Biography

Daniel Szabo - grown up in the colorful and complex cultural environment of Central Europe, trained both in the US and Europe - is a versatile jazz pianist-composer who has a unique voice both when he writes and performs. He plays in different kinds of settings (combos, solo or big band...), however, he mostly focuses on his trio and solo-piano works recently.

The Daniel Szabo Trio plays original compositions and standard-arrangements written by its leader whose pieces have a peculiar taste and character influenced by all the styles he has encountered during his education and professional works (wide-range of jazz-styles, classical or folk-music...). He has a fresh and personal musical approach, while he is constantly inspired by traditional idioms as well.

Besides his own projects, he is member of the very active "Barber's Shop" led by Mihaly Borbely (saxes, folk instruments), which plays improvised music influenced by various styles of jazz, the ethnomusicological heritage of the Carpathian-Basin and the Balkans and by the elements of contemporary classical music.

(from the beginning...)

Daniel Szabo was born in 1975, in Hungary. Being a child of musician parents, he started to play piano at the age of four. He got a complex, comprehensive artistic education at the "Martyn Ferenc Free Art School" as a student of Maria Apagyi in Pecs. He simultaneously studied classical music, different styles of improvisation and jazz at this particular institution, of which the educational method was based on searching/analyzing/applying structural analogies between music and visual arts.

After graduating from high school, Daniel started his studies in the field of human sciences at the "University of Pecs". Three years later, he moved to Budapest to pursue advanced musical studies at the Jazz Department of the "Ferenc Liszt Academy of Music". He got his "Bachelor of Arts" degree in the field of jazz piano performance as a student of Karoly Binder in 2000. Later on, he got Masters degree in French Civilization and Language.

From his early childhood, Daniel performed a lot either in solo or different ensemble-settings in Hungary and throughout Europe in many different styles such as classical music, contemporary improvisation or jazz. He heard "Concert by the Sea" of Erroll Garner on LP at the age of 8, which was his first significant jazz-experience. He played J. Haydn's "D-major Piano Concerto" at the age of 12, and performed a whole repertory of jazz compositions at the age of 15.

In 1997, he was the winner of the "International Jazz Improvisation Contest" in Lithuania. He got first prize at the "Jazz Piano Competition of the Hungarian National Radio" in 1998. Due to this success, he got the great opportunity of releasing his first trio album at "Warner Music Hungary".

In 2000, he won the "Jas Hennessy International Solo Piano Competition" organized by the "Montreux Jazz Festival". Afterwards he had opportunity to perform a complete program at the "Montreux Jazz Festival" and "I.A.J.E. Conference" (New York City) as a guest soloist. After playing his own repertory at many different venues (in London; Berlin; Brussels etc.) in this period, he released a solo piano and a new trio album (2000; 2001).

Daniel was selected to the prestigious, full-scholarship program of the "Henry Mancini Institute" in 2001 (Los Angeles) where he played and studied with world-famous guest artists, such as Randy Brecker, Christian McBride, Roy Hargrove, Vince Mendoza, Bob Belden, Patti Austin, Dave Carpenter or Peter Erskine among others.

In 2003, Daniel was recipient of the Fulbright-scholarship, due to which he started his Masters studies at the world-famous New England Conservatory of Boston. He graduated from there in May of 2005. During the productive years spent in Boston, he had two outstanding mentors; Bob Brookmeyer, with whom he studied composition and arranging, and Danilo Perez with whom he pursued jazz piano performance studies. He also studied with such great musician-educators as Jerry Bergonzi, Steve Lacy, George Garzone, Michael Cain, Marty Ehrlich, Allan Chase and Ken Schaphorst among others. He performed with Maria Schneider, Joe Lovano, George Russell, Harvey Mason, Herb Pomeroy, George Garzone, Frank Tiberi, Tim Hagans, and was an active participant of the diverse musical scene of Boston. He also had successful performances at different venues of New York City.

In Europe, he had great shows with Italian alto-player, Rosario Giuliani. Another significant cooperation was the one with Kurt Rosenwinkel, with whom the Daniel Szabo Trio performed at "MOL Jazz Festival Budapest 2005". He was invited to Rosenwinkel's band to play its European tour ended up by a show taken place in "Blue Note Milan" in November, 2005. In the same period, he also toured with saxophonist Eric Marienthal (Chick Corea Electric Band).

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