentimental, even though the originals, especially the texts by Eichendorff, suggest a longing for lost homelands. Already in 1993 mathias rüegg reacted to some Schubert hits in an album of his Vienna Art Orchestra. In Schumann’s songs he was fascinated by the endings and the sometimes far-reaching harmony. Now Brahms, he says, goes furthest rhythmically, and a special challenge are his simply ingenious children’s and folk songs. The screening of songs like Heideröschen, Sandmännchen or Mondnacht is a great pleasure. And, last but not least, whets your appetite for a comparison with the originals. liapalemusic.com 

Turumtay / Erdoğan / Liška / Dés is a quartet of extraordinary virtuosi with different musical and cultural backgrounds and explores ever-widening musical horizons and seeks to find a collective identity. Vienna-based violinist Efe Turumtay is accompanied by Tomáš Liška's dazzling bass lines, András Dés‘s moving rhythm partitions and melancholic tunes of Turkish fretless guitar virtuoso Cenk Erdoğan. The quartet defines what it is to be a performer and composer ensemble and proves to be an essential voice in world music scene today. The original compositions of Turumtay, Liška, Dés and Erdoğan show the audience a through-line between seemingly disparate worlds and remind us that great music is international.

Maria Faust, the 38-year-old Estonian composer, saxophonist, bandleader, resident of Denmark, has already made remarkable musical waves that have sent her and her bands on trips to concert halls and music festivals around the world. Growing up under the Communist regime in Estonia, firts she was classically educated, but soon jazz and improvisational music took hold of her, thus she came to the Southern Danish Music Conservatory. However, in her new surroundings, she had to realize that she didn’t fit into the world of jazz, neither. “I am a child of communism! I did not swing. I marched! So, I finally just tried to be faithful to myself. It was a choice I made.” A conviction which she holds onto stubbornly, even to this day. Maria Faust neither plays nor composes in traditional ways, and has no interest in doing so. Boldness is the hallmark of her music, and her projects with ensembles that explore unusual instrumentations and techniques. Her big breakthrough, the very personal album Sacrum Facere (Latin: human sacrifice), receiving two Danish Music Awards in 2014, got its inspiration from the culture in and around the Russian-Estonian border region, where descendants of deported orthodox Russians still live. Here, she collected work songs, hymns, and lullabies for the album, and merged the material with classical music and free improvisation.  Maria Faust is constantly expanding her sound spectrum, and her new project, MACHINA, consists of an unprecedented mix of traditional musical forms paired with improvisation, jazz, and soundscapes. In a musical language of her own invention, she delivers her original compositional ideas, a chamber music universe without drums, but with horns, two basses, cello, and piano, all in a fascinating interaction with the engines of fishing boats sputtering their way through the fog, the creaks of old rusty hulls, the hum of the breeze and the call of the birds out at sea. Like her earlier releases, Machina, released on Stunt Records last year, starts with what she herself describes as “memory analysis.” As a tool, she gets inspiration from both personal and collective memories and the subconscious. Maria Faust says that she sees “the water as a symbol of a natural and unpredictable force of oppressed feelings like anger and sorrow” and she asks “why should we suppress these emotions, while we emphasize, for example, happiness?”

Kéknyúl’s music has roots in the soul and funk music of the 70s, mixed with urban dance music. Their sound is mostly defined by two members, Mátyás Premecz and Andy Hefler. Mátyás Premecz is a well­-known organ player in Hungarian pop culture with such bands as The Qualitons or Barabás Lőrinc Eklektric, but his name is always tied to his trademark Hammond organ and that’s exactly why Kéknyúl was founded – to be able to fully exploit the possibilities of the instrument. Andrew Hefler was born in Los Angeles and moved to Hungary in 1993. He’s an outstanding figure in the Hungarian cultural scene, being a renowned actor, director and singer. Of course the band and its sound wouldn’t be complete without the brilliant playing and interaction of the other six members.

Combining forces as a duo these two household names of Finnish jazz, saxophonist Timo Lassy and drummer Teppo Mäkynen, are here to present their powerful music at full speed. Whilst sensing co-operation that has lasted over a decade playing together in various bands (Teddy Rok 7, The Five Corners Quintet, Jo Stance, Timo Lassy Band) there is a feel of freshness, excitement and something new when listening to debut album Timo Lassy & Teppo Mäkynen, released this year on We Jazz Records 2019. In a live setting the full energy is released taking directions from the moment, feeling the audience and most importantly musical dialog of saxophone and drums. Timo Lassy is perhaps the biggest jazz star to come out of Finland in the new millennium. His work with The Five Corners Quintet and then as a successful solo artist have placed him smack dab in the middle of the vivid activity in the Helsinki scene. Lassy, a remarkably charismatic performer, has taken his celebrated five-piece all around Europe, the US and faraway places like Brazil, and in Finland he's practically a household name. His tenor sax sound is robust and confident, but never fails to engage emotionally. On his new duo album Timo Lassy & Teppo Mäkynen, Lassy moves further away from the cooking soul jazz he’s best known for, into free playing and sonic experiments. That being said, there’s still plenty of classic Lassy in the mix, keeping the heat where it should be. Timo Lassy won the Jazz-Emma prize for the Finnish Jazz Album of the Year in 2018 with his sixth solo effort Moves. Teppo Mäkynen is a drummer and a producer from Helsinki. His work includes celebrated projects such as 3TM, The Stance Brothers (+ Jo Stance), Teddy Rok Seven, plus many more. As a drummer, he was a key part of the live band of The Five Corners Quintet, still the most internationally successful Finnish jazz outfit to date. Nowadays, Mäkynen mans the drum seat of not only his own projects, but also A-list bands such as Timo Lassy Band, Verneri Pohjola Quartet, Aki Rissanen Trio and Jukka Eskola Soul Trio. His playing is swingin’ to the bone, no matter what the style is. Mäkynen has a natural knack at envisioning new musical directions both as a composer and a player, and he's considered one of the most personal and musical drummers around. As a producer, he’s also known as “Teddy Rok”, and his production credits include Timo Lassy’s solo albums and those of Jukka Eskola, plus of course his own projects. Mäkynen has won the Jazz-Emma twice: in 2004 with Teddy Rok Seven and in 2017 with 3TM’s album Form. He is also one of the hosts of the very popular weekly show Jazz kiinnostaa (Jazz interests) on Radio Helsinki. facebook.com/timolassy facebook.com/teddyrokofficial