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Brief Bohém history

Founded: 1985 (first public appearance: March 8, 1985, Kecskemét)

Repertoire (styles): Ragtime, New Orleans Jazz, Dixieland, Early Swing, a cappella spirituals, old Hungarian jazz hits, own compositions

Albums: 17 albums (including some repeated material): 2 LP's, 5 cassettes (MC's) and 12 CD's, 2 DVD's. Bohém tunes are published on 17 anthologies and on a few DVD's as well.

Important TV broadcasts: Hungarian National TV, Duna TV (Hungary), Romanian National TV, East German National TV, 3sat (Germany)

Prizes: Hungarian Dixieland Band Competition 1st prize (1994, 1995)
eMeRTon Prize "Jazz Band of the Year" (2003)

Played and recorded with: Joe Murányi/USA – clarinet (Louis Armstrong All Stars), Zeke Zarchy/USA – trumpet (Benny Goodman Orchestra, Tommy Dorsey Orchestra, Artie Shaw Orchestra, Glenn Miller Orchestra, Frank Sinatra Big Band), George Kelly/USA – tenorsaxophone (Savoy Ballroom Orchestra), Paul Asaro/USA – piano, Michel Godard/France – tuba, Butch Thompson/USA – piano, clarinet, Bob Barnard/Australia – trumpet, Herbert Christ/Germany – trumpet, Matthias Seuffert/Germany – clarinet, saxophone, Jonathan Russell/USA – violin, Scott Robinson/USA – clarinet, tenor saxophone, tárogató, cornet

Major foreign appearances:
England (Bude, Whitely Bay)
Austria (Dornbirn, Graz, Hartberg, Lafnitz, Linz, Salzburg, Wien)
Czech Republic (Prerov)
Finnland (Pori)
France (Nimes, Sainte Maxime, St-Raphaël)
Greece (Korinthos, Volos)
Holland (Arnhem, Breda, Delft, Delfzijl, Eindhoven, Geleen, Gorinchem, Den Haag, ‘s-Hertogenbosch, Maastricht, Sassenheim, Tilburg)
Croatia (Varazdin, Zagreb)
Canada (Toronto)
Poland (Szcziawnica)
Germany (Berlin, Bingen, Braunschweig, Bremen, Celle, Dissen, Dresden, Dortmund, Düsseldorf, Gelsenkirchen, Gronau, Hameln, Hannover, Heiligenhaus, Ingolstadt, Köln, Leverkusen, Ludwigsburg, Mülheim/Ruhr, München, Münster, Osnabrück, Osterode, Oestrich-Winkel, Rüsselsheim, Stuttgart, Vilshofen, Wolfsburg)
Norway (Oslo)
Italy (Rimini, Udine)
Romania (Brassó, Bucharest, Garana, Cluj Napoca, Sfintu Gheorghe)
Serbia (Beograd, Nis)
Switzerland (Ascona, Baden, Biel, Davos, Meilen, Montreux, St. Gallen, Zürich)
Slovakia (Pezinok)
USA (Columbus/OH, Sacramento/CA, San Jose/CA, Santa Nella/CA, Sedalia/MO)

"Undoubtedly, the audience's favourite was the young Bohém Ragtime Band from Kecskemét, Hungary."
(Sächische Neueste Nachrichten, Germany)

"Temperament, comedy and show were in harmonic unity in the Bohém's spectacular performance."
(Die Union, Germany)

"With its clean, brisk, swinging renditions, the band surpasses most American groups I’ve heard."
(The Rag Times, USA)

"The Hungarians played with an unusual amount of joy of mixed with with lot of humor and moderated show elements."
(Harz Kurier, Germany)

"I was captivated by the professionalism, happiness that was beaming from the Bohém Ragtime Jazz Band. A performance which has stage show in it and maintains spontaneous dialogue and living contact with the audience. What the Bohém does, is world-class in its category."
(Kecskeméti Lapok, Hungary)

"The Hungarian Bohém Ragtime Band played itself to the hearts of the audience with temperamental, drifting ragtime. This is a band which perfectly sounds together and all the instruments are handled in a virtuoso manner. One can observe this not only in the harmonic tutti but also in many wonderful solos."
(Kölner Rundschau, Germany)

"The band has a crisp, clean, swinging sound that makes it the equal of the very best ragtime bands in America."
(CBMR Digest, Chicago, USA)

"The band produced a perfectly consistent sound in traditional instrumentation. It was mixed with violin and special spice was added by ragtime, boogie and dixieland – simply astonishing. And for the ears, the pure enjoyment of the sound of the instruments of equal quality was left."
(Rüsselsheimer Echo, Germany)

"Pompless, pure jazz teaching: There is hardly any jazz festival in Europe which the Hungarians haven't taken part in, hardly an important jazz club where the Sevens from the "Hungarian Musictown" haven't played yet. And all this only for fun? One hardly believes this seeing the natural professionalism that the Bohém Ragtime Jazzband showed to the audience. Probably the mixture of professional ability, the musical precision of the classical musicians and the exceptional improvisational talent of the jazzers produced this memorable experience of the seven-piece group led by Tamás Ittzés."
(Main Spitze, Germany)

"The Bohém Ragtime Jazzband is an excellent ensemble, conservatory players fluent in Joplin, Lamb and more obscure rag composers, but also capable of turning up the heat and jamming on King Oliver and Jelly Roll. I’m always pleasantly surprised at how well the best European bands play all styles of jazz; and in fact the Bohém guys play this music as well as anyone trying to in New Orleans."
(Riverfront Times, St. Louis, USA)

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OTHERS ABOUT US

I must confess you, your band is the best oldtime jazzband, which I've ever heard in my life. You do a real music with heart. Each of you had me deep impressed.
(Dai Kimoto, CH, 2010)

The music the Bohém played in Davos was excellent. Tineke and I found the last evening in Steigenberg the best performance.
(Willem Peul, NL, 2010)

I want to tell you that I appreciated very much your band which is a perfect balance of traditional jazz, entertainment and music from your country with plenty of humour. And this combination by excellent musicians.
(Michel Bastide, F, 2010)

A tight-knit, disciplined, and intensely swinging ensemble. [...] The arrangements by Ittzés are both stylistically true and brilliantly inventive.
(CBMR Digest, Chicago, USA)

Temperament, Komik und Show zogen sich als verträgliche Einheit wie ein roter Faden durch den spektakulären Auftritt.
(Die Union, Deutschland)

Die Ungarn zeigten eine unbändige Spielfreunde, gepaart mit viel Humor und zurückhaltenden Show-Einlagen.
(Harz Kurier, Deutschland)

Mit ihrem temperamentvollen, mitreissenden Ragtime spielte sich die ungarische Bohém Ragtime Jazzband in die Herzen der Zuhörer und hinterliess einen glänzenden Eindruck. [...] Sie sind eine perfekt aufeinander abgestimmte Band, in der jeder sein Instrument virtuos beherrscht. Und das zeigte sich nicht nur imgemeinsamen harmonischen Zusammenspiel, sondern auch in den zahlreichen wunderschönen Soli.
(Kölner Rundschau, Deutschland)
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