Benkó Dixieland Band – Living legends

Set up in 1957, the Benkó Dixieland Band is one of the best jazz formations in the world and certainly the most popular in Hungary. In fact, its very first album went gold. The band’s international career started in the neighbouring countries in the 1960s, and by the next decade it was travelling to the West.

The ‘Benkós’ won the Montreux Jazz Festival in 1971, and a year later they took the Audience Prize at San Sebastian. In 1976 they were recognized as “Stars of the Years” at the London Music Week. The American success story got underway in the 1980s. The band won the Grand Prix at the California Sacramento Jazz Festival in 1982, and in the same year the California Parliament honoured the Benkó Dixieland Band. In 1983 they were made Band of the Year in California, and California governors Jerry Brown, then George Dukmenjian, presented them with awards. In 1987 the then president of the United States, Ronald Reagan, received them and thanked the band in the name of the American people for representing American jazz throughout the world to the very highest standards.