Elek Bacsik was a Hungarian Gypsy jazz guitarist who today virtually unknown. The cousin of Django Reinhardt, Bacsik was born in 1926 and began playing the violin at age 4. After studying at the Budapest Conservatory in the '40s, he taught himself the guitar, playing Gypsy and classical music. In the post-war 1940s, he left Hungary for Vienna and then Switzerland. In Bern, he played in light-music groups fashionable at the time in cafes, returning to Hungary to record in the late 1940s.
In 1949, Bacsik discovered bebop and bought all of the Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie records he could find. Throughout the 1950s, he made his way to Lebanon, Spain, Portugal and Italy. In 1959, he moved to Paris, where he played at many of the city's Left Bank jazz clubs. He also recorded as a sideman on albums led by Art Simmons, Clark Terry, Kenny Clarke, Lou Bennett and others. In February 1962, he recorded his first album as a leader in Paris. That summer, he played with Gillespie at France's Antibes Jazz Festival and recorded on Dizzy on the French Riviera (Philips).
Bacsik moved to the States in 1966 with hopes of making a name for himself as a jazz musician. But without strong brand recognition, his dream was tough to realize. Instead, he disappeared with his violin into the Las Vegas pit orchestras, resurfacing in the 1970s, recording albums on the violin and the electric violin. Those would be his last recordings. Sadly he would never again reach the status as a jazz musician that he had achieved in Paris years earlier.
Listening back to his leadership albums recorded in Paris, one realizes that Bacsik was a forceful, swinging player. He had an aggressive attack and improvised beautifully, letting notes ring. On his first album, The Electric Guitar of the Eclectic Elek Bacsik (Fontana), later released as Jazz Guitarist, he was joined by two different pairings over the two recording sessions:
Pierre Michelot (b) and Kenny Clarke (d) on Take Five, Blue Rondo a la Turk, Willow Weep for Me, My Old Flame, On Green Dolphin Street and Milestones. On the second session, Bacsik was backed by Michel Gaudry (b) and Daniel Humair (d) on Nuages, Angel Eyes, Godchild and Opus De Funk.
Elek Bacsik died in 1993.
JazzWax tracks: Jazz Guitarist is out of print, but you'll find all of the tracks on Jazz In Paris: Nuages here. This release combines Jazz Guitarist with four bossa nova tracks recorded the same year.
As for Jazz Conceptions (1963), you'll find it on Jazz in Paris: Jazz Conceptions here.
Bacsik also recorded a superb album with Serge Gainsbourg in 1963—Gainsbourg Confidential. You'll find the album at Spotify. [Photo above, from left, Serge Gainsbourg, Elek Bacsik, Michel Gaudry]
JazzWax tracks: Here's Godchild...
Here's Conception...
And here's Serge Gainsbourg's Chez les Ye-Ye...
A special thanks to Tom Fine.
from JazzWax https://ift.tt/2qDg92q
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