Roby Lakatos

Came across him and his phenominally talented band on Jools Holland's Later about 2 years ago and then had a hell of a time trying to find out anything about him yet alone get hold of any of his CD's.

I think he's got a couple out, somewhat unusually, on Deutsche Grammophon, the best of which is 'Later with Lakatos', a live album which superbly demonstrates not only his virtuosity but also that of the rest of his band, particularly the cimbalom player.

As far as I recall he was originally spotted by Stephane Grapelli and Yehudi Menuhin and had begun playing in his father's band at 9 before studying at the Liszt Academy in Budapest. After being signed to Deutsche Grammophon, they had difficulty placing his first album given its style.

Dave

Interesting. Violin I assume, but what style/flavour ?

Frantic Gypsy

quote:

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Originally posted by Minky:
Interesting. Violin I assume, but what style/flavour ?

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Its an unusual mix of Jazz and violin based classical.

Sorry to reply to my own topic but if anyone is interested, I bought 2 cds of his on monday and although as yet they don't quite capture what I saw live they are well worth buying so I have just ordered the other 2 available on Audiostreet.

How does he compare to e.g. Stephane Grapelli, or Nigel Kennedy playing jazz ?

As an aside, does anyone know what the polish album NK just released is like ? I'm not a great fan but these crossover albums can be interesting.

I have never been overkeen on Nigel Kennedy (what I have heard is too obvious) and haven't heard Grapelli doing Jazz, although I'd be very interested if you could recomend something.

Here is a small cross-section of Stéphane Grappelli :

Stéphane's Tune (with Django Reinhardt). Recorded between 1939 and 1942.

Souviners (with DJ and Quintette du Hot Club de France). Reissued by Verve in 1989.

Oscar Peterson/Stéphane Grappelli Quartet, vol. 1. Recorded in 1973.