Family B
Veres (Sárközi)
Lajos Veres and His Gipsy Orchestra
Hungarian Roma → Rotterdam / The Hague
Style: Holland–Hungary restaurant violin
Lajos Veres was a stage name. He was born István Lajos Sárközi, 1912–1981, Hungarian Roma, son of a violinist and a singer. He brought a six-man band to Rotterdam in 1935. Fourteen albums. His daughter Mariska took another road.
István Lajos Sárközi was born in a Hungarian village in 1912. The family name is Sárközi (often written Sárközy in the West). His father led a violin orchestra; his mother sang. At nineteen he was already primás of a café band at the Ostende in Budapest. The name he used on the road and on the Dutch sleeves was Lajos Veres.
In 1935 he came to Rotterdam with six men. He returned for good in 1939. The Dutch rooms wanted csárdás and the standing violin. He recorded at least fourteen LPs — Puszta Klänge and the rest of that catalogue. A 1950s Dutch broadcast lists him as first violin with Sárközi Márkus on second violin: the family name still sitting in the second chair.
He married Maria Antonia Ender (1912–1986), born in Germany to French and Russian parents. They raised three daughters in The Hague. The eldest studied piano at the conservatory. Ilonka sang with her father. The youngest, Mariska Veres (1947–2006), left the restaurant book for pop: Shocking Blue, and “Venus.” The archive records her as his child, not as a primás.
Lajos Veres died in 1981 and was cremated in The Hague. Sárközi is also the name of the Budapest violin family still playing classic sets. The Dutch Veres line and the Budapest Sárközi line share a surname common among Hungarian Romani musicians. Without a pedigree this page records both lines.
Lineage
Birth and death on a vertical line — generation by generation. Places are listed where we could find them.
Generation 1
József Veres
Father, violin, bandleader
Violin, own orchestra. Father of István Lajos Sárközi — the man Dutch rooms called Lajos Veres.
Generation 1
Julianna Veres
Mother, voice
Voice. Mother of Lajos Veres.
Generation 2
István Lajos Sárközi (Lajos Veres)
Violin, primás · 1912–1981
Born 1912 · Zombor, Hungary — Died 1981 · The Hague, Netherlands (cremated)
Born István Lajos Sárközi. Primás. Rotterdam 1935, fourteen albums, the Dutch restaurant violin.
Generation 2
Maria Antonia Ender
Wife · 1912–1986
Born 1912 · Germany — Died 1986
Wife of Lajos. French and Russian parents. Three daughters in The Hague.
Generation 2
Sárközi Márkus
Second violin
Second violin on a Dutch broadcast with Veres as first. The family name still in the second chair.
Generation 3
Eldest daughter Veres
Piano
Piano. Conservatory, The Hague.
Generation 3
Ilonka Veres
Voice
Voice. Duo with her father.
Generation 3
Mariska Veres
Voice (pop) · 1947–2006
Born 1 October 1947 · The Hague, Netherlands — Died 2 December 2006 · The Hague, Netherlands
Maria Elisabeth Ender. Shocking Blue — “Venus.” Another road from the restaurant book.
Orchestra years
When the band was founded, when it split, when a new generation took the stand.
c. 1910
New orchestra
The father’s Hungarian kapelle
József Veres orchestra
József Veres, violin, own orchestra. Julianna sings. István Lajos grows up in that band.
1931
New generation leads
Lajos as primás — new generation
Ostende café orchestra, Budapest
At nineteen István Lajos Sárközi leads a café orchestra at the Ostende. Stage name: Lajos Veres.
1935
New orchestra
Six men to Rotterdam
Lajos Veres and His Gipsy Orchestra
A touring restaurant orchestra for Dutch rooms. Not a split from József so much as the son’s own contract.
1939
New generation leads
Settles in the Netherlands
Lajos Veres orchestra
The band stays. Fourteen albums follow. Sárközi Márkus sits second violin on Dutch broadcasts.
c. 1960s
Generation joins
Ilonka sings with her father
Veres–Ilonka
Next generation on the same stand — a duo, not a second orchestra.
1967–70
Split — new band
Mariska leaves the restaurant book
Shocking Blue
Youngest daughter Mariska Veres founds another kind of group. Pop, not csárdás. The father’s orchestra continues without her.
1981
Band ends
The primás dies
Lajos Veres orchestra
Lajos Veres dies. Cremated in The Hague. No son took the restaurant chair. The name on Dutch sleeves stops here.
Neighbours
Same country or city, but a different way of playing.
- Lakatos — Hungarian Roma — Budapest (and Belgium, for a time)
- Sárközi / Sárközy — Hungarian Roma — Budapest
- Czinka — Hungarian Roma — Kingdom of Hungary, eighteenth century
- Kalyi Jag — Hungarian Roma — Nagyecsed / Budapest, from 1978
- Járóka — Hungarian Roma — Kisvárda / Budapest
- Boross — Hungarian Roma — Budapest
- Danyi — Hungarian Roma — Budapest
- Lendvai Csócsi — Hungarian Roma — Ménfőcsanak / Budapest