Róbert Szakcsi Lakatos’s workshop has been producing master works for more than three decades. Celebrating his 40th birthday this year, the pianist is now mature enough to be able to appear – like his father Béla Szakcsi Lakatos before him – in the first edition of the 2015 Jazz Workshop series as part of an American-Hungarian all-star band. At the age of 20, Róbert already began collecting first prizes at international jazz and classical piano competitions, first in Kraków, then Basel. Success at the Montreux Jazz Festival came at the turn of the millennium, and he was best soloist at Avignon in 2005.
This is not the first time Róbert Szakcsi Lakatos has been joined by world-renowned musical partners, as he has already recorded with Erik Truffaz, John Patitucci and Jack DeJohnette, as well as working with the likes of Reggie Johnson, Randy Brecker, Bill Evans and Ravi Coltrane, and appearing in jazz clubs in several locations across Europe with Gregory Hutchinson. The latter may be familiar to the Müpa audience from his appearance with the Charles Lloyd Sky Trio here in 2012. Otherwise “Hutch” has also collaborated with Betty Carter, Ray Brown, Dianne Reeves, Diana Krall, Wynton Marsalis and Roy Hargrove. It’s worth quietly mentioning that the other member of the rhythm section, Robert Hurst, is a seven-time Grammy and four-time Emmy Award winner who, besides the aforementioned Lloyd, Marsalis and Krall, has partnered Paul McCartney, Dave Brubeck, Harry Connick Jr., Terence Blanchard, Sting and Barbra Streisand. Rounding out the quartet is Gábor Bolla, a saxophonist increasingly sought after in Europe who chiefly plays his own mainstream jazz compositions and is known for the high intensity of his playing.

Presented by: Palace of Arts