Roby Lakatos

Roby Lakatos is a Gypsy violinist from Hungary. He is renowned for his mix of classical music with Hungarian Romani music and jazz themes. This album features popular film music themes from "The Third Man" to "Chocolat", from "Casablanca" to "Time of the Gypsies". The list of composers includes film music icons such as Ennio Morricone, Nino Rota, and Henry Mancini. German jazz trumpet-player Till Brönner appears as guest star on three tracks, including the title song.

The exciting meeting of two living legends of Jazz. For the first time "The fastest-fingered fiddler in the world" Roby Lakatos is joined by "speed demon" guitar hero Biréli Lagrène for a unique tribute to Stéphane Grappelli and Django Reinhardt. Both musicians performed in their youth with Stephane Grappelli. For this album they surrounded themselves with the superlative big band of the Modern Art Orchestra and by two first rate Jazzmen of the younger generation: thrilling drummer Niek de Bruijn and guitar sensation Andreas Varady.

The exciting meeting of two living legends of Jazz! For the first time on SACD/DVD "The fastest-fingered fiddler in the world" Roby Lakatos is joined by "speed demon" guitar hero Biréli Lagrène for a unique tribute to Stéphane Grappelli and Django Reinhardt. Both musicians performed in their youth with Stephane Grappelli. For this album they surrounded themselves with the superlative big band of the Modern Art Orchestra and by two first rate Jazzmen of the younger generation: thrilling drummer Niek de Bruijn and guitar sensation Andreas Varady. This is an explosive tribute to Manouche Jazz with standards such as "Djangology", "Nuages", "Stella by Starlight" and "Nuits de Saint-Germain-Des-Près".

The print media wasted no time upon release of his debut album, “Where I Come From”. The German news weekly Der Spiegel: “Fabulous start for a mega-talent.” NEUE MUSIKZEITUNG, a trade magazine for the music biz, voted it Debut of the Month, and “Münchner Konzertgesellschaft”, a non-profit association famed for promoting classical music and now Jazz as well, awarded him its Jazz Incentive Prize. Numerous appearances, for instance at the Rheingau Musik Festival or at ‘hot’ Jazz clubs throughout Germany, had audiences thundering for more.

Young German violinist, returning with a project devoted to France as its thematic focus: amazingly mature and conceptually coherent in the choice of content, yet sparkling with facets that surprise again and again. “Souvenir De Paris” underscores Sandro Roy’s rare gift for picking and choosing from sources in classical music and Jazz in a remarkable way, for allowing his music to become a stand-alone cosmos marked by virtuoso performance, and all that on what may very well be the most difficult instrument of all, the violin. This album featuring Roby Lakatos, Jermaine Landsberger Trio and Marcel Löffler.

The print media wasted no time upon release of his debut album, “Where I Come From”. The German news weekly Der Spiegel: “Fabulous start for a mega-talent.” NEUE MUSIKZEITUNG, a trade magazine for the music biz, voted it Debut of the Month, and “Münchner Konzertgesellschaft”, a non-profit association famed for promoting classical music and now Jazz as well, awarded him its Jazz Incentive Prize. Numerous appearances, for instance at the Rheingau Musik Festival or at ‘hot’ Jazz clubs throughout Germany, had audiences thundering for more.

The acclaimed Tsugaru-Shamisen star and top Japanese traditional instruments players present a fusion of traditional and modern improvised rhythm and sounds. Shinichi Kinoshita's outstanding technique and soulful sound has given him reputation as “the shamisen player with divine hands“. Tsugaru-Shamisen is a three-string banjo-like instrument played in the folk style in Tsugaru region of northern Japan with history of more than 100 years. Its character and spirit are often compared with jazz, both in its improvisational approach and in its roots. it evolved from blind street minstrels who played door to door. With its earthy and percussive sound, it is particularly popular with younger Japanese now.

The beautiful “old Austrian” German and Yiddish and the natural mixing of the two languages in everyday life on many streets and quarters of the erstwhile imperial capital city of Vienna was the origin of an unmatched abundance of cultural goods, which suffered a sudden disruption through the Nazi terror regime. “Out of Sight”, the upcoming album of Viennese soprano Ethel Merhaut is dedicated to discovering long forgotten Viennese songs by Jewish composers (Egon Neumann, Fritz Spielmann, Walter Jurmann, Hermann Leopoldi) and evergreens of Yiddish popular music in the United States, disclosing the close ties between these genres.