Szakcsi

Easy To Love by the Szakcsi Jr. Trio featuring Bela Szakcsi Jr. on Piano, Krisztián Pecek Lakatos on Double Bass and Elemér Balázs on Drums is first class Hungarian Jazz. It features a host of standards including Frank Sinatra’s Nancy (With The Laughing Face), Wes Montgomery’s For Heaven’s Sake and A Nightingale Sang In The Berkeley Square…

Most of the notables on GRP's roster in 1988 participated in this pleasing Christmas CD. There is one selection apiece from guitarist Daryl Stuermer, Tom Scott, David Benoit, Diane Schuur, Dave Valentin, Lee Ritenour, Gary Burton, Yutaka, Chick Corea's Elektric Band ("God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen"), Szakcsi, Eddie Daniels, Mark Egan, Special EFX, Kevin Eubanks and Dave Grusin. This relaxed set will be enjoyed by fans of those artists.

Combining Latin and African rhythms with the light textures of MOR jazz, Special EFX emerged as one of the most prominent world fusion groups of their era. Formed in New York in 1982, Special EFX was essentially a duo comprised of guitarist Chieli Minucci and Hungarian-born drummer/percussionist George Jinda; debuting in 1985 with the album Modern Manners, they often recruited other musicians to help flesh out their state-of-the-art sound, among them Dave Grusin, Omar Hakim, and McCoy Tyner.

On December 2, Mandoki’s Soulmates’ Hungarian-language album titled Hungarian Pictures was released. Earlier, in the fall of 2019, the English-language record was released under the title Hungarian Pictures, which won a huge gold record recognition in Germany and Hungary, and took first place on the MAHASZ list. This was followed in 2021 by the wider version released worldwide under the title UTOPIA FOR REALISTS – as a Visual Album.