-drums-

Elemér Balázs was born in 1967, in Ózd. His parents realized at an early age that he has got a great affinity to rhythms. He started his musical studies when he was only 6 at the Rózsa Ferenc utcai Vasutasok Music School, where his teachers were Imre Kőszegi and József Gáti. Later on his teacher was Iván Nesztor at the Postás /Erkel Ferenc/ Music School. In 1983 Elemér got into the Jazz department of Bartók Béla Music School as an exceptional talent, where his drum teacher was Gyula Kovács. Next to the music academy he finished his high school studies on night school. Soon he played together with the most titled musicians in Hungary as they payed attention to him at a very young age. Until nowadays he already played with all of the great hungarian jazz musicians, like Dezső Ablakos Lakatos, GYula Babos, Balázs Berkes, Katalin Bontovics, Gyula Csepregi, László Dés, Gábor Gadó, Attila László, Aladár Pege, Ferenc Snétberger, Béla Szakcsi Lakatos or György Vukán…

 

Elemér is an important part of local jazz life as a drummer as well as a composer. He achieved great successes with his past and current bands. One of these band was called No-spa, which ended up third place in the Jazz Hoeilaart Competition in Brussels in 1989, and won the first place on the International Jazz Festival in Leverkusen one year later. Trio Midnight, which is an active band for 25 years had also great successes. Elemér plays in this band with the composer and pianist Kálmán Oláh and the talented doublebass player János Egri. Trio Midnight is a significant jazz band of it’s generation. One of their success was the winning first place on Jazz Hoeilaart. Creative Art Trio played an important part in his life as well, where he played together with the famous composer and pianist György Vukán, and with Balázs Berkes on double bass. Some of his main bands: Joy, Gadó Gábor Trio, Babos Gyula Trio, Szakcsi Lakatos Béla Trio, Dés László Septet, Oláh Kálmán Sextet.

 

Elemér’s special drumming can be heard on almost a hundred albums. He is still an active drummer of the following bands: Trio Midnight, Balázs József Quintet, Szakcsi Jr. Trio, Szulák Andrea Quintet, Dés László – Balázs Elemér Quartet (Contemporary Gregorian), Pintér Zoltán Trio, Oláh Kálmán Sextet, CB Trio.

 

He attended to numerous jazz festivals all over the world, like in Perugia, Marciac, Nünberg, Zurich, Munich, Copenhagen, Tallinn, Bratislava, Ciney, Dinant, Detroit, Getxo, Brussels, Vienna, Bangkok, Toronto, Quebec or London. He worked together with famous musicians like Annette Lowman, Stjepko Gut, Zbigniew Namyslowski, Jukka Perkó, Paolo Fresu, Stephane Belmondo, Steve Houben, Lee Konitz, Art Farmer, Pat Metheny, Rick Margitza, Charlie Mariano, Randy Brecker, Al Jarreau, Nicholas Payton, Ben Monder, Dave Liebman, Darryl Jones, Joe Lovano and Tim Ries.

 

Pat Metheny, world-wide known jazz guitarist spoke of him in high terms: “In my opinion Elemér is one of the best drummers today. He plays with incomparable musicality and fineness. He is able to listen to every single musical moment with such attention, he is able to make such fine and spontaneous  decisions on stage, that only encourages the quality of the play of the other musicians. He reaches out of his instrument with great taste. I always play with him with joy and so do I listen to his music.”

 

Elemér always took a good care of choosing his bands. In 1990 he created his first Quintet under his name and later on they made three albums. The album called Always that moment won the “Jazz Album of the Year” in 2000 by the votes of Gramofon magazine. He created Balázs Elemér Group in that year as well, which is one of the most successful jazz band in Hungary. The audience started to like them straight after their first album, Around the World. The band grew itself out into regular performer of numerous jazz- and other music festivals and clubs at home as well as abroad.

 

The band has got eight albums and one concert DVD until now:

Around The World (2002)

Our Worlds Beyond (2003)

Refracting Sounds (2004)

Hungarian Folk Songs - Magyar Népdalok (2005)

Best & Live 2001-2006 Concert in Budapest (live DVD) (2007)

Early Music (2007)

Memories (Dedicated to our mother) (2009)

The New BEGinning (2013)

BEG 15 - Örök szerelem (2015)

 

The album Refracting Sounds achieved Fonogram Award in 2005, one year later another album of the group, Hungarian Folk Songs got a gold record. Acknowledged musicians like László Dés, Mihály Dresch, Tim Ries, Charlie Mariano and Nuria Rial can be also heard on their albums.

Elemér and his brother József composed the music of the Film Getnó (by András Salamon), in which the Group was also playing  apart.

Since 2006 Elemér gives concerts regularly with Tim Ries, the world-wide known american saxophone player in a lot’s of formations. They played together more times in Hungary and also in a lot of european and american clubs and jazz festivals, for example Deer Head Inn, Smalls, Jazz Standard, Regatta or Blue Note.

 

His Awards:

2000 – Gramofon Award „Jazz Album of the Year ” (Balázs Elemér Quintet - Always That Moment)

2001 - Józsefvárosért Award

2005 - Fonogram Award „Jazz Album of the Year” (Balázs Elemér Group - Refracting Sounds)

2005 - Honour of the Hungarian Republic Order’s Silver Cross

2006 – Artisjus Award (Dés László – Balázs Elemér Quartet - Contemporary Gregorian)

2012 – Story Award