Szakcsi 70. - Birthday Party of The Hungarian Jazz Ambassador

Performers of the Evening:

Babos Gyula, Balázs Elemér, Balázs József, Berkes Balázs, Borbély Mihály, Bódy Magdi, Berki Tamás, Charlie, Csík Gusztáv, Dés László, Dresch Mihály, Egri János, Elsa Valle, Farkas Mihály, Fekete-Kovács Kornél, Fenyvesi Marci, Friedrich Károly, Gerloczy Zsigmond, Gyárfás István, Horváth Kornél, Ifj. Szakcsi Lakatos Béla, Kathy Horváth Lajos, Kőszegi Imre, László Attila, Lukács Miklós, Mohay András, Müller Péter Sziámi, Nagy János, Oláh Kálmán, Oláh Krisztián, Orbán György, Pecek Lakatos András, Pecek Lakatos Krisztián, Ráduly Mihály, Roby Lakatos, Rozsnyói Péter, Sárközi Lajos, Szakcsi Lakatos Róbert, Szalóky Béla, Tátrai Tibor, Torma Rudolf, Török Ádám, Ungár István, Vukán György, Winand Gábor, Zana Zoltán



Béla Szakcsi Lakatos started playing the piano at age nine dreaming that he would become a famous composer and an outstanding interpreter of classical music. However, while he attended the Béla Bartók Conservatory, he got acquainted with jazz, and this experience was profound enough to divert him from further classical studies.
He performed at the most prestigious festivals from Zurich to Warsaw, from Nuremberg to Belgrade, and from North America to Asia. In the Hungarian jazz history Szakcsi has had a major share in popularizing fusion jazz first with the band Rákfogó, and then with Saturnus. From the beginning of the 1970s, he taught at the Jazz Piano Department of the Béla Bartók Conservatory, where, following the examples of Keith Jarrett, Chick Corea and Herbie Hancock, he put great emphasis on blending jazz and classical music. In accordance with this concept he resumed examining the work of Bach, Bartók, Stravinsky, Schönberg, and Webern.
Simultaneously he also got engaged in collecting treasures of Gypsy folklore, and reinterpreting these pieces of music as stage works. His first Gypsy musical titled Red Caravan was first performed in 1975, which was followed by was followed by Once Upon a Time a Gypsy Girl, then Cartwheel. The Beast, his rock opera from 1989 written on commission of the Rock Theatre, covers the life story of Erzsébet Báthory, and on the 500th anniversary of the discovery of the American continent the Hungarian State Opera House staged his 100-minute ballet entitled Cristoforo.
All those who have kept track of the career of Liszt Award-winning Szakcsi must have noticed that – in accordance with the directions of Leonard Bernstein, one of Szakcsi’s musical heroes – the pianist is at home in all genres of music.