He appeared in the band of Andor Szakcsi Kovács, but he introduced himself with his own bands in the mid-sixties. With his trio LDL, he won the first prize at the Hungarian Radio competition, and in 1970, with his Quartet of Aladár Pege, he won the second prize of the professional jury of the Montreux Jazz Festival, which opened the gates for him of the international jazz scene.

He has performed at the most prestigious festivals worldwide. His collaborations with foreign jazz musicians lead him to joint recordings with George Jinda – as a Special EFX soloist with Jinda and Chieli Minucci, and as an author and performer on eleven CDs – thanks to which he signed a contract with GPR for his own solo albums in the mid-eighties (Sachi, 1988; Mystic Dreams, 1989; Eve of Chance, 1992; Straight Ahead, 1994).

Chick Corea has repeatedly praised Szakcsi’s authorial and artistic qualities, who has played with outstanding musicians such as Frank Zappa, Art Farmer, Mark Ledford, Dave Weckl, Omar Hakim, Terri Lyne Carrington, Marvin “Smitty” Smith, Victor Bailey and Attila Zoller, Rodney Holmes, Mike Richmond, Jack DeJohnette, John Patitucci, Terri Lyne Carrington, Reginald Veal, Chris Potter or Gerard Presencer.

In the history of Hungarian jazz, first with the Rákfogó and then with Saturnus band, Szakcsi played an indelible role in fusion of jazz.

He also collected Gypsy folklore and making it into theatrical works. The first gypsy musical was premiered in 1975 under the title Red Caravan, followed by two other works. In the 500th anniversary of the discovery of America, the Hungarian State Opera House presented its hundred-minute ballet, Cristoforo.

Ádám Horváth and Gyöngyi Écsi edited Hungarian folk song arrangements (Virágom, Virágom, 1988), and he released four hands with the pianist György Vukán, while his other jazz recordings were edited (Journey in Time, 1998; On the way back home, 2001), In the meantime, he goes deeper into the study of the compositions of György Kurtág, György Ligeti and Péter Eötvös. To create a common language from the music genres – that is probably the vocation of Szakcsi.

His production in the world jazz is a significant step in the career of the New Hungarian Gypsy Jazz. Na Dara, which was released in 2004 by BMC, is unique, or we can even say that a style-maker. Some American musicians deny the existence of European jazz. Only the late great Belgian gypsy guitarist Django Reinhardt was the exception. When they heard him, they admitted he was playing jazz, even though different to theirs. This new Gypsy jazz is inevitably more modern than Django’s, coming from another Gypsy tradition.

In 2008, the World Musical entitled Dream of Midsummer Night was premiered at the Szeged Open-Air Games and then at the Budapest Operetta Theater, creating a new genre.

In addition to all these activities, he has repeatedly performed in concert at Mozart’s D-Coronation Piano Concerto, in which he improvised jazz.

Béla Szakcsi Lakatos is a Liszt Ferenc Prize-winning composer, jazz pianist, Meritorious Artist, for his endeavor to integrate the spirit of the jazz genre and its movement.