Berkes Balázs
double bass
12 October 1937 Budapest
Jazz musician, bass player, professor emeritus of the Ferenc Liszt Music Academy.
He started his music studies with playing the cello. From 1958 to 1962 he studied at the double bass department of the Ferenc Liszt Music Academy as pupil of Zoltán Tibay.
From 1962 to 1978 he worked in various bands of the Hungarian Radio, he was member of the Dance Ensemble of the Hungarian Radio and Television, but also of the Studio 11 for a long time. Beside his activity at the television and the radio, he has played in diverse formations and performed with all the significant figures of the Hungarian jazz music as well. Since 1962 he’s regularly played with György Vukán. Since 1980 he’s performed with Imre Kőszegi in the formation called Super Trio, and since 1990 he’s been member of the Creative Art Trio with Elemér Balázs. When wind instruments occasionally joined this band, it was called Creative Art Ensemble.
He had a number of such renowned foreign music partners as Teddy Wilson, Art Farmer, Paquito D’Rivera, Jiggs Whigham, Albert Mangelsdorff, Kay Winding, Tony Scott, Stepko Gut, Frank Foster, Kenny Wheeler, Ted Curson, Charles Tolliver, Anette Lowman, Jukka Perko, Steve Grossman, The Golden Gate Quartet, and all the leading jazz musicians of the neighboring countries.
He’s contributed to many recordings of diverse style, his own album is titled Forever ’96. He’s been regularly invited to prestigious festivals – he performed in Pori, Havana, Palermo, Prague, Bled, Warsaw, Nuremberg, Belgrade, Ljubljana, Göttingen and Leverkusen. He’s been invited to Montreux four times, and with the band Tomsits he won the Award of the Press and Critics in 1968.
Since 1965 he’s been teaching bass at the jazz department of the Béla Bartók Secondary School for Music and since 1993 he’s been lecturer at the Ferenc Liszt Academy of Music. He’s been member of numerous formations, but trio music with piano and drums suits him the best. He also takes delight in contemporary jazz, latin jazz, and the world of be-bop and hard-bop.
For his career as musician and teacher he was awarded with the eMeRTon Prize (1987), the Leó Weiner Award (1997), the Gábor Szabó Award (1998), and the Memorial Plaque for the Hungarian Higher Education (1999). He also received the Officer’s Cross of Merit of the Republic of Hungary (2002) and the title Outstanding Performer of the Hungarian Music and Dance (2007). In 2007 he was honored with the Artisjus Prize for his excellent teaching activity. He was awarded with the Liszt Prize in 2014.
Jazz musician, bass player, professor emeritus of the Ferenc Liszt Music Academy.
He started his music studies with playing the cello. From 1958 to 1962 he studied at the double bass department of the Ferenc Liszt Music Academy as pupil of Zoltán Tibay.
From 1962 to 1978 he worked in various bands of the Hungarian Radio, he was member of the Dance Ensemble of the Hungarian Radio and Television, but also of the Studio 11 for a long time. Beside his activity at the television and the radio, he has played in diverse formations and performed with all the significant figures of the Hungarian jazz music as well. Since 1962 he’s regularly played with György Vukán. Since 1980 he’s performed with Imre Kőszegi in the formation called Super Trio, and since 1990 he’s been member of the Creative Art Trio with Elemér Balázs. When wind instruments occasionally joined this band, it was called Creative Art Ensemble.
He had a number of such renowned foreign music partners as Teddy Wilson, Art Farmer, Paquito D’Rivera, Jiggs Whigham, Albert Mangelsdorff, Kay Winding, Tony Scott, Stepko Gut, Frank Foster, Kenny Wheeler, Ted Curson, Charles Tolliver, Anette Lowman, Jukka Perko, Steve Grossman, The Golden Gate Quartet, and all the leading jazz musicians of the neighboring countries.
He’s contributed to many recordings of diverse style, his own album is titled Forever ’96. He’s been regularly invited to prestigious festivals – he performed in Pori, Havana, Palermo, Prague, Bled, Warsaw, Nuremberg, Belgrade, Ljubljana, Göttingen and Leverkusen. He’s been invited to Montreux four times, and with the band Tomsits he won the Award of the Press and Critics in 1968.
Since 1965 he’s been teaching bass at the jazz department of the Béla Bartók Secondary School for Music and since 1993 he’s been lecturer at the Ferenc Liszt Academy of Music. He’s been member of numerous formations, but trio music with piano and drums suits him the best. He also takes delight in contemporary jazz, latin jazz, and the world of be-bop and hard-bop.
For his career as musician and teacher he was awarded with the eMeRTon Prize (1987), the Leó Weiner Award (1997), the Gábor Szabó Award (1998), and the Memorial Plaque for the Hungarian Higher Education (1999). He also received the Officer’s Cross of Merit of the Republic of Hungary (2002) and the title Outstanding Performer of the Hungarian Music and Dance (2007). In 2007 he was honored with the Artisjus Prize for his excellent teaching activity. He was awarded with the Liszt Prize in 2014.