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BIOGRAPHY

Kristof Bacsó as a saxophone player and a composer, is one of the most key artist of the Hungarian jazz scene. He produced numerous albums for trio, quartet and big-band in the last 10 years.  With his projects he plays well thought-out improvised music, combining the Central-European spirit with the elements of contemporary jazz. His music is Intellectually captivating, fresh from beginning to end.

Kristóf Bacsó was born in Budapest, and started studying the saxophone under Dezső Lakatos Ablakos and Mihály Borbély. He graduated from the jazz department at the Ferenc Liszt Academy of Music, then continued his studies first at the Conservatoire de Paris and later at the Berklee College of Music in Boston.

 

For five-and-a-half years he lived and worked in France, then the United States, while he also performed in many European countries including the London Jazz Festival, the Pescara and Barcelona Jazz Festivals, and in several famous jazz clubs (Sunset, Sunside, Porgy and Bess, Pizza Express, New Morning, Cotton Club Tokyo, etc.). He has played in line-ups of a wide variety of styles from mainstream jazz, through ethno music, to contemporary music, with renowned musicians such as Lionel Loueke, Ferenc Nemeth, Gilad Hekselman, Tony Lakatos, etc..

 

He has been working with Gábor Gadó since the end of the 1990s; he participated on his records Modern Dances, Psyche and Lung-Gom-Pa and was a soloist on the releases Agent Spirituel and Different Garden by Gábor Winand, which were composed by Gábor Gadó. He has regularly played with the well-known piano player - Kálmán Oláh - since 2004, and in 2006 they released a trio album entitled Fitting, featured Sébastien Boisseau on bass. As a soloist he performed the piece of Oláh Concerto for Symphony Orchestra and Jazz Band and Return To Pangea.

 

He frequently works with his trio, the Kristof Bacso Triad, the Kálmán Oláh Sextet and the Hungarian high-level big-band - the Modern Art Orchestra, in which he is featured as a soloist, arranger and composer. In 2014 the BMC Records released a new album of Modern Art Orchestra – called Circular – on which all the music is composed and arranged by Bacsó. He is a  co-composer of the projects which are dedicated  to Bartók’s and Kodály’s  music.

 

With his formation he performs his own compositions, in which jazz and contemporary music are combined with a central-eastern European spirit. They played in many festivals in Hungary and in Europe, Brasilia and Asia and released two albums in the past years entitled Alteregos and Nocturne. His trio's first album – called Pannon Blue featured Lionel Loueke- is released in 2016 at BMC Records, he got the “Album Of the Year” from the prestigous Gramofon Magazine. He recorded his new album - called Imaginary Faces - in 2022, featuring Daniele Camarda on electric bass.

 

Currently he is teaching as the head of the Jazz Department of Liszt Academy of Music Budapest.

Selected Discography

Modern Art Orchestra: The Peacock, tribute to Zoltán Kodály, , 2024, BMC Records

Modern Art Orchestra: Foundations – Yamas and Niyamas, 2020, BMC Records

Modern Art Orchestra: Contemporary Music, 2019, Tom-Tom Records

Modern Art Orchestra plays the Music of Szabolcs Oláh: Winding Road, 2018, Tom-Tom Records

Modern Art Orchestra: 15  Hungarian Peasant Songs, 2018, BMC Records

Bacsó Kristóf Triad: Pannon Blue, 2016, BMC Records

Modern Art Orchestra plays the music of Kristóf Bacsó: Circular, 2014, BMC Records

Szalóki Ági: Körforgás, 2014, Tom-Tom Records

Bacsó Kristóf Quartet: Nocturne, 2012, BMC Records

Szalóki Ági: Öröme az égnek, öröme a földnek, 2012, Tom-Tom Records

Tzumo-Borlai Electronic Dreams: Freedom, 2011, BJC

Gadó Gábor: Lung-Gom-Pa, 2010, BMC Records

Modern Art Orchestra: Eclectic Path, 2009, BMC Records

East European Artsemble: Abstructures, 2009

Juhász Gábor: 1978, 2009, X-Produkció

Bacsó Kristóf Quartet: Alteregos, 2008, BMC Records

Oláh Kálmán-Bacsó Kristóf-Sebastien Boisseau: Fitting, 2006, BMC Records

Tzumo Electronic Dreams, 2007, Hunnia Records

Modern Art Orchestra: Karácsonyi Napló, 2006, Smart Music

Winand Gábor és Gadó Gábor: Opera Budapest, 2006, BMC Records

Kőszegi Imre: Drums Poetica, 2006, Tom-Tom Records

Nigun: Bale Kulturnik, 2006, Etnofon Records

Szalóki Ági: Hallgató, 2005, FolkEurópa

Elsa Vallé Jazz Syndicate: Abracadabra, 2005, Judge& Brady

Winand Gábor: Different Garden, 2004, BMC Records

Gadó Gábor : Modern Dances, 2004, BMC Records

Nigun: Standard, 2004, Etnofon Records

Winand Gábor: Agent Spiritual, 2003, BMC Records

Elsa Vallé Jazz Syndicate: Mi Gente, 2003, Judge& Brady

Bjorn Wennas Quartet: Early Summer Scetch, 2002, Beartones

Bacsó Kristóf -Zana Zoltán: First Steps, 1999, Fon Trade Music

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