Biography
Jazz drummer, composer and teacher. His multiform musical works include many styles from musical to free jazz. His band, the Balázs Bágyi Quartet plays Central - Eastern - European ethnojazz and world music. Their original compositions and arrangements are based on the Hungarian folk tradition, containing the elements of jazz and improvised music.
" ...My music is jazz. Middle-East European jazz. It is music that involves folk, blues and many other styles, music that is filtered through my inner world."
Balázs was born in 1973 in Pécs, Hungary and started his musical career there.
In 1998 he graduated with honours from the jazz faculty of the Ferenc Liszt College of Music, becoming a jazz musician and teacher. His professors there included Imre Kőszegi, Iván Nesztor and Béla Zsoldos.
During his college years, Balázs organised several groups from among the students and played in others' formations (Kristóf Bacsó, Gábor Cseke, Balázs Horváth, András Párniczky).
Over this time, he has worked with leading Hungarian jazz artists (Tamás Berki, Balázs Berkes, Mihály Borbély, János Egri, Kornél Fekete-Kovács, Tamás Mohai, Ferenc Muck, Gábor Winand, György Vukán, Máté Victor).
He was a member of the Whiteful band (1998-2003), scoring several tracks for their 2003 album "Future in the Past".
In 2004 he formed the Balázs Bágyi Quartet, which plays his own compositions. Their debut album "Somewhere Else" appeared in the summer of 2004. One of the songs on this album, Mosquito Dance, was selected, from thousands of applicants, as a finalist in the USA Songwriting Competition 2005. Their second album "Hungarian Music" featuring Beáta Salamon came out in 2006. The quartet is a regular performer at leading Hungarian festivals, including 6th Festival of Jazz and Wine in Balatonboglár, 34th Jazz Days in Debrecen, Sziget Festival 2006...
In 2005 and 2006 Balázs was a participant in the International Improvisation Workshop, organised as part of the Mediawave Festival in Győr. Under the leadership of William Parker, he worked and performed with Rob Brown and Hamid Drake, two leading figures of the Chicago avant garde as well as various Hungarian musicians (Béla Burány Pöcök, István Grencsó, Ferenc Kovács, Ági Szalóki, Mátyás Szandai, Viktor Tóth).He also worked with other renowned European and American musicians (Geoff Warren, Marcello Sebastiani, Joe Fonda, Michael Jefry Stevens...).
Most of his theatre work has been a collaboration with Kolibri Theatre. He has worked with János Novák for a long time, contributing to various theatrical and movie soundtracks (Bors néni, Fafeye, Sobri, Macskák Társasága).
In the summer of 2005, he was part of the European stage premiere of Wonderful Town, a musical by Leonard Bernstein, at the Vörösmarty Theatre in Székesfehérvár. The piece was directed by Miklós Szurdi.
He is a member of the Syndicate of the Hungarian Jazz Federation and member of Artisjus (Hungarian Authors' Copyright Association) as a composer.
He is director of the Dr. Lauschmann Gyula Secondary Jazz School and he hosts his own jazz show on Radio Vörösmarty in Székesfehérvár.
