The international Jazz Forum Stara Zagora took place in the period June 9-12 on the stage of the Augusta Trayana Roman Forum in the Bulgarian city of Stara Zagora. This year's fifth edition of the festival took place under the motto "Music that brings us together."

"Many people have already started trusting me and Captain Tsvetomir Vasilev - conductor of the Stara Zagora military big band, with whom we make the program selection. We have the support of the Municipality of Stara Zagora, so things are getting much easier. Of course, sponsors who stand behind us are also of great importance. It was a bit hard for me to think about the motto of this edition of the festival. The first year was devoted to vocal jazz before we had editions dedicated to trumpeters and to composers. Last year, special attention was paid to the orchestra of the Stara Zagora Opera, which took part in our program. The fifth edition goes under the motto "Music that brings us together" and that is what really happened in the Roman forum. Musicians and friends from all over the country came to the event. I am glad that among our guests were musicians such as Kurt Rosenwinkel, Federica Colangelo trio, Dan Kinzelman, Vehemence Quartet. It was truly a very nice festival."

Ventzy Blagoev told us more about the concert program:

"Everyone who came to the concerts should be glad. Not everyone, however, could assess the performance of the Polish ‘Vehemence Quartet’ as the musicians presented avant-garde jazz. But people need to be educated and that's our job. Our goal is along with their favourite style, people to hear something else, too. Guests find the atmosphere of the festival very pleasant and new friendships were born. But for me the most important thing is to support Bulgarian jazz. Therefore, most of the financing goes to Bulgarian formations and new projects."

The Vehemence Quartet. It was created by Wojciech Lichtanski - alto saxophone, Mateusz Śliwa - tenor saxophone, Alan Vikpish - double bass and leader of the quartet, and Szymon Madej - percussion. All they have graduated from the Academy of Music in Kraków. They showed remarkable skills and a high level of both performance and improvisation.

The undisputed star of this year's festival in Stara Zagora was guitarist Kurt Rosenwinkel. He is a young and extremely talented musician, who plays four instruments. He told us more about himself (in the audio file).

Part in the program of the fifth edition of the Jazz Forum Stara Zagora Festival took Federica Colangelo trio with American saxophonist Dan Kinzelman, Harvey Thompson /USA/, who performed together with the military Big Band of Stara Zagora and saxophonist Vladimir Karparov, as well as some of the most prominent Bulgarian jazzmen. The Zona C band had a special concert in memory of deceased composer and pianist Vasil Parmakov.

Photos: jazzforumsz.com

The audio features the following performances:

.  a performance by Angel Zaberski together with Brass Association

.  aperformance by the Vehemence Quartet - “When will I see you again?”

 . a piece by Kurt Rosenwinkel Trio

. a performance of Harvey Thompson and Militsa Gladnishka - Outside looking in

English: Alexander Markov