Biography

Born in a music loving family in Belgrade in 1968, Bojan Zulfikarpasic starts playing the piano at the age of 5. “In my country, music is a very widespread activity, and since working days finish quite early, family and friends would gather at my parent’s house as early as 3 o’clock in the afternoon to socialize and play music until late at night. I used to go to sleep listening to these Yugoslavian folksongs. Then I discovered Bach, Ravel and Debussy through my teachers, The Beatles – thanks to a friend – and Brazilian music with my father. I played these tunes by ear, trying to find the right chords, which already amounts to a jazz attitude”. As a teenager, while continuing his lessons in music school, he starts playing in bands and becomes known musician on the Belgrade jazz scene (resulting in 1989 in receiving the award for Best Young Jazz Musician of Yugoslavia).

In 1986 he receives a scholarship to study three months with Clare Fischer at the Blue Lake Fine Arts Camp in Michigan in the USA. Then, after his military service in former Yugoslavia, where in the army orchestra he discovers the richness of traditional Balkan music, he moves to Paris in 1988, to become in a few years time an unavoidable name in French jazz. He applies for the CIM, a school of reference for many young artists, where he quickly settles in and starts working with other musicians. With guitarist Noël Akchoté he plays all the Parisian bars and clubs, both as a duo and in quintet formation. Next to that he starts playing with contemporaries like Julien Lourau, Magic Malik and others.

The rise to recognition begins in 1990. Replacing the pianist of bassist Marc Buronfosse’s quartet (with François Merville on drums and Julien Lourau on sax), Bojan wins the prize for best soloist at the ’Concours de la Défense’ and his appearance does not go unnoticed by some of France’s biggest names in jazz. From 1991 he starts working with famous French double bass player Henri Texier in his successful Azur Quartet, later followed by clarinettist Michel Portal, both of them bringing him on to the big stages of France, Europe and further. With his special language – consisting of a mature jazz vocabulary with subtly dosed folkloric influences from the Balkans – Bojan leaves an indelible imprint on all the groups he plays with.

Apart from playing and recording as a sideman, Bojan leads his own formations. In 1993 he starts his collaboration with Label Bleu with the debut album of the Bojan Z Quartet, which he recorded in New York, followed by Yopla!, his second quartet recording, released in 1995. This is also the year that he plays his first ever solo concert at the Amiens Jazz Festival, but it would take a couple of years before Bojan decides to make a solo recording. First, in 1999, he releases his successful multi-ethnical project Koreni, inviting eight musicians from different horizons among whom Algerian percussionist Karim Ziad, Turkish ney master Kudsi Erguner, Macedonian rock guitarist Vlatko Stefanovski and some old friends from Belgrade, bassists Predrag Revisin and Vojin Draskoci. After some years of thought and reflection on the endeavour of solo piano playing, Bojan records his internationally praised and revered cd Solobsession, released in 2001, his fourth album as main artist. This album, full of superb compositions and out-of-the-ordinary piano playing, confirms once again his status as a jazz pianist who resembles no other, with seemingly unlimited talents.

As well with the groups of musicians like Texier, Portal and Lourau, as with his own bands and solo he’s been playing at big festivals like Montreal, North Sea Jazz, Paris Jazz Festival, Copenhagen Jazz Festival, Jazz in Marciac, etc. and in famous concert halls like Palau de la Musica in Barcelona and Konzerthaus Wien. In 2002 Bojan Zulfikarpasic is granted the title of Chevalier de l’ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the French government and receives the Prix Django Reinhardt for Musician of the Year from the French Académie du Jazz. His fifth album for Label Bleu, his first in trio format, with the formidable bassist Scott Colley (known from his work with great names like Chris Potter and Herbie Hancock) and New York jazz drummer Nasheet Waits, recorded in New York in June, has been released in October 2003.

Voices from the press

One of these original voices was born in 1968 in Belgrade: the great pianist Bojan Zulfikarpasic. Transpacifik, his fifth release as a leader, is also his first trio date, featuring bassist Scott Colley and drummer Nasheet Waits. This record represents a personal statement that challenges the comparison menace.
www.allaboutjazz.com February 2004

(…) it’s this singular blend, along with Bojan’s clarity of touch and fierce imagination, which sets him apart. A new star.
Mojo, Feb. 2004

Bojan Zulfikarpasic, to give him his full name, is one of those pianists who has an awesome arsenal which includes all the jazz language as well as classical knowledge and a penchant for the folksongs of his country.
Birmingham Post, Dec. 2003

The Joker is back (…) His marshalling of the keyboard has elements of anybody from Byard to Monk right through to Tyner and Wynton Kelly yet his melodic ingenuity and distinctively glistening touch betray the influence of the khanoon players of Turkey and the Middle East. Beyond his sound, it is Bojan’s narrative drive that remains as rich as ever.
Echoes, Dec. 2003

… he has moulded a style of notable excitement and contrast, but his movement between these genres can be seamless or, for the sake of stark contrast, abrupt.This underlines the most strikeing qspects of his work – his use of sharply contrasting dynamics and the percussive nature of his lines.
Jazz review, Dec. 2003

His playing has poise, elegance and originality and is best when he incorporates elements of his own culture into his playing. (…) Zulfikarpasic has much to say.
Jazzwise, Dec. 2003

He’s a powerful stylist with a percussive left hand and a knack for arrestingly melodic right-hand runs. Drummer Nasheet Waits and bassist Scott Colley back him superbly. It’s Bojan’s best yet.
Yorkshire Post, Dec. 2003

Bojan Z’s Balkan roots soon surfacein the stealthily twisting theme of The Joker, but his originality as a contempory composer is clear on the limpid turns of Flashback. (…) a delicious sample of personal, subtly-extended piano-trio potential.
The Guardian, 17 Oct. 2003

Bojan Z has a distinctive way of developing his pretty themes and taking them into a thicket of glowing chords. He's fond of virtuoso flourishes - he does have a great technique to show off - but they always stay rhythmically tight (…) And he always gets a distinctively personal sound, whatever the piano (…)Bojan Z is gaining lots of new admirers in the jazz world.
The Guardian, May 26th 2003

His time, touch and facility were remarkable, as was his sense of drama, contrast and dynamics. Most of all, he had such a vast well of personal ideas to draw on that that he never seemed at a loss for inspiration; as a result, his solos were a constant delight (…) A night to savour.
The Irish Times, April 14th 2003

He has a style of his own, which ranges from massive orchestral pianism with gritty harmonies and wayward melodic notes and phrases to minimal music of great simplicity and lyricism. There seems no limit to Zulfikarpasic’s talent.
BBC Music Magazine, March 2002

A formidable keyboard king (…) A standout disc of 2001, and a fascinating confirmation of Zulfikarpasic’s already formidable stature.
The Guardian, August 24th 2001

On albums such as Yopla ! and Koreni, he has shown himself to be a dynamic composer, a musician capable of harnessing a colouful array of rhythms and marshalling them into arrangements that are edgy and dramatic without being histrionic (…) the real triumph of Solobsession … is its clarity of thought and extremely communicative playing. It’s a one man show where you suspect that the star is looking up at his audience not down at his own fingers.
Echoes, August 2001