From June 27 to June 29 jazz musicians from Portugal, Spain, USA, Cameroon, Cape Verde, Cuba, Mexico and Bulgaria will show their skills during the A to JazZ Festival. This is its fourth edition of the festivals and it is organized once again with the support of the America for Bulgaria Foundation. The event is part of the Sofia - European Capital of Culture 2019 Campaign. Founded in 2011 the music forum is dedicated to a particular style every year. It started with jazz from the 30s of the XX century, before soul and funk followed in 2012. Last year Latino was the focus of the festival and this summer is dedicated to the ethno-world beats. More details about the festival from Petar Dimitrov - organizer of the event:

"In this edition of the festival we are to show the vast world of ethno music, refracted through the prism of jazz. We open the festival on June 27 in Sofia’s South Park with a new project of the BNR Music House – ‘Jazzophonia.’ The project will be presented by the Big Band of the radio with conductor Antoni Donchev. Together with the band Roma virtuoso musicians Martin Lyubenov /accordion/ Orlin Pamukoff /clarinet/ Angel Tichaliev /trumpet/ from the Karandila Band, as well as Angel Demirev /guitar/ and Miladin Angelov-Mile /saxophone/ will perform at the stage of A to jazZ.

On stage during the first night of "A to jazZ" in addition to Bulgarian ethno jazz music, fans will enjoy Spanish flamenco. This will happen thanks to the musicians from the formation of Paco de Lucia - "Caramelo Flamenco Latin Jazz". They will present a Spanish-Cuban project, the first part of which will be a type of tribute to the virtuoso flamenco guitarist, who recently left this world.

Since the beginning of A to jazZ, the stage of the festival has been opened for debuts of young bands. This year the honor goes to the Mikhail Filipov Quintet - young boys who are to perform for the first time at a jazz festival. They will open the second night /28.06/ with a concert.

"Dimitar Liolev /saxophone/ together with Anton Donchev (piano), Boris Taslev /bass/ and Borislav Petrov /drums/ will present the new album of the saxophonist called Rhodopology. Born in the town of Smolyan, Dimitar Liolev has expressed his love for the beauty of the Rhodope Mountains through music", Petar Dimitrov explains/

The second night of the music forum will also end with foreign participation. Tito Paris will present the style of the Portuguese Morna music scene originating from Cape Verde. Tito is one of the composers who worked with late Cesaria Evora.

How will the fourth edition of "A to jazZ" end?

"Passionate Bulgarian flamenco formation Banda del Padre will give the start of the last night on June 29Ч Peter Dimitrov goes on to say. "After them on stage the audience will see the trio of Petar Ralchev (accordion), Stoyan Yankulov- Stundzhi (drums) and Angel Dimitrov (guitar). They will perform before the concert of Richard Bona - one of the greatest jazz bassists. He will be playing with Afro-Cuban formation Mandekan Cubano, which comes from New York especially for its concert in Sofia."

The Studio 5 Club in Sofia will become an arena of jazz improvisations, once the concerts in South Park end. There the Angel Zaberski Trio will have jam sessions every night. Here's a performance of the pianist in his arrangement - "Prelude" by Sergei Rachmaninoff.

This year the organizers of "A to jazZ" have thought about children too. On June 28 and 29 there will be children's workshops dedicated to scenography, jazz, ethno dancing and others. This is a joint initiative with the Academy for Performing Arts of Sir Paul McCartney.

English: Alexander Markov