Lilia Ilieva and Minimum Quartet, popular among fans of jazz had a thrilling pre-festive concert at Studio 1 of the BNR, produced by the radio’s Music House. Jazz compositions from the initial decades of the 20th c., such as Day In Day Out, I Love You, All Of You, You Won’t Forget Me, In Walked Bud saw their new versions with the formation’s new arrangements, inspired by the work of jazz vocals such as Ella Fitzgerald, Carmen McRae, Shirley Horn and instrumentalists like John Coltrane, Miles Davis and Wayne Shorter.

Vocal Lilia Ilieva unites the band and her voice and singing interpretation prove that love, will and hard work could result in real jazz. Minimum was established in 2013 in Sofia with the idea of fellow musicians with similar values and educations to start spreading their art. The formation has taken part so far in the jazz festivals of Veliko Tarnovo, Stara Zagora and Burgas, besides their regular club appearances. Here is what guitarist Alexander and Lili say about their work:

“We wanted to end up the season before the summer with this concert. We plan to fully change our repertoire for the next fall. We want to preserve the band. Our approach is not typical, but we have built up something really precious while playing together – we reached a level of co-working and feeling that is something very tough for bands, gathered together for a single play or one festival. Each and every one of us leaves his or her mark on the music. All our arrangements are pretty brave and untypical. We wanted to keep the mood and the harmony. We are looking for balance and playing, based on interaction. Less fixed stuff, more communication. Lili knows how to position her voice in music at any point. We play pretty complicated things behind her and she never slips. She flows over what we are doing. This is our sound,” the guitar player says and singer Lilia adds:

“This project is something precious to me, mostly because of the participants. I am privileged to be a part of this minimum formation in any of its forms. Now we are a quintet. These musicians are incredible professionals. The working process is really creative, but we are a real team…”

Bass player Boris Taslev goes on to say that this has been the long waited unification of the band, as people with the same sense of aesthetics and idea on the final sounding goal have gathered. We have our mistakes, but we are happy after each concert. Dimitar Liolev is most laconic, saying: “It’s always interesting. These are the most sincere musicians for me”.

English version: Zhivko Stanchev