Along the streets of Budapest, trendy restaurants and crowded jazz clubs announce that Hungary's capital has made a clean break from its Communist past. But unlike its office buildings and restaurants, which flooded in after the 1989 change in politics, Hungary's jazz tradition can be traced back to before the Communist empire crumbled. The country's love affair with jazz began in the 1920s and '30s with Hungary's own "Golden Era of Jazz." At that time, Budapest thrived as an international culture capital and jazz clubs littered the cityscape. But these clubs closed their doors with the onset of the Second World War and the Communist takeover that followed.

The new regime immediately branded jazz the "music of imperialists" and criminalized listening to or playing it. Fortunately for Hungarians, the U.S. government soon began broadcasting Radio Free Europe and Voice of America into Eastern Europe: while RFE took care of the news, VOA took care of the jazz. The man responsible for infiltrating the sounds of Louis Armstrong and Duke Ellington behind so-called enemy lines was the eminent jazz critic Willis Conover, the host of the nightly jazz show, "The House of Sounds." Conover had an encyclopaedic knowledge of jazz and a drawl that endeared him to his non-English speaking audience. It is difficult to find a jazz musician or fan in Hungary over the age of 40 who doesn't credit Conover for keeping the flame of jazz alive during those dark days. "I can remember listening to jazz sitting on the floor in my room, careful that my head was no higher than the piano," says Janos Gonda, today the director of the prestigious Franz Liszt Music Academy's jazz department. Back in the '50s, Gonda was a boy desperately trying to catch Conover's nightly show. "I didn't want the neighbours to find out I was listening to VOA, because that would have been dangerous."

Not surprisingly, the Communist ban on jazz backfired: by suppressing the idiom they simply added to its appeal and popularity, and Hungarians yearned for more. "Whatever is forbidden, I want," says Gyorgy Vukan, sitting at a piano between sets at his weekly gig at the Obuda Jazz Club. "There were plenty of other musicians who kept playing under communism to satisfy their own needs and to spite the regime." Vukan was in his late teens when the ban went into effect, and though he largely ignored the order, he hedged his bets and pursued a career in medicine. Today, Vukan is the best jazz-playing dentist in the country.

Eventually the Communist government recognized the futility of their repression and in the early '60s jazz was decriminalized, ironically, at the same time that the Young Communist League opened the first official jazz club in Budapest: Dalia Bar. Unshackled, jazz began to thrive again in Hungary; the 80,000 fans who turned out to hear Louis Armstrong and his all-star band in 1965 were living proof. The change to a market economy in 1989 finally allowed the Hungarian hunger for jazz to be satisfied. In less than two years, there were more than 20 listings in city papers for live-jazz venues - though many were no more than small bars with make-shift stages in a spare corner. Today, on nearly every evening of the week, the sounds of Dixieland, bebop, fusion, free and acid jazz can be heard drifting out of clubs throughout Budapest.

A few meters from the Danube and directly behind the former Communist Party headquarters, the Jazz Café plays host to some of the city's best up-and-coming acts. One of these is Trio Midnight, headlined by pianist Kalman Olah, a graduate of the Liszt Academy's jazz program and arguably Hungary's most talented young jazz musician. Olah is also a Roma, which makes him the latest in a long line of Gypsies who, according to Gonda, are responsible for sinking the roots of jazz deep into the soil of Hungary. "When one looks at the underpinnings of jazz-, the self-expression and the improvisation, one has to acknowledge the immense influence Gypsy culture and music have had on Hungarian jazz," Gonda says.

hen the Communists tried to stamp out self-expression and improvisation, jazz was one of the few areas of people's lives where a sense of individuality could develop and flourish. Defying the ban against jazz amounted to more than just evading another ridiculous Communist decree: for Hungarians, jazz became a personal pronouncement of freedom. Today, that statement of freedom can still be heard-, louder and more joyously than ever.

The Merlin Jazz Club

V Gerlóczy utca 4, around the corner from Károly körút 28 (metro: Deák tér), has live music nightly from 10 p.m.

1052 Budapest Gerloczy utca 4

The Jazz Café

Situated in a cellar, flooded with blue lighting, that makes the smoky air even denser. The music starts at 8 p.m. on Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday nights.

XIV Zichy Mihály utca 14

Piaf Jazz Bar

Anyone with vaguely Bohemian leanings seems to wind up at Piaf, a stylish and sophisticated night-club, named of course, after the famous French Diva. Red velvet furnishings abound, while the music upstairs (which is often provided by a resident pianist) has a distinctly jazzy feel. The basement bar is an altogether different proposition though, with all sorts of weird and wonderful characters cutting shapes on Piaf's lively dance-floor.

Nagymezo ut 25

Take Five Jazz Concert Budapest

Jazzbar in the heart of the city. Live concerts five times of a week (Tue-Sat) with local and international stars of jazz. Concerts start around 21.00h but never before. No food but great selection of fine wines and draft beers.

Paulay Ede utca 2. Tel: +36-30-986-8856 contact: Márton Székely.

The Jazz Garden

The Jazz Garden Music Club & Restaurant must be a very special attraction in the very heart of Budapest. Here you can enjoy the atmosphere of a summer night in a starlit garden even though you are in a cellar. "Jazz Garden" proudly presents the celebrities of the Hungarian and international jazz scene nightly. We have both a casual jazz club and sophisticated restaurant on the premises. Food is served in both every day and night. A nicely designed banquet room is available for your special events and parties.

053 Veres Pálné u. 44/a. Tel: (+ 36-1) 266-7364 Fax: (+36-1) 266-7365.

Columbus Jazz Club

This floating music mother ship features performances by many of Hungary’s greatest jazz musicians. Open daily; noon-midnight.
Discover the world of music on the Columbus ship without leaving port. Besides being a restaurant, this is where bands of the Society of Hungarian Jazz Artists and other guests take to the stage nightly at 8pm. Concerts last for 2 3/4 hours for those who have reserved seats. All ages are welcome.

Cotton Jazz Club Budapest

In the heart of the city centre, on the corner of Jókai and Weiner Leo Street, the Cotton Club brings back to you the atmosphere of the good old days.

You can take advantage of recalling the old times in the Cotton Club Restaurant, in the Orpheum hall, in the Cigar hall, in the Card room, in the open-air Cotton Café, and in the new Restaurant.

The menu card lists food such as steaks cooked at the tables, seafood specialties from the aquarium.

Every evening from 7.00 o’clock live music is performed by the band of the Cotton trio.

Jókai utca 26., VI. district, trams 4-6, M1 metro Oktogon station
Tel: (+36 1) 354 0886
Open: Mon-Sat: 12.00-24.00