Júlia Karosi is one of Hungary’s top jazz vocalists. After graduating from the Franz Liszt Music Academy in Budapest, Júlia founded her own quartet in 2010. Hidden Roots (released in March, 2014 by Dot Time Records, New York) was her second CD as a leader and the follow-up to the successful Stroller of the City Streets (released in February, 2012 by Whereabouts Records, Japan). Hidden Roots contains a number of Júlia’s original compositions and as the name eludes to, arrangements of Hungarian folk songs.
Júlia Karosi had a classical training which is evident not only in her impeccable technique and expressive tonalities, but in her choice of repertoire and musical universe as well. Beside her own compositions, the singer is keen to select folk songs and songs by composers such as Béla Bartók, Zoltán Kodály, George Gershwin, or Stephen Sondheim – but always keeps her personal story in the forefront expressed through the devices of jazz music.
On her latest album Without Dimensions (released in October, 2020 by Double Moon & Challenge Records), Karosi and guitarist Ben Monder reexamine and reimagine the works of Béla Bartók and Zoltán Kodály in a contemporary jazz setting. Half original music, half arrangements of Bartók/Kodály compositions, is also an extraordinary exploration of Hungarian heritage.