The multi award-winning Nagy Emma Quintet represents the new generation of modern, contemporary jazz. Celebrating its fifth anniversary this year, the band has come a long way in a short period of time. Alongside numerous domestic concerts, they have performed in competitions and festivals in Italy, Poland, Spain, and Slovakia.
Even though the five members are quite different in many ways, it has been evident from the beginning that they can function successfully as a unit. Their experimental spirit plays an important role in shaping their sound, with heavy drum grooves, free improvisations, contemporary compositions in the form of songs, and other unique solutions equally emphasized in their pieces. This diversity strives not to be self-serving, but serves to enable the band to delve deeper into the layers of chamber music on stage. Contrasts and dissonance, improvisation and diversity, joy and spleen, contemporary sentiment, and grotesque, raw expression are all part of their style, revealing a kind of dreamlike charm.
Their debut album, Set to Face (2018, self-released), and Low Frequency Oscillator (2020, Sinistra) were followed by their third album, Synced, released in the spring of 2022 by the prestigious Swiss label Unit Records. The material from the album was introduced at the newly opened Hungarian Music House in March, where Márton Fenyvesi (who also participated as a producer) and Kornél Fekete Kovács were the band’s guests.
Their latest material titled Return was released in 2023 by Morotva Records: “It contains five songs that are just as different and just as similar as we are. We’ve come a long way with them, touching on Hűvösvölgyi Street and Italy, but we’ve put our hearts and souls into these twenty-five and a half minutes.”
The bands fourth LP will be released during the autumn of 2025 with eight brand new original songs.
Nagy Emma – vocals
Cseh Péter – guitar
Dénes Ábel – double bass
Oláh Krisztián – piano
Klausz Ádám – drums