Artist database

Péter Ajtai was born on May 4, 1986, in Budapest. He is a member of that radical young generation of jazz musicians who reject conventions while playing their instruments at the highest level. Despite his young age, he has already composed in many genres, ranging from free jazz to mainstream and folk music. He began playing the double bass at age 16. While attending high school, he took music lessons from Gábor Busshy and Balázs Horváth. After graduating from high school, he studied under József Barcza Horváth at the Béni Egressy Jazz Conservatory, and in 2008 he was admitted to the Jazz Department at the Liszt Ferenc Academy of Music, where he earned his master’s degree. He studied classical double bass with Zsolt Fejérvári and Gergely Járdányi. He is a member of the Geröly Trio, A.M.P., and various bands led by Béla Ágoston; he has also performed in the bands of Frank London, Mihály Dresch, Gábor Gadó, and István Grencsó. He regularly performs both abroad and in Hungary with such luminaries of European free improvisation as Johannes Bauer and Lewis Jordan. A long-held dream came true when he founded his ensemble dedicated to the music of Charles Mingus in 2019, on the 40th anniversary of Charles Mingus’s death. The band name is Mingus! Mingus! Mingus!. Its members are well-known musicians in the Hungarian avant-garde music scene: Péter Ajtai on double bass, János Ávéd on tenor saxophone, Gergő Kováts on baritone saxophone, Aram Shelton on alto saxophone, Máté Pozsár on piano, and Tamás Geröly on drums. Another of his groups, called Qiyan, released an album of the same name on Hunnia Records in 2020 (members: Péter Ajtai - double bass; Áron Porteleki - drums; Ádám Czitrom and Ádám Mészáros - guitar; Vito Szelevényi - trumpet; Ákos Szelevényi - tenor saxophone; Dániel Cseke - baritone saxophone; Aram Shelton - alto saxophone). The band's second album was released one year later with the titel Man is a Dream About a Shadow.