Harmónia Jazzműhely: Bolla Quartet with Anders Bergcrantz / Szőke Niki Quartet with Mathias Heise

This will be the joyous 'return match' of the one-week Scandinavian-Hungarian jazz jamboree at The Standard in Copenhagen.

ELEMÉR BALÁZS is, arguably, the best drummer in his country. As for him, it’s best to quote what the American guitar ace, Pat Metheny said of him:  "Elemér is one of the best drummers around right now, in my opinion. He plays with such musicality and finesse and has the ability to listen inside each musical moment with the kind of spontaneous decision-making that allows everyone that plays with him to sound their best. He also has a wonderful touch on the instrument - I always enjoy the chance to play with him and to hear him."

On bass JÓZSEF BARCZA HORVÁTH is one of the best and most interesting players in this country which is teeming anyway with virtuoso bassists. He is one of the most melodic soloists to be heard.  He handles his instrument with consumate ease, perhaps due to the fact that he used to be a first class classical player in an earlier incarnation. He is a master melodist both as an improviser and as a composer. He is completely at home in straight-ahead jazz as well as in fusion or the funky mode, yet his own bands cultivate a distinctly contemporary sound. He is the musical director of his singer wife, Nikoletta Szőke’s bands.

Swedish trumpeter, ANDERS BERGCRANTZ is widely considered to be one of the major voices of his instrument. He has performed or recorded with a diverse range of great musicians, including Dave Liebman, Billy Harper, Victor Lewis, Billy Hart, Monica Zetterlund, the Royal Stockholm Symphony Orchestra, Adam Nussbaum, McCoy Tyner and Mike Brecker. He has recorded seven albums as a leader and played on many more as a sideman. He has twice been awarded the highest Swedish accolade in jazz, the Golden Record.
Anders Bergcrantz is long known to be a soloist of stunning physical power and of a broad emotional range, not unlike Woody Shaw, Freddie Hubbard or Lee Morgan. He has developed a deep and soulful individual voice of his own.

GÁBOR BOLLA tenor- and soprao sax, only 27 but an incredible talent, a brilliantly inventive, virtuosic and emotional player who has already made it to the semi-finals of the World Saxophone Competition both at the 2003 Montreux (when he was 15!)- 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 got his first record contract with Europe’s biggest jazz record label, ACT Records. Presently he lives in Copenhagen and plays in the most prestigious European jazz clubs with the cream of the European and American jazz scene. Wherever he goes he brings the house down. On his latest album he is backed by Gregory Hutchinson

GÁBOR CSEKE on the piano has become a leading force in the Hungarian jazz world. He is also one of the mainstays of Hungary’s most exciting big band, the Modern Art Orchestra. He is not only an absolutely amazing soloist but also one of the finest accompanists you can hear. He is capable of producing refined, meditative music as well as  explosive hard bop. Gábor is the one who usually backs foreign visiting artists at the Budapest Jazz Club. You’d get glowing references of him from the likes of Byron Wallen or Peter King.


22 year-old MATHIAS HEISE is one of very few jazz harmonica players in Denmark. He was only 8 years old when he first picked up the harmonica his parents had bought for him. He became fascinated by the instrument, which has followed him through thick and thin ever since, and he literally never goes anywhere without it. His name became internationally recognized in 2013, when he won the chromatic harmonica World Championship in Germany, and in January 2015, he was voted ‘New Jazz Star of The Year’ in Denmark. Besides playing the harmonica, Mathias Heise is also a skilled piano and keyboard player. Together with his band, Mathias Heise has managed to create a truly different and very personal, contemporary expression. When Nikoletta Szőke sung in Copenhagen with a mixed Danish-Hungarian band, Mathias was the other sensation of the show which was deservedly televised by a Danish station.