International Jazz Day 2021

Online Jazz Day 2021 in Hungary

 

The 8-year-old Hungarian initiative to organise free concerts on the occasion of the International Jazz Day is also bound to stay online, just like last year. But it has never given up its original aim: to win new audiences for jazz, this year again aided by subsidies coming from the National Cultural Fund, NKA. In the Hungarian cities of Debrecen, Nagykanizsa, Pécs, as well as in the first rate venues of Budapest; Fonó House of Music in Buda, iF Café, Jedermann, Opus Jazzclub and the coordinator of this year’s events, Budapest Jazz Club (BJC) concerts are hosted not only on the festive day, but also on the two preceding days, April 28-29th.  

 

The opening event is a roundtable with the title How International is Hungarian jazz? to which multireed player Mihály Borbély, singer-songwriter Veronika Harcsa and brass player Béla Szalóky are invited, who, among them have toured altogether over 100 countries with their name bands. 

 

Ráday street in Budapest will be one of the focal points of the events, as the first concert on the 28th is broadcast from the pub Jedermann in the street, featuring the mulit-award winning young pianist Krisztián Oláh fronting his quartet, including his younger sax-player brother. The Café iF has for many years always staged the concert of the Halper Hendrix Experiment, fronted by guitarist László Halper on the occasion, and this year’s Jazz Day will be no exception. A few blocks away, in the Opus Jazz Club of the famous Budapest Music Center guitar player Bálint Gyémánt is going to play with his band on the 29th. The same day the Pécs jazzclub called Metronome, a venue with a long history, debuts the quintet of singer Emma Nagy, who was awarded the main prize at the last Showcase festival of Müpa Budapest. Fonó presents altoist Viktor Tóth in duo with percussionist Tamás Geröly, a feast of local ethnojazz. Another local tradition is strengthened by the apperance of pianist  Mátyás Gayer, living in Britain but originally from Nagykanizsa, appearing in duo with trumpeter Mátyás Hofecker. The Főnix Hall in Debrecen also hosts a local act, putting on the concert of the Debrecen Dixieland Jazz Band. The Budapest Jazz Club stages the prime time event of the Jazz Day by presenting the two-leader, two-sax-player ethnojazz quartet of Mihály Dresch and Mihály Borbély. 

 

 

More info and live broadcasts: