Festival Performers 1998

Golden Gate Quartet (USA)
The Golden Gate Quartet is the oldest operating singing group in jazz. Orlandus Wilson (who still sings beatufil bass in the quartet at the age of 82) founded the quartet in 1934 in Virginia. Since then they have sung at every major festival, made tons of recordings for recording and film companies as well. They have performed with most of the jazz greats. Their rendition of the well-known and more obscure negro spirituals caught people's heart all over the world. Although necessarily there has been some changes in the line-up, the Golden Gate quality remained the same and keeps them in the front-line of festivals and enables them to do hundreds of concerts a year. For most of the time, the quartet sings with an accompanying band formed of first class French musicians. The group performed with enormous success in Hungary in the seventies and this is their first appearance here eversince. Their tour is sponsored by the MATÁV, the Hungarian Telephone Company with the exception of their Budapest concert which is supported by the Dreher Brewery and is part of the 7th International Dreher "Bohém" Ragtime&Jazz Festival.
Singers: Orlandus Wilson - bass, Paul Brembley - baritone, Charles West - 2nd tenor, Frank Davis - 1st tenor
Musicians: Alain Duchesne - piano, Joël Rocher - bass, Baldo Romelli - drums
Performances: 21. Kecskemét, 22. Debrecen, 23. Budapest, 24. Sopron

Butch Thompson (St. Paul/Minneapolis, USA)
Butch Thompson began to play the piano at the age of three and he showed immediate interest in ragtime, boogie and jazz. In his teens he played clarinet in the school band and soon became professional musician both as pianist and clarinetist. He founded his first band then and moved to New Orleans where he played with the best musicians. He is one of those few who frequently played in the Preservation Hall. He frequently toured in Europe in the 60's and 70's, performed at major festivals. He was the house pianist of one of the most popular radio shows in America for 12 years. In the recent years he played piano in Doc Cheatham's band until Doc's death in June, 1997.
Butch performed with several symphony orchestras in the United States and Egypt. He did the first performance of his own composition, "Ecuadorean Memories" with the St. Louis Symphony in 1997. (He also plays this tune and a few Joplin with the Kecskemét Symphony at the present Festival.) He also writes jazz articles, reviews for Mississippi Rag and Down Beat.
He has made hundreds of recordings, has toured worldwide but comes to Hungary for the first time. He plays both as soloist and with the host band of the Festival, the Bohém Ragtime Jazzband (playing piano and clarinet as well.)
24. Budapest, 25. Szombathely, 26. Pécs, 27. Kecskemét, 28. Kecskemét, 29. (Kecskemét)/Szigetszentmiklós, 30. Kiskőrös

Port City Jazz Band (Stockton, USA)
Built on collective improvisation, the Port City Jazz Band is a highly entertaining and extremely versatile jazz ensemble in the classic New Orleans tradition. Emphasis on ensemble playing creates a fullness of sound not expected from a six piece group.
The repertoire of the band includes a wide variety of titles from the early Jug Bands to obscure pop tunes of the 20's and 30's and from New Orleans street tunes to familiar Dixieland favorites. Composers as diverse as Rudolf Friml and Kid Thomas Valentine are represented in the band's vast list of tunes. In 1996 Port City was pleased to be selected as the only band representing traditional jazz at the San Francisco Chronicle's "Fourth of July Waterfront Festival", an event featuring 40 musical groups from the Bay Area.
The band, now in it's 27th year, a regular participant in the Sacramento Jazz Jubilee, spends most of each summer and fall playing county fairs throughout California with winter and spring devoted to playing an occasional festival or Jazz Club and many club and casual dates throughout California. This is their first appearance outside of the United States.
Members of the band: Ev Farey - trumpet, Tom Schmidt - clarinet, alto saxophone, Steve Drivon - trombone, Stuart Zank - banjo, Bill Reinhart - bass, Lloyd Byassee - drums
19. Gödöllő, 20. Győr, 21. Debrecen, 22. Nyergesújfalu, 25. Budapest, 26. Zalaegerszeg, 27. Szeged, 28. Kecskemét, 29. (Kecskemét)/Hódmezővásárhely

The Prague JazzPhonics (Prága, Csehország)
The Prague JazzPhonics was founded at the end of the seventies by Ondrej Ernyei. The band plays the "chamber jazz" of the twenties and thirties, as they say, with a typical "Charles Bridge of Prague" flavour. The orchestra existed first as as a trio and later as a quintet format and soon became popular both in its home country and abroad. They recorded several albums and performed throughout Europe. The JazzPhonics was temporarily disbanded in the early 90's. The newly organized orchestra now contains the best musicians of Prague. Altough some members performed at the Kecskemét Festival in 1993 (as part of the Classic Jazz Collegium), they play in Hungary with this orchestra for the very first time.
Members of the band: Petra Ernyei - vocal, Bob Zajíček - cornet, Martin Kment - piano, Ondrej Ernyei - banjo, Jan Štolba - bass saxophone
19. Sopron, 20. Győr, 21. Debrecen, 24. Szombathely, 25. Budapest, 26. Pécs, 27. Kecskemét, (29. Kecskemét)

Bohém Ragtime Jazzband (Kecskemét) - see its homepage.
24. Budapest, 25. Szombathely, 28. Kecskemét, 29. (Kecskemét)/Szigetszentmiklós, 30. Kiskőrös

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