György Szabados (13 July 1939 – 10 June 2011) was a Hungarian

jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Its roots are in blues, ragtime, European harmony, African rhythmic rituals, spirituals, h ...

pianist, and is sometimes referred to as the "father" or "unofficial king" of the Hungarian

free jazz Free jazz, or free form in the early to mid-1970s, is a style of avant-garde jazz or an experimental approach to jazz improvisation that developed in the late 1950s and early 1960s, when musicians attempted to change or break down jazz conventi ...

movement since the 1960s.

Biography

Szabados was born in

Budapest Budapest is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns of Hungary, most populous city of Hungary. It is the List of cities in the European Union by population within city limits, tenth-largest city in the European Union by popul ...

. Even though he started performing in 1962, his rise to fame is generally considered to have started with his quintet winning the renowned San Sebastian Jazz Festival Grand Prize in the free jazz category in 1972. His first album that was recorded with a quartet in 1975 was entitled ''Wedding''. Despite the abstraction of the music, the record was well received in Hungary and abroad, thereby setting the scene for his subsequent albums. International recognition is probably noted by including the album in ''The Essential Jazz Records'' compiled by Max Harrison, Eric Thacker and Stuart Nicholson (Volume 2: Modernism to Postmodernism). Even though he could not record again until 1983, he maintained his status by establishing the Kassák Workshop for Contemporary Music, in which a new generation of musicians acquired a free and intuitive manner of playing jazz, with a distinct Hungarian sound. Generally, his collaborators would make up the next generation of Hungarian jazz, including acclaimed saxophone player

Mihály Dresch Mihály Dresch (born 1955) is a Hungarian saxophone player. He plays a combination of American free jazz and traditional Hungarian folk music. Dresch was studying to become an engineer when he turned to jazz. He was a member of the Károly Bind ...

. Further international recognition followed in the 1980s, through his collaboration with

Anthony Braxton Anthony Braxton (born June 4, 1945) is an American experimental composer, educator, music theorist, improviser and multi-instrumentalist who is best known for playing saxophones, particularly the alto. Braxton grew up on the South Side of Chi ...

on their duo record ''Szabraxtondos''. In Hungary, he proceeded to form MAKUZ, or the Royal Hungarian Court Orchestra, which membership varied, but always consisted of at least nine musicians that were committed to free, improvised music. Subsequently, he still collaborated with

Roscoe Mitchell Roscoe Mitchell (born August 3, 1940) is an American composer, jazz instrumentalist, and educator, known for being "a technically superb – if idiosyncratic – saxophonist". ''The Penguin Guide to Jazz'' described him as "one of the key figure ...

on their 1998 record ''Jelenés (Revelation)'' and again with Braxton and

Vladimir Tarasov Vladimir Ilich Tarasov (; born 7 February 1939 in Moscow) is a Russian animator and animation director. He is best known for his Soviet-era science fiction Science fiction (often shortened to sci-fi or abbreviated SF) is a genre of specula ...

this time for the live recording ''Triotone''. He was awarded the

Kossuth Prize The Kossuth Prize (, ) is a state-sponsored award in Hungary, named after the Hungarian politician and revolutionist Lajos Kossuth. The Prize was established in 1936, by the Hungarian National Assembly, to acknowledge outstanding personal and grou ...

, the most prestigious cultural award in Hungary, in 2011 by the

President of Hungary The president of Hungary, officially the president of the republicUnder the Basic Law, adopted in 2011, the official name of the state is simply Hungary; Before, the state was called the Republic of Hungary. However, the office is nonetheless ...

. He died in

Nagymaros Nagymaros (, ) is a town in Pest county, Hungary. Etymology The name comes from ''Maroš'', the Slavic form of Marianus. Nagymaros—"Greater Maros" ( Hungarian). The first written mention is ''Morus'' (1257). Notable people * György Szabado ...

on 10 June 2011.

Influences

Szabados' work and thinking is distinctly placed in Hungarian culture. Most importantly, a good deal of his music is influenced by

Hungarian folk music Hungarian may refer to: * Hungary, a country in Central Europe * Kingdom of Hungary, state of Hungary, existing between 1000 and 1946 * Hungarians/Magyars, ethnic groups in Hungary * Hungarian algorithm, a polynomial time algorithm for solving the ...

, mainly from

Transylvania Transylvania ( or ; ; or ; Transylvanian Saxon dialect, Transylvanian Saxon: ''Siweberjen'') is a List of historical regions of Central Europe, historical and cultural region in Central Europe, encompassing central Romania. To the east and ...

. Apart from direct folk associations, this influenced on Szabados' work was to a great extent mediated through the work of Hungarian composer

Béla Bartók Béla Viktor János Bartók (; ; 25 March 1881 – 26 September 1945) was a Hungarian composer, pianist and ethnomusicologist. He is considered one of the most important composers of the 20th century; he and Franz Liszt are regarded as Hunga ...

(1881–1945), who pioneered the reintegration of folk tradition in classical by his numerous field recordings. As he formulated it himself:

'Apart from the occasional moments, it is difficult to find traces of Bartók's music in our music. Hungarian music has such characteristic features that, when they appear, they are immediately linked to Bartók, whereas the real kinship is not with Bartók but, on a much deeper level, with Hungarian music, a world view, and a special taste'

Apart from folk influences in his work, Szabados always gave clear references to other key instances of Hungarian culture. His 1983 record ''Adyton'', for instance, is partially a reference to Hungarian poet

Endre Ady Endre Ady (Hungarian: ''diósadi Ady András Endre,'' archaic English: Andrew Ady; 22 November 1877 – 27 January 1919) was a turn-of-the-century Hungarian poet and journalist. Regarded by many as the greatest Hungarian poet of the 20th centur ...

, whereas his 1989 album ''A szarvassá vált fiak (Sons that became deer)'' was inspired by the

Hungarian Revolution of 1956 The Hungarian Revolution of 1956 (23 October – 4 November 1956; ), also known as the Hungarian Uprising, was an attempted countrywide revolution against the government of the Hungarian People's Republic (1949–1989) and the policies caused by ...

. Choosing the word

Adyton In Classical architecture, the ''adyton'' ( , 'innermost sanctuary, shrine', ) or (Latin) was a restricted area within the ''cella'' of a Greek temple, Greek or Roman temple. The ''adyton'' was frequently a small area at the farthest end of ...

as a title for his record also shows the Szabados' philosophical thinking about his music. A documentary film about his work was issued by Duna TV.

Awards

*1983: Ferenc Liszt Prize *1990: Artisjus *1995: Anna Neufeld *2001: His album ''Time Flies'' was voted Record of the Year in Hungary *2001: Szabó Gábor Life Achievement Award (Hungarian Jazz Federation) *2011: Kossuth Prize (awarded by the President of the Hungarian Republic)

Discography

*1964 György Szabados: B-A-C-H élmények (Modern Jazz Anthology 64) Qualiton LPX 7279-80 *1975 György Szabados: Az esküvő (The Wedding) Hungaroton-Pepita SLPX 17475 *1980 György Szabados: Szabados Jazz *1983 György Szabados: Adyton Hungaroton-Krém SLPX 17724 *1985 György Szabados/

: Szabraxtondos Hungaroton-Krém SLPX 17909 *1989 György Szabados: A szarvassá vált fiak (Sons that became deer) Hungaroton-Krém SLPX 37215 *1991 György Szabados és a Makuz: Homoki Zene Adyton 005 *1992 György Szabados: A szent főnixmadár dürrögései Adyton 004 *1992 Szabados Trio Elfelejtett énekek (Forgotten Songs) Fonó Records FA 12-01 *1998 György Szabados/

: Jelenés (Revelation) Fonó Records FA-038-2 *1999 György Szabados: Az események titkos története (The Secret History of the Events) Fonó Records FA-068-2 *2000 György Szabados: Az ido múlása (Time Flies) November Music 20022 *2004 Miklós Mákó/ György Szabados: A szépség szíve (The Heart of Beauty) Fonó Records FA-213-2 *2005

/Gyorgy Szabados/Vladimir Tarasov: Triotone Leo 416 *2006 György Szabados és Új Dimenzió Műhely: Elégia 1956 Logos *2007 György Szabados Szextett: Baltás zsoltár Győrfree Műhely/Harmónia (orig. 1973) *2007 György Szabados és a Makuz: Készülődés a csatára Győrfree Műhely/Harmónia (orig. 1987) *2008 György Szabados: Boldogasszony földje (Harangok) (Bells: The Land of Boldogasszony) BMC Records BMC CD 130 *2010 György Szabados/

Joëlle Léandre Joëlle Léandre (born 12 September 1951) is a French double bassist, vocalist, and composer active in new music and free improvisation. In the field of contemporary music, she has performed with Pierre Boulez's Ensemble InterContemporain, and ...

: Live at Magyarkakanizsa BMC Records CD 183

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Szabados, Gyorgy 1939 births 2011 deaths Hungarian jazz pianists Musicians from Budapest 20th-century pianists People from Nagymaros