When someone is discovered and offered a recording contract by Earth, Wind and Fire founder Maurice White, it's no surprise that he has extraordinary talent. Guitarist Adam Hawley is probably the most successful artist in the new generation of contemporary jazz performers. His four albums and the recordings he produced yielded a total of 14 Billboard #1s and 40 (!) Top 30 hits. In addition to his solo career, he also played with The Manhattan Transfer, Natalie Cole, Dave Koz, Jennifer Lopez and Brian McKnight. Adam is of the most in-demand music producers today and a favorite with American funk and jazz festival audiences. His guitar playing is both sophisticated and energetic, and his improvisations are stunning. He will be performing in Budapest for the first time in a joint concert with the Peet Project.
The Peet Project is one of Hungary’s internationally acclaimed young Hungarian pop-jazz bands. Their first career milestone was winning the Jazzy Radio Song Contest in 2009. Since 2013, they have performed regularly at major US and local jazz festivals, winning Album of the Year (2013), Album of the Year (2017) and Song of the Year (2020) awards at the Catalina Island JazzTrax Festival. In early 2021, they topped the charts in Canada, and they have had four US Billboard Smooth Jazz Top 30 hits so far. They were also featured on Hungary's Got Talent (2015) and a similar contest in 2017 and 2018. They are regular performers at the A38, and their music is well known to local jazz and food festival audiences.
Adam Hawley and the Peet Project first met at the 2016 Dave Koz Cruise, and in 2021 Adam invited the band as featured guests on his online show, where they played together. This collaboration will continue on stage at the A38 with a funk party spiced up with jazz and pop, featuring hits from both artists' respective repertoires.
The concert was supported by the Uptuned! serie of MOL-New Europe Foundation.
The Peet Project is prime to become a Global sensation [they] have really managed to distill the important elements of Smooth Jazz and present the genre in a new, hip way that gets listeners dancing and grooving, and guarantees to leave a smile...! ~Sandy Shore, SmoothJazz.com
The members of Hungarian jazz/pop/funk group Peet Project are still only in their early twenties, but already have three albums under their belt. Their original music is a seductive and eclectic blend, reflecting influences encompassing Candy Dulfer, Brian Culbertson, George Duke, Earth Wind and Fire and Mezzoforte, among others. The groups driving force is violinist / composer / producer Peter Peet Ferencz (24) who gives the band its unique sound through his use of violin as a lead instrument in an equivalent role to saxophone or keyboards. Peters talent was recognized by Brian Culbertson, culminating in Brian lending production guidance to one of the standout tracks off the second album.
Aged just four, Peter kicked off his musical journey with classical violin lessons. At 13 he began to play for pop groups, which not only broadened his musical horizons but also fed his interest in composing, recording and mixing. By 15, he was writing and recording music for hip-hop, rnb, house and pop acts in his small home studio and used his free time to learn to play the guitar and the piano. At high school, Peter founded what later became the Peet Project with schoolmate and keyboard player dm Lrincz. Their original music soon got airplay at Budapest-based smooth-jazz/lounge radio station 90.9 Jazzy. In 2009 they won the grand prize in the stations song competition with a Candy Dulfer-style jazz-funk track titled Be Free.
The bands first album Pink Spirit (2010, Beagle Beat Records) received rave reviews, not only in Hungary but also internationally, at JazzCorner and JazzTimes, whilst Smoothjazz.coms Sandy Shore described the CD as off-the-hook, irresistible grooves and melodies. The album was then on serious rotation at smooth jazz stations in the US, the UK, Germany and Switzerland, and in September 2011, the band made its international stage debut, rocking Switzerlands Jazzclub Rorschach as they opened a concert season featuring such luminaries as Victor Bailey and Drew Davidsen.
Released in November 2011, the Peet Projects second album, Turn You On (Beagle Beat Records) was again embraced by smooth jazz stations worldwide, most notably in the UK and the USA, receiving over 1,700 spins in the States alone in 2012. The albums opening track, Does the music turn you on?, was produced by Peet with the expert guidance of none other than Brian Culbertson, after the two met in Budapest.
The Peet Projects third album, Overseas (2013, on Beagle Beat Records) was released hot on the heels of the bands successful US stage debut at the prestigious Seabreeze Jazz Festival in April 2013. The bands performance won a standing ovation from the 7,500 crowd.
In October 2013, the band returned to the USA to play the high-profile Catalina Island JazzTrax Festival where they opened for long-standing Tower of Power singer Larry Braggs and walked away with a Debut Artist of the Year award.
In September 2014, with a new line-up including 3 new members, the band released the single Night Is Fallin', an instrumental track that showcases the Peet Projects studio work as they are prseseting on this gig at the A38Ship.
The concert was supported by the Uptuned! serie of MOL-New Europe Foundation.