JazzTime

1-7 September 2024

The JazzTime festival treats the audience to productions that convey a sense of timelessness. Dressed in the sound of jazz in early September will be Leonard Bernstein, the Hungarian pop divas of the 20th century and the classic figures of Latin music. All three evenings centre on the ladies, but next to them we will always find the gentlemen, without whom the balance would not be complete.

On 1 September, Nikoletta Szőke and Bálint Gájer return to perform their overwhelmingly successful 2018 Jazz Side Story production, reimagined and arranged for symphonic orchestra, in the Béla Bartók National Concert Hall. Providing the pulse alongside the Danubia Orchestra will be a jazz combo, with conductor Kornél Fekete-Kovács handling the overall harmony.

In unusual fashion, the next concert will take place on Friday, 6 September. On the stage of the Festival Theatre, Orsi Kozma and her fellow musicians will perform beloved songs from Hungary’s proto-pop beat era and popular numbers from the legendary female singers of the ensuing ’70s and ’80s – all in a jazz format. The arrangements are the work of pianist Gábor Cseke, with Gergely Zöldi responsible for the evening’s intense dramaturgy.

On Saturday, 7 September, the quintet of trombonist Krisztián Csapó, known for his versatility, hosts Spanish trumpeter/vocalist Andrea Motis, who herself also performs in many different musical styles in a masterful and extremely entertaining fashion. Krisztián will now enchant lovers of Latin rhythms together with his traditional team of musicians, veterans of the Hungarian jazz scene who are similarly well versed in a number of other genres.