Ernest Oláh was a phenomenal jazz pianist. He was one of the finest discoveries of the Czechoslovak music scene of the 1960es. He had his first engagements in the dance orchestras of Gustáv Brom, Gustáv Offermann and Juraj Velcovsky.
A native of Lucenec who went on to live and work in Bratislava and Vienna, he was no stranger in many of Europe’s most cosmopolitan cities. He had an unchecked love for jazz and was a great admirer of Oscar Peterson, the global icon of the black and white keys.
During his career he became famous for his own, unique style that combined swing with Romantic elements reminiscent of Chopin’s preludes. His playing was legendary, excelling above all in live concerts and solo café-style improvisation. His original compositions included not only jazz, but also classical music, in which he gave permanent form to his extremely lyric and elegiac themes.
However, the possibility of fame or a career was never so attractive to lure him far from his home and family. And so he became one of that group of exceptional Slovak artists whose names have remained, whether due to lack of ambition or a sense of higher purpose and however unfairly, more or less unknown.