Janos Nagy

In 1996 his band the Hard Line Trio won the first prize and the prize of the audience at the 24th Jazz Juniors International Competition in Cracow.

In 1997 his band participated in the 21st International Jazz Festival of Getxo where he won the prize for the best soloist awarded by both the jury and the audience.

In 1999 his first authorial album entitled Hardline Project I was released, followed by the second one in 2000 entitled Dances.

At Mediawave Festival 2001 in West Hungary his trio played with David Murray. The critics of Gramofon magazine (specialising in classical music, jazz and world music) voted their concert to be the concert of the year.

In May, 2002 the partner of the group was Dewey Redman at the same place.

In October, 2002 the trio performed at the 12th Macau International Jazz Festival with great success.

That year he got an eMeRton prize as the soloist of the year.

In the autumn of 2003 the Béla Kövér Puppet-show produced his opera with the title ’Ventriloquist’ in Szeged.

In November, 2003 Carmen was produced at the Budapest Arena featuring Al di Meola. This new adaptation of the famous opera of Bizet was made by János Nagy and Miklós Malek.

At the same time he made the album To You, O Lord, I lift up my soul with Béla Szerényi on hurdy-gurdy and Judit Kóta folk-singer. The album contains contemporary adaptations of Hungarian Protestant songs. Their next CD is to be released in the autumn of 2005.

In 2004 the British 33jazz Records released Bea Tisza’s album entitled Bea, in which he collaborated as a pianist and composer.

In the spring of 2004 his Trio’s new album Tale appeared. Together with his trio, along with the American singer Miles Griffith he made a tour in Germany.

He made an album and toured in Germany with Shankar Lal, the tabla player from India.

In the spring of 2004 he and Máté Pálhegyi flautist founded the Free Style Chamber Orchestra.

He has been a member of the leading Hungarian jazz-rock formation called European Mantra since the beginnings. They have released their first CD this year entitled FAQ.

Since June, 2005 he has been the pianist of the Hungarian Jazz Quartet.

Among others he made records and played with: Alex Acuna, Ben Castle, Winston Clifford, Sangoma Everett, Tony Lakatos, Bernard Maseli, Al di Meola, David Murray, Dewey Redman, Dave Samuels, Paco Sery, Arnie Somogyi, Garry Willis

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