Passport Land - Elek
Bacsik (1926-1993)
Biography
Elek Bacsik (22 May 1926, Budapest, Hungary - 14 Feb 1993, Glen Ellyn,
Du Page County, Illinois, USA) was the son of Arpad Bacsik and Erzsebet
Pocsi. He was of Romani ethnicity and studied
violin at the Budapest Conservatory, but found his primary musical
inspiration in bebop pioneers Dizzy Gillespie and Charlie Parker. He
was also the cousin of Django Reinhardt.
In
his early years he travelled as a musician to Lebanon, Spain, Portugal
and Italy. He worked in Paris in the early 1960s and recorded with some
well known French musicians such as Jeanne Moreau, Serge Gainsbourg and
Claude Nougaro as well as making solo albums. In 1966, he went to work
and live in the United States and played at Las Vegas.
Elek Bacsik
recorded on guitar on Gillespie's Dizzy on the French Riviera (1962)
and later appeared on violin with Gillespie at the Newport Jazz
Festival in 1974. His bebop violin playing is featured on his two
albums as a leader, I Love You (1974) and Bird and Dizzy: A Musical
Tribute (1975).
In 1972, Elek G Bacsik was living at 1001 Lewis Ave, Las Vegas. In
1992, Elek Bacsik was living at 24 N Parkside Ave, Glen Ellyn, with
Helene Bacsik (born 23 July 1929, died 13 Dec 1996, Abilene, Texas). It
is not yet known if this was his wife or sister. Elek Bacsik died 14
Feb 1993, Glen Ellyn, Du Page County, Illinois, USA. You can read more
about him, including a discography at Wikipedia.
Ancestry
His father was Arpad Bacsik.
His mother was Erzsebet Pocsi.
Passport
This 1960 Titre de Voyage (Travel Document) is issued under the
Convention of 28 July 1951, and serves in lieu of a national passport.
Bacsik remained a Hungarian national, merely a refugee in France.
In this document, he has changed his first name to Alexis.
As you can see, he travelled extensively for a range of live performances, from 1963-66, visting:
Belgium, 1963, 1964, 1965
Italy, 1963, 1965
Switzerland, 1965
Spain, 1965
Canada, 1965
USA,1965
Luxembourg, 1965
Greece, 1965
UK, 1966
