Artist database

Mihály Dresch (1955, Budapest) was an engineering student of seventeen when he turned to jazz under the influence of Johnny Griffin. After completing his studies in jazz at the Béla Bartók Conservatory in 1979, he linked up with the vanguard of Hungarian mainstream jazz, and although since then he has created an independent musical world, he has not completely broken away from 'traditional' jazz. To this day, his albums feature the odd evergreen piece - this is his way of paying homage to the masters.

Mihály Dresch founded his first band in 1984. By the mid-90s its line-up had changed several times: on the albums "Sóhajkeserű˝ and "Gondolatok a régiekről˝ we can hear István Grencsó (wind instruments), Róbert Benkő (bass) and István Baló (drums), the record ˝Zeng a lélek˝ features Tamás Geröly on drums and Félix Lajkó on violin, then in 1994 Lajkó was replaced by Ferenc Kovács (violin, trumpet).

In spring 1998 the band was re-formed again and since then the line-up has remained unchanged: István Baló returned to play the drums, while the bass player came to be the then very young Mátyás Szandai. The first album of the re-formed quartet ("Riding the wind") was released in the UK, a highly successful release, which was followed by the even better received "Hungarian bebop" featuring the legendary, Archie Shepp as guest musician.

In addition to Archie Shepp, the members of the Dresch Quartet have worked with outstanding artists such as John Tchicai, Roscoe Mitchell, Chico Freeman, David Murray and Dewey Redman; and the band has been the guest of festivals and clubs as high-ranking as the Jazz & Wine Festival (Italy), the Festival Jazzebre (France), the London Jazz Festival (UK), JazzFest Wien (Austria), the Kalisz Festival (Poland), the New Morning (France) and the Jazz Brugge (Belgium).