Dávid Hodek

CURRICULUM VITAE David Hodek grew up in a small village near Komarno a town on both the Slovak and the Hungarian shore of the Danube. He is fluent in Slovak, Hungarian and English. Both David’s father and grandfather are musicians and his mother teaches ballet. His passionate relationship with the drums started in the year 2000 when, at the age of 3, his father brought home a video recording by Earth Wind and Fire; David wanted to see and hear this video over and over again – he was obviously fascinated by the actions of the drummer, Sonny Emory. He tried to copy Sonny. While this was indeed a child’s game, his parents, with their experienced ears and eyes immediately noticed that his playing was incredibly certain and exact for a 3 year old child. As a result he got his first toy drum set at the age of 3 which he immediately completed using pot and pans. His enthusiasm did not decline, so he soon got his first complete drum set sized for children.cv_photo_2 David’s father, Szilard wanted confirmation that David had in fact an unusual talent and turned to a highly respected professor at the jazz department of a Music Conservatory in Budapest, Hungary, Professor Vilmos Jávori; Javori confirmed that David was indeed unusually talented and immediately took David under his wings thus becoming David’s first drum teacher. Vilmos Javori’s untimely death brought two other teachers into David’s life Tamas Berdisz and Gabor Dornyei. Later on but still at the tender age of 4 a few musician, colleagues of David’s grandfather, formed a Blues Band and invited David to be the drummer. His first professional debut was with this band.d4 David’s reputation grew and today he is sought after by some of Central Europe’s and the world’s finest musicians. In 2007 David founded, the V4JAZZ. It was a formation of young talented musicians representing the Visegrad Four group of countries. (Slovakia, Poland, Hungary, Czech Republic).Ironically, in 2013, to mark the occasion of the Hungarian Presidency of the Visegrad Four, the EBRD (Europen Bank for Reconstruction and Development) headquarters in London England, the Hungarian Cultural Centre London, in partnership with the Czech Centre, the Embassy of the Slovak Republic and the Polish Cultural Institute will hold a gala concert featuring a unique jazz formation, the “Visegrad All Stars”. This group comes together for this one event and includes some of the most talented musicians from the Visegrad countries – the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia – as well as the UK. David was chosen to represent Slovakia In 2008 he founded the David Hodek Quartet formation, and in 2009 this great formation of professional musicians sealed its work by a debut album, THE FIRST. (Click on Discography to see more albums) cv_photo_prize At the age of 12 he was awarded the prestigious prize: The Talent of the year 2009, by the Austrian Music Office. Till then, in the 15-year history of the “Hans Koller Preis”, this prizenomination has been awarded only three times. Now at the age of 17 he is playing together with Europe’s best and most prominent jazz musicians as member of various formations – such as, Radovan Tariška, Ondrej Krajňák, Tomáš Baroš, Juraj Bartoš, Juraj Griglák, Tomáš Gajlik, Oskar Rózsa, Péter Sárik, Árpád Tzumo Oláh, Viktor Tóth, Harry Sokal, Ryan Carniaux, Chris Parker, Soweto Kinch, Karel Růžička and with famous Americans Cocoran Holt, Casey Benjamin, Benito Gonzalez, Essiet Okon Essiet, Eric Wyatt, Mark Kelly, Corey Wilkes and Ron Affif… His talent was acknowledged by such masters like: John Pattituci, Poogie Bell, Jojo Mayer, Chris Dave, Kenwood Dennard and Martin Valihora. David draws his inspirationfrom such artists as: John Coltrane, Charlie Parker, Miles Davis, Count Basie, Elvin Jones, Tony Williams, Art Blakey, Phily Joe Jones, Jeff “Tain“ Watts, Oscar Peterson, Herbie Hancock, Robert Glasper, Kenny Garrett, Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson, Chris Dave, Brian Blade, Stevie Wonder… In 2012 David was instrumental in organizing a concert at MUPA (Művészek Palotája – Palace of Arts) in Budapest, Hungary. Amongst the invited Musicians were Casey Benjamin member of Grammy winning Glasper Experiment group and Corcoran Holt member of the Kenny Garrett Quintet – this led to tours with Kenny Garrett’s pianist, Benito Gonzalez and the highly respected American/Nigerian bass player Essiet Okon Essiet d3 In November of 2012 David became a international Zildjian endoser. Click here In 2013, David visited the United States for the first time and after three evenings of jamming at Smalls and Zinc in the West Village he was invited to join a gig at Zinc as a sideman for the guitarist Ron Affif who has worked with everybody from Al Martino to Roger Williams. Besides his nightly routine of jam session, one evening sat in with Bill Saxton at Bills place in Harlem. This year, David has played with the famous Gustav Brom Big Band and toured over Europe. His parents guide him with great sensitivity. He has idols in intellectual endeavors, arts, music and sports but still retains his creative individuality and his child like approach to life. He accepts his success very soberly, realizing that (as he said at the age of 11) “it is 10% talent and 90% hard work” and he follows through with his mature understanding to reach his goal of becoming an outstanding human being and musician. nice day Drummer, Composer and Zildjian artist