Gábor Bolla tenor & soprano saxophone Robert Lakatos piano, keyboards Lajos Sārközi violin Heiri Känzig bass Jojo Mayer drums
Photo: Photographer Camil Tulcan from Bucharest, Romania
Hungarian saxophonist Gábor Bolla, who was born in 1988, has an extraordinary musical background. As a child he was a virtuoso clarinetist, but didn't fall into any common categories. We gypsies play a bit of everything. Just like in jazz, we improvise a lot, but in a slightly different way, Bolla says. A career as a child prodigy followed: at only 15 he reached the semi-finals of the prestigious saxophone competition at the Montreux Jazz Festival in 2003.
Thereafter, all doors stood wide open for him. He was invited to the world-famous Vienna Art Orchestra as a guest soloist and played with US stars such as Johnny Griffin, David Murray, Kirk Lightsey and Gregory Hutchinson. In 2004 Bolla was honoured as Talent of the Year at the Hans Koller awards, a kind of Austrian Grammy which is very seldom given to non-Austrians.
A year later his quartet received both the jury and the audience prize at the Avignon Festival. Gábor Bolla has had some impressive and defining stages in his life that are brought to bear on his ACT debut Find Your Way . Joining him on the piano is Robert Lakatos, his alter ego and musical soul mate. Bolla got to know the pianist at a jam session when he was 14. The quartet is completed by the Swiss jazz stylist Heiri Känzig on bass and by the world class drummer Jojo Mayer. In addition, the violinist Lajos Sarközi appears as a guest.
01. Violin Concerto No.2, 1. Movement (Béla Bartók) 02. Hot Shrimps 03. Django (John Lewis) 04. East Broadway Rundown (Sonny Rollins) 05. Visions (Stevie Wonder) 06. Passing Months 07. Evidence (Thelonious Monk) 08. Lail's Lament (Lajos Sarkozi) 09. Mornings of Budapest 10. Bemsha Swing (Thelonious Monk) 11. Sicktobre 12. Romanian Folk Dances No.4 (Béla Bartók) 13. Find Your Way
