Artist database

János Ávéd was born on June 3, 1983, in Szeged. From birth until he graduated from high school, his permanent home was Mindszent, a small town on the Tisza River. The Mindszent Elementary Music School (now the Mindszent Elementary School of Arts) served as his musical cradle, where, in addition to mastering the fundamentals of music, he learned to respect music and developed a sense of vocation toward it. He first began studying the alto saxophone, which he later switched to the tenor saxophone. While attending high school, alongside his classical music training, he began exploring jazz under the influence of his teachers.

In 2001, during his senior year of high school, he traveled to Budapest for an early admission audition at the Jazz Department of the Liszt Ferenc Academy of Music, which provided the final push for him to consider a career in music as his primary vocation. After graduating from high school, he was simultaneously admitted to the Department of Engineering and Computer Science at the Budapest University of Technology and Economics, as well as to the jazz saxophone program at the “Postás” Ferenc Erkel Music School (currently: Ferenc Erkel Secondary School of Jazz and Music), where he studied jazz saxophone under Gábor Kollmann.

With the band Not Blu, formed during his years at the “Postás,” they placed third in the jazz competition organized by the Aranytíz Cultural Center (as part of the Belvárosi Lipót Days). In 2007, he won second place in the Jazz Combo Composition and Arrangement Competition announced by the Hungarian Jazz Federation with his composition titled Cantus (the other members of the band were: Márton Sütő on guitar, Ernő Hock on double bass, and Ákos Benkó on drums). In December of that same year, his trio (Ernő Hock – double bass, Bendegúz Varga – drums) won first prize at the Millenáris Theater’s first Jazz Jump Showcase festival. At the 1st International Kodolányi Jazz Competition held in the summer of 2008, he took second place with his group Mindsweeper (Gábor Csongrádi – guitar, Ernő Hock – double bass, Hunor G. Szabó – drums).

In 2009, he graduated from the Franz Liszt Academy of Music with a degree in jazz saxophone, where he studied under such luminaries as Mihály Borbély and István Elek. In 2023, he earned his DLA degree; the title of his dissertation was “The Twelve-Tone System in Jazz Improvisation”.

For several years, he has been a permanent member of the Gábor Csongrádi Quartet and a co-composer with guitarist and composer Gábor Csongrádi. From 2006 to 2009, he was a permanent member of the Transform Quintet. At the invitation of Kornél Fekete-Kovács, he has been the tenor saxophonist of the Modern Art Orchestra since January 1, 2008. He formed a quartet with guitarist and composer Márton Fenyvesi. He has also experimented with several trio formations, with partners including Ákos Benkó (drums) and Márton Soós (double bass), as well as Zsolt Sárvári-Kovács (drums) and Ernő Hock (double bass). He frequently performs as a guest with the Dániel Váczi Trio and István Grencsó’s bands, and was a permanent member of the Kéknyúl Band.

In 2012, he represented Hungary in a European Union music project called the European Saxophone Ensemble. With his group Balance (featuring Márton Fenyvesi and Ákos Benkó), he hosted alto saxophonist David Binney at the Palace of Arts in 2013. With this trio, they recorded two albums released by the Budapest Music Center: "Balance" (2016) and "for we know in part" (2018). After leaving his own band, he served as a wind and keyboard sideman for Gyula Babos’s group Ba-Lan-cE from 2013 to 2015.

In 2016, he released an album titled "Have News" with László Fassang, Balázs Horváth, and Zsolt Sárvári-Kovács on Hunnia Records. As a member of the Transform Quintet, he also toured with Joey Calderazzo. His album, which features exclusively his own big band compositions, was released in 2019 under the title "The Fruit of the Spirit". As a saxophone soloist with MAO, he has performed with such luminaries as Benny Golson, György Kurtág, Tom Harrell, Kurt Elling, the New York Voices, Péter Eötvös, Adam Nussbaum, Bob Mintzer, David Liebman, Randy Brecker, Chris Potter, Perico Sambeat, Mike Garson, Bireli Lagrene, Rhoda Scott, Mezzoforte and Silje Nergaard.

Since 2013, with a few brief interruptions, he has been a near-constant musical partner in Gábor Gadó’s bands. In 2011, BMC Records released their joint album, titled "Whispering Quiet Secrets into Hairy Ears", featuring Éva Osztosits and Tamás Zétényi, which received the highest rating (CHOC) from the prestigious French Jazzmagazine and the ÉLU rating from Citizenjazz. In addition, they are working on several projects with the Veronika Harcsa–Gábor Gadó sextet, and in recent years they have released several albums together: "Shekinah" (BMC, 2022) and "The Language of Flowers" (BMC, 2023).

He is a regular performer on the Budapest free music scene. He has performed with Máté Pozsár’s ensemble and Péter Ajtai’s Mingus! Mingus! Mingus! band. In the band Quelquefois, he plays completely improvised music with Attila Gyárfás, Péter Ajtai, Bálint Bolcsó, and Gergő Kováts; one result of this collaboration is the album "Blooming" (Hunnia Records, 2022).

Since 2020, he has also been a member of Twinning, a French-Hungarian audiovisual improvisational project. Together with Christine Bertocchi, Guillaume Orti, Gilles Coronado, Jean-François Dominguez, and Attila Gyárfás, they typically rehearse and perform in a residency-style format in Hungary and France, using the software called Usine. He also composes his own music for this project.

In 2023, he co-founded a highly improvisational jazz trio with David Six from Vienna and Tilo Weber from Berlin. The group is called Transcendent Triptych, and their repertoire includes compositions by all three members. Their album, titled "The Transcendent Triptych", was released in 2026 by the BMC Records.

In May of that same year, at the invitation of Anna Juhász, they presented a staged reading—in collaboration with Miklós H. Vecsey - based on András Visky’s novel "Kitelepítés".