Dežo Ursiny

Dezider Ursiny, better known as Dežo Ursiny was a Slovak musician, composer, and filmmaker. In the 1960s, he was a member of the Beatmen and the Soulmen, two bands who pioneered an Eastern European style of music called big beat, which combined rock and roll, jazz, and twist when those styles were banned in the Eastern Bloc. He subsequently launched a solo career, usually in collaboration with the poet Ivan Štrpka, and composed music for a number of films. Ursiny died of oral cancer on 2 May 1995, aged 47.