Night Two - 19.07.2006

Beside the ethno, but anyhow in the very center of jazz, was the participation of the Hight Time formation from the city of Rousse (in the north-east part of Bulgaria) which took place during the second night of the festival. The band performed funk & fusion compositions of theirs, created in the past couple of years. Two of the trios make part of the popular group Ahead and the third is from Sappho. We cannot say if that was what increased the number of young people in the audience, but that augmentation was a fact.

The musicians from the Ateshkhan I Taifa had an interesting start. In the opening piece of almost 10 minutes the members of the band were appearing one by one on the stage and taking their part in the play. The last to appear was the vocal Venera Todorova. The Smolyan audience was exhilarated and brought up to real ecstasy by the virtuoso improvisations of the front man Ateshkhan and Vasko Parmakov.
The Romanian folklore songs in a jazz version, brilliantly performed by Venera were more than remarkable. The band played most of their new repertoire whose selection and preparation took quite a long time and that will appear on its first CD in the end of 2006.

Night Three - 20.07.2006

No room to swing a cat in. That is how the amphitheatre in the new city centre of Smolyan could be described during the third night of the festival program. The Ethno-Jazz Fest was apparently gaining speed and each night to follow the audience became more numerous. Now in the audience were the fans of the fascinating Hilda Kazassyan. With her on the stage were Hristo Yotzov – drums, Rumen Toskov – piano and Shibil Benev – guitar. The musicians performed a samba program of famous pieces of Jobim and a composition of Hristo Yotzov. A special gift for the Smolyan audience was the participation of Peppy Saltchev, which was not previously announced in the program. He and Hilda performed a few jazz standards and warmed the audience.

 

After them, on the stage “hit” Stoyan Yankulov and Elitza Todorova. All jumped in exaltation. The incredible charge, the strong rhythms and the cosmic voice of Elitza painted a folkloric drum picture, which is extremely hard to frame.
Their “Djundjuriya” (“Knick-Knacks”) was the musical hit of the night. The duet performed two encores in front of the exalted audience. Music is love and love’s music. Whatever you add will spoil the whole.

 

 

Night Four - 21.07.2006 >>>