One of Bulgaria's most creative and active jazz musicians Hristo Yotsov presented his latest music project Jazz Cats. The event was held on November 14 at 7 pm in Studio 5 club at the National Palace of Culture in Sofia. The premiere of that music project was held one month ago. Arnau Garoffe (tenor saxophonist) from Spain, Lubo Tsanev (piano) and Dimitar Karamfilov (bass guitar) appeared together on the stage:

Hristo Yotsov has dedicated his life to music. There are many renowned musicians in his family. He studied percussions in the classes of Professor Dobri Paliev. Hristo Yotsov and celebrated pianist Antoni Donchev won some of the most prestigious jazz awards in Europe with their Acoustic Version project. Hristo Yotsov also worked as percussionist at the Bulgarian National Radio Big Band. He is Professor in Percussions and lectures at the National Music Academy Professor Pancho Vladigerov. Hristo has been playing mainly in own music projects in the recent years, together with world-famous Bulgarian and foreign musicians. He also wrote some original music for those musicians. Hristo Yotsov participated at many concerts and festivals in Europe, Canada, India and Israel.

Hers is what Hristo Yotsov told Radio Bulgaria about his successful new project:

“My latest project is named Jazz Cats. It is part of my joint music initiatives with other jazz bands and musicians. I always invite young musicians in those projects. Jazz Cats is a nickname of the jazz musicians –t his is how jazzmen call one another worldwide. Spanish saxophonist Arnau Garoffe, who has been living in Bulgaria for some time, is also part of the project. He is a brilliant tenor saxophonist and a very interesting personality. I enjoy playing together with Arnau in that music project. Arnau Garoffe and pianist Lubo Tsanev also wrote author's pieces for that project. Lubo Tsanev is a very skillful musician who studied at Berklee College and has a very solid background in composing. Of course, celebrated bass player Dimitar Karamfilov is part of our latest music project, too. The pieces are based on hard bop (a subgenre of jazz that is an extension of bebop). People perceive that type of jazz most intuitively.”

Hristo Yotsov has more about his creative activities:

“I wrote concerts for different music instruments such as clarinet, oboe, piano and marimba. Currently I am working on a concert for cello and orchestra. Last year I realized that it was high time to make an experiment and combine drums and symphonic orchestra. Such experiment was already made at Varna Summer 2015 festival with the Varna Chamber Orchestra, conductor Gancho Ganchev. The concert stirred the interest of the audience, because percussions are usually perceived as a rhythmic instrument, rather than a melodic one. However, the audience was very well-intentioned and accepted that experiment.”

English version: Kostadin Atanasov