Wednesday, 15th November 2017, 8 pm
The Novi Sad Theatre – Újvidéki szinház
Pécs, Hungary
The 2010 European Capital of Culture
Máté Lachegyi, piano
Péter Baksa, double bass
Balázs Krommer, drums
The roots of their collaboration go back to 2009 when they were offered a three-month gig at a hotel in Dubai. It was back then that they formed their common standard vocabulary, but they really enjoyed themselves playing in trio, so they decided to stick together and go on with expanding their repertoire. Since then they have been playing different genres and styles of jazz: the main focus is still swing, but nowadays they play some of their own music which has a little bit of electronica (our composition called Kurzwelle), pop re-interpretations (i.e. Nick Drake’s Man Is a Shed) and they experiment with the greats of jazz history. The trio has also moved towards the “tribal” roots of this music and play for instance some of Ahmad Jamal’s compositions of this sort.
The Trio Afium plays regularly at festivals and clubs in and outside their home town.
MÁTÉ LACHEGYI, piano
Máté Lachegyi was born in 1987 in Vác, Hungary. His father is a recorder player and teacher — a renowned performer in early music. He has two younger sisters, who are also musicians. He started piano studies at the age of 5 in the music school of Vác. Later he learnt to play the organ and attended the faculty of organ in the Bartók—Pikéthy Secondary School of Music in Vác. He began to learn jazz with the Vác born pianist, Nat Nichols. In 2003 Károly Binder became his tutor, then in 2005 his professor at the Franz Liszt Academy of Music, from where he graduated in 2009. He founded his first ensemble, the Aurora Borealis Quartet, as a student.
After the music academy years, he completed the Faculty of History of Art at Péter Pázmány Catholic University, where he received a master’s degree in 2016. During the university years, he did not stop playing music, performing extensively in various ensembles: he was a member of the renowned Hungarian singer, Ágnes Lakatos’s quartet between 2009 and 2010, then with Pécs-based musicians Péter Baksa and Balázs Krommer he founded the Trio Afium, with which they perform regularly. He also founded a keyboard duo with his friend and former student, Bencze Molnár and plays with his father, Imre Lachegyi. He is committed to solo piano performing; his first CD Double Standard(2009) is a solo piano recording, containing arrangements of his favourite standards.
In 2012 he started to teach jazz piano at his former school. In 2013 he was granted the Dezső Lakatos ‘Ablakos’ jazz performance scholarship by the Ministry of Human Resources, and in 2014 he was awarded the Certificate of Merit for Talent Development by the Municipality of Vác.
Currently, he lives in Amsterdam, where he is studying at the Conservatory of Amsterdam in the Jazz Piano master’ programme, and has also formed a new ensemble, the Trio Corona.
PÉTER BAKSA, double bass
Péter Baksa studied at the University of Pécs, Arts Faculty where he got his Classical Double Bass Diploma in 2007. During his university years he also learned jazz, taking private lessons from the best bass players of Hungary. In 2012-13, he studied electric bass at the Jazz Faculty of Kodolányi University.
It is really important for him to teach what he already knows about music. He has private students and also organizes workshops and jam sessions for the Pécs University Music program of my old campus.
Nowadays, he is amongst the most in-demand musicians in the South Western region of Hungary. He has played bass in several jazz bands including the Trio Afium, Bence Alma Quartet, Poe Jass Project, Miniswing in jazz clubs and festivals all around the country, but he also gets session jobs regularly (CD recording sessions, theater shows or gigs) with other bands and musicians.
BALÁZS KROMMER,drums
Coming from a family full of professional musicians, still not trained to be one since the early childhood, Balázs Krommer grabbed his first pair of sticks at the age of 15 and he became seriously involved in the business in his early twenties. Since then, he has explored this beautiful art in so many ways and moods. His first instincts immediately turned him towards jazz music, of which he still is an enthusiastic fan. He started his first jazz band in 2001 and since then he has been a founder or a member of several groups of different genres – besides jazz he is interested in rock, Afro-Caribbean styles and electronica. His current formations clearly reflect this palette: with the Trio Afium he plays jazz mostly the traditional way; in the Singas Project he lays down some electronic/nu-jazz-like grooves, while Cosa Polska is his Afro-Latin medium band from Budapest.
Having graduated as a philosopher in 2003 from the University of Pécs, he also attended Engressy Béni Conservatory in Budapest while taking lessons from numerous jazz greats living in Hungary – including Elemér Balázs, György Jeszenszky and András Mohay.
