(FOREIGN LEGION)
an end-of-the-year gathering
of the cream of Hungarian jazzmen living and playing abroad

GÁBOR BOLLA tenor-sax, an incredible talent who has already made it to the semi-finals of the World Saxophone Competition both at the 2003 Montreux- and at the 2004 London Jazz Festival. He is the guy black American tenor-giant, David Murray jammed with for two hours during his stay in Budapest. His quartet won First Prize and the audience vote at the Avignon Jazz Festival in 2005. He has played at most of the great European jazz festivals and had an album with Europe’s biggest jazz record label, ACT Records. He performed on with such jazz-greats and bands like Kirk Lightsey, Johnny Griffin, Jimmy Wormworth, Alvin Queen, Jeff „Tain” Watts, Gary Peacock, Robert Hurst, Gregory Hutchinson, Niels Lan Doky, Robert Lakatos, Tony Lakasot, Rick Margitza, Stephane Belmondo, Don Menza, the Vienna Art Orchestra, Modern Art Orchestra, Danish Radio Big Band and many more. Presently he lives in Copenhagen and plays in the most prestigious European jazz clubs. Wherever he goes he brings the house down.
MÁTYÁS GAYER this unbelievably gifted, 26 year-old  pianist is now based in London. He was two years running a finalist at the Montreux International Jazz Festival’s solo piano competition. Mátyás has played with many of the jazz’s greats such as Jesse Davis, Jim Rotondi, Grant Stewart, Luis Bonilla, Don Menza, Dusko Goykovich, John Fedchock, Stjepko Gut, Pete McGuinness etc. and has performed in many countries including England, Scotland, France, Germany, Switzerland, Spain, Portugal, Slovenia, Czech Republic, Romania, Hungary, Croatia, Slovakia, Macedonia, Latvia, Austria and their best known Jazz Venues: (Porgy and Bess, Jazzland, Konzerthaus Vienna, Jazzkeller Frankfurt, Unterfahrt München, Jazz Dock Prague, Birds Eye Basel, Jamboree Barcelona, Club 606 London, Vortex London, Glasgow Art Club, Edinburgh Jazz Club, KKL Luzern, etc.).
The fantastic one-time bassist of the famous Dresch Quartet, MÁTYÁS SZANDAI is nowadays a highly sought-after musician on the lively Parisian jazz scene constantly playing with the most prominent figures of French and international jazz scene. Christoph Monniot, Mathias Levy or Archie Shepp will  be sufficient as examples. In his own quartet you’ll find Nelson Veras, the Brazilian-born guitarist, the Cuban tenor saxophonist Ricardo Izquierdo and the sensational self-taught French drummer, Fabrice Moreau.
The leader of the band is the multiple award winning young drummer, MÁRTON JUHÁSZ who studied extensively in his native Hungary, was accepted by the Berklee College of Music. Since then he has performed and recorded extensively both in the US and Hungary. He accompanied the legendary Peter King in the 606 Club in London and became a corner stone of one of Hungary’s most exciting contemporary jazz outfits, the Triad and was also the founder and leader of a most exciting afro-jazz-rock band, the Euro-African Playground. He came to international prominence recently as a member of the fantastic Scottish pianist, Alan Benzie’s trio with which he successfully debuted at Ronnie Scotts.  At present he lives in Switzerland but plays all over Europe. His present team welds together the sounds of Africa, the Pacific Islands and jazz. In 2014 and 2015 Marton was voted ‘Drummer of the Year’ on the JazzMa online readers’ poll. In 2017 Marton became the first person to hold the drum chair of the prestigious Focusyear Ensemble directed by Wolfgang Muthspiel.