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David Hodek

Drummer

About Me

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 kitchen utensils. 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.

cv_photo_3 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

Now at the age of 16 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, János Nagy, Árpád Tzumo Oláh, Viktor Tóth, Béla Lattmann, Harry Sokal, Ryan Carniaux, Stephan Wood, Chris Parker, Soweto Kinch, Mark Kelly, Corey Wilkes, Karel Růžička and with famous Americans Cocoran Holt, Casey Benjamin, Benito Gonzalez, Essiet Okon Essiet and Ron Affif… His talent was acknowledged by such masters like: John Pattituci, Poogie Bell, Jojo Mayer, Kendwood Denard and Martin Valihora.

cv_photo_quartet 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 .

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 prize nomination has been awarded only three times.



David’s playing and musical compositions are rooted in emotions; he can launch himself into music, empathically but always listening and reacting to his fellow musicians. His sense of rhythm and improvisational gift is unique and extremely creative. He plays pop, rock, Hip Hop, Gospel and all forms of Jazz.

Now at the age of 16 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, János Nagy, Árpád Tzumo Oláh, Viktor Tóth, Béla Lattmann, Harry Sokal, Ryan Carniaux, Stephan Wood, Chris Parker, Soweto Kinch, Mark Kelly, Corey Wilkes, Karel Růžička and with famous Americans Cocoran Holt, Casey Benjamin, Benito Gonzalez, Essiet Okon Essiet and Ron Affif… His talent was acknowledged by such masters like: John Pattituci, Poogie Bell, Jojo Mayer, Kendwood Denard 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, Max Roach, Jeff “Tain“ Watts, Oscar Peterson, Herbie Hancock, Robert Glasper, Kenny Garrett, Chris Dave, Brian Blade, Poogie Bell, Stevie Wonder, Joshua Redman, Miguel Zenon…

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



In the recent past 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 also participated as a sideman for an album called Folk Lore to Jazz published by Radovan Tariska, the outstanding saxophonist who played in David’s first album The First.

David is playing as the sideman for very many orchestras and is the member of the recently formed Peter Sarik Quartet. David started to play with Peter Sarik, one of the most acclaimed Hungarian Jazz pianists at the age of 4. Peter Sarik was the pianist both at the MUPA Project and earlier on The First album

With some close friends David started a new project called H&G Factory – the project aims to address musicality without labels – sound variations which includes all that comes from the soul and heart of the artist without restricting the music to definable styles.

H&G FactoryThe first album published by H&G Factory is called Puttin’ 2gether – the name says it all the – on this album both the musicians and the music bring together musical genres from traditional jazz to rap and from pop to hard rock. The musicians performing include the founders, Thomas Gajlik (SLO) piano, David Hodek (SLO) drum, Thomas Heilig (HUN) bass guitar and features such talent as Soweto Kinch (GB) rap and sax, Linda Kiraly (USA) vocal, Rahatmahatix (SLO) DJ, Anita Soul (SLO) vocal.

Besides being musically very versatile, in life he is many sided. He loves sports, especially basketball which he plays and follows with great fervor. He plays the piano and has been taking lessons from one of Hungary’s most highly sought after classically trained jazz pianists Peter Sarik; David also composes music and draws beautifully.

He taught himself English with a strong American flavor. He attends a school for gifted children.

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 musician.