As far as we are concerned, 55-year-old saxophone genius Tony Lakatos will always be Hungarian, even if he is regarded as one of the finest soloists in his adopted home of Germany. Since settling in Frankfurt in 1981, Lakatos has always found opportunities to let his Hungarian fans know the musical ideas currently on his mind, and so it is that he presents a large chunk of material from his 2012 album Hometone to jazz lovers at this year's European Bridges festival.
Practically all of the albums which Lakatos turns out roughly every two years are greeted with huge enthusiasm by critics: the 2009 recording of Porgy & Bess, for example, which he recorded with the Frankfurt Radio Bigband (hr-Bigband), was awarded the Deutscher Schallplattenpreis. Lakatos has led his quintet for almost six years now, playing his own compositions for the most part, which tend toward hard bop but are shaped with a 21st century sensibility. The saxophonist leads a double life in his musical collaborations - he is also a long-standing soloist of the hr-Bigband, which also features his excellent colleagues, pianist Michael Flügel, bassist Thomas Heidepriem and drummer Jean-Paul Hochstatter. The trumpeter John Marshall moved base from New York to Germany in 1992, having received an offer he could not refuse from the WDR Big Band in Cologne, to which he has contributed his refined, stylish and virtuosic musicality ever since. On the other side of the Atlantic, Marshall established his career in the company of greats such as Buddy Rich, Mel Lewis, Lionel Hampton, Gerry Mulligan, Ornette Coleman, George Coleman, Buck Clayton and Dizzy Gillespie.

Presented by: Palace of Arts