Liszt Award-winning Béla
Szakcsi Lakatos started playing
the piano at age nine. He fell in love with jazz while attending the Béla
Bartók Conservatory, and soon abandoned his classical studies. He’s
been at the heart of Hungary’s jazz music scene since the 1960s. Szakcsi
has performed at the most prestigious jazz festivals from Zurich to Warsaw,
from Nuremberg to Belgrade, North America to Asia. He has contributed to
eleven albums of George Jinda and Chieli
Minucci’s Special EFX as
a soloist and composer. Szakcsi has also recorded numerous albums with GRP
Records including Sachi (1988); Mystic
Dreams (1989); Eve of Chance (1992); Straight
Ahead (1994). As a composer and performer, Szakcsi has played with
many famed musicians including Frank Zappa, Art
Farmer, Dave Weckl, Marvin "Smitty" Smith, and Grammy-winner
David Sanchez. Szakcsi played a major role in popularizing
fusion jazz in Hungary. He also draws greatly on Gypsy music and folklore,
and has written a number of Gypsy musicals. Szakcsi's last album “Na
Dara!” (“Don't Be Afraid”) was published in 2004.
