The Kossuth and Liszt prize-winning Béla Szakcsi Lakatos, the Müpa Budapest Artist of the Season for 2017/2018, is a major innovator and the uncrowned king of Hungarian jazz. He has earned unrivalled praise for his achievements in jazz-rock and fusion jazz and has also successfully combined jazz with classical music and gypsy folk. His two sons are also distinguished piano players and will feature in this concert with outstanding musicians playing in a Hungarian-American band. The composer and woodwind player Chris Potter, who has a thousand ties to Hungary, is one of jazz's most sought after and highly regarded artists. As well as with Szakcsi, Potter has also played on the Müpa Budapest stage as a special guest of Mihály Dresch and as part of Pat Metheny's band. Gerard Presencer's trumpet playing will be most familiar to many from the work he did on the band Us3's cover of Cantaloop, but the English virtuoso's ouevre is of course quite a bit richer than this: he has worked with Johnny Griffin, Herbie Hancock and Chick Corea, and in the pop world, artists like Sting, Jamiroquai, James Brown and Johnny Greenwood have all wanted to hear his trumpet sound on their recordings. Joe Sanders is one of the most highly sought-after back-up musicians of his generation, having partnered with Ravi Coltrane, Wayne Shorter and Dave Brubeck, among others. He is also a founding member of the Gerald Clayton Trio. Marcus Gilmore, grandson of the legendary Roy Haynes, is no newcomer to the stage of the Béla Bartók Concert Hall: he gave a tremendously acclaimed concert with Chick Corea's band here in 2015. For his part, Szakcsi is preparing new compositions for the concert that will have his listeners floating along with new currents.

Presented by: Müpa Budapest