Live Jazz in Budapest

Fri, Jul 3, 8:00 PM

SamSaRa | Lantos – Juhász – Nyusztay (HU)

Opus Jazz Club / Ferencvaros / Map

SamSaRa, the influential Hungarian world music ensemble of the turn of the millennium, takes the stage at Opus in a reimagined form. The group was founded in 2000 by two renowned and open-minded jazz musicians, Zoltán Lantos and Gábor Juhász, along with two outstanding Hungarian experts and players of Indian percussion instruments, Péter Szalai and Iván Nyusztay. Both Lantos and Nyusztay spent several years in India to master the techniques of playing classical Indian instruments and the authentic harmonic and rhythmic world of the local music. Drawing on his experiences, Lantos even had a special, resonant stringed violin custom-made for himself, which allows him to produce a rich sound that combines the advantages of two Indian instruments – the plucked sitar and the bowed sarangi – with those of the traditional violin. The trio plays Indo-jazz, that is, it brings elements and colors from Indian classical music into the world of jazz. This music has a spacious atmosphere, an airy quality, and an ancient fragrance, the influence of which is impossible to resist.

Artisjus Award-winning violinist Frankie Látó founded his new quartet in 2023, bringing together the traditions of jazz-rock and fusion jazz with the freedom of contemporary improvisation. The ensemble’s repertoire is built primarily around original compositions, drawing significant inspiration from Miles Davis’s electric period as well as the musical legacy of Joe Zawinul and Weather Report. The quartet’s sound evokes the spirit of the seminal American and European jazz-rock groups of the 1970s, while reinterpreting the genre through a contemporary perspective and a fresh artistic approach. Virtuosity, musical interaction, and improvisation play equally important roles in their performances, while the compositions themselves form a cohesive and distinctive musical identity. One of the ensemble’s defining characteristics is its placement of the violin at the center of a musical landscape where the instrument is rarely featured as a lead voice. Frankie Látó’s artistic development was profoundly influenced by his mentor, the legendary French jazz violinist Didier Lockwood, whose musica

The Gypsy Jazz Band, led by guitarist Róbert Kárpáti and under the musical mentorship of world-famous violin virtuoso Roby Lakatos, exploded into the public consciousness in 2018 as one of the highlights of Hungarian musical culture. The band has grown into one of the most authentically sounding formations of the jazz-manouche genre. The band is a regular guest at domestic festivals. Róbert Kárpáti – guitar, Myriam Lakatos – vocal, Roby Lakatos – violin, László Kökény – guitar, Laszlo Bóni – violin, Tibor Pintér – guitar, Kálmán Cséki – piano, Noémi Flór – bass

Hans Lüdemann and his French-German octet TransEuropeExpress have started their long-term project On the Edges in 2019. Their latest BMC Records album was just released in May, and the musicians are now taking the next step, presenting a grand finale live: the fifth and final new project of the cycle, also to be released on BMC Records, features Ukrainian singer Tamara Lukasheva and Polish trumpeter Tomasz Dąbrowski as guests. Both guests will perform their own compositions, which will serve as the basis for improvisations by the outstanding soloists of the Franco-German ensemble. Hans Lüdemann creates the framework for this edition of On the Edges with new ideas, thereby integrating all five projects in the series into a grand pan-European musical mosaic. The On the Edges series visits five regions inside and outside the European Union. The members of the TransEuropeExpress Ensemble and invited guest artists draw creative energy from the interplay and fusion of their musical languages to paint a colorful, richly layered picture of European jazz, while making palpable the clash of mu

Tue, Jul 28, 8:30 PM

S.K.Y. Chronicles-Sárközy Fanni and her friends - MAGIA

Budapest Jazz Club / Ujlipotvaros / Map

An exceptional evening at the Budapest Jazz Club, where music does not merely sound — it surrounds and envelops the listener. Fanni Sárközy, internationally acclaimed pianist, vocalist, composer, and improvisational artist, is an active figure on both the American and European music scenes. With her classical foundations, deep passion for jazz, and distinctive stage presence, she creates a unique musical world where improvisation, emotion, and artistic freedom naturally intertwine. MAGIA is more than a concert: it is a shared musical space where boundaries dissolve, words are replaced by sound, and composed structures give way to the freedom of the moment. Special guests of the evening: Attila László, one of the most outstanding guitarists and composers of the Hungarian jazz scene, whose playing is defined by virtuosity, depth, and remarkable musical sensitivity. Zoltán Lantos, internationally recognized violinist and composer, a key figure in Hungarian world jazz. Fanni Sárközy – vocal, piano, Tamás Stencli – saxophone, György Szentgallay – bass-guitar, Attila Móré – drum Guest: Att