Artist database

26 June 1949 Budapest - 12 April 2018 Budapest

Guitarist, composer, arranger, and professor at the Ferenc Liszt Academy of Music, Gyula Babos is one of the best known personalities of jazz life in Hungary. He was hardly 17 when he won the Jazz Competition of the Hungarian Radio in 1966, and since that time his goal has been to make his mark on the international music scene with compositions rooted in Hungarian folk and Gypsy music. After joining and founding several groups (the Aladár Pege Quintet, Kex, Rákfogó, Kőszegi Rhythm and Brass, Saturnus, BDSZ Collection, the Babos Trio and Quartet) and participating in European jazz festivals, in 1989 he produced his first solo album, called In 'n Out, which contains his own compositions – just like Blue Victory, his second release, recorded in 1994, with Victor Bailey, Terri Lyne Carrington, Béla Szakcsi Lakatos, and the late George Jinda. The album was released in twelve European countries. He made his third solo album for Sony Columbia in 1998, entitled Once upon a time..., which is the realization of his intention to fuse jazz with Hungarian and Gypsy folk traditions in his own way. The material was recorded with the Babos Project Romani. Babos introduced the group not only in Europe, but also in England and in Israel at the Red Sea Festival. Seventy-five Minutes Live, his latest release features the celebrated percussionist Trilok Gurtu. On this album, East-, West- and Middle-Eastern Europe meet in Babos’ music. Besides recording and composing (film and cartoon scores included), he is also a producer for pop and contemporary artists. One of his greatest dreams was fulfilled when in 1991 he played with Frank Zappa in front of an audience of thirty thousand people in Budapest.

Awards
1991 eMeRTon Prize
2003 Gábor Szabó Prize
2008 Liszt Award