Laco Deczi & Celula New York

Laco Déczi (born Ladislav Déči, 29 March 1938, Bernolákovo) is an American jazz trumpeter, composer, and painter of Slovak origin. In 1962 he moved from Bratislava to Prague, where he remained until emigrating to the USA in 1985.

From the start of his professional career, Déczi pursued a different path than most Czechoslovak jazz musicians of his time: while intellectual West Coast jazz dominated, his Bratislava groups embraced the explosive hard bop of America's East Coast and the cult of Clifford Brown. After arriving in Prague, he influenced even his older colleagues with this orientation, including Karel Velebný. From 1963 to 1966 he was a member of Velebný's legendary SHQ, which Velebný expanded into a quintet and whose repertoire came to include Brown's numbers such as Delilah, Jordu, and Kiss And Run.

With his own group Celula and, after emigration, with its American counterpart Celula New York, Déczi connected the legacy of Brown's trumpet with the electric jazz-rock fusion of Miles Davis – in this spirit his music continues to evolve today.