On October 9 the Bulgarian fusion band Akaga surprised their music fans with a multimedia concert at hall No1 of the National Palace of Culture. Eighteen Bulgarian musicians who have contributed to the development of this band in the past 27 years took part at the two-hour concert. The audience enjoyed many wonderful songs, instrumental pieces and dances during the concert. Georgi Velev is one of the band’s trumpeters. He has been part of Akaga since its foundation. Georgi told Radio Bulgaria details about the songs that were included in the concert program, as well as a lot of interesting information about the band:

We included songs from seven albums in our last concert. We also released a new album on occasion of our 27^th anniversary and included in this album new songs only. It consists of 11 pieces and is sold on CD and vinyl. Our idea was to perform songs from all three period of the band. Of course, we invited the musicians who were part of Akaga band through the years. The concert began with our instrumental pieces, because twenty seven years ago we started as an instrumental formation. Later, our fans enjoyed the songs from our middle period and the performance of the instrumentalists who were part of Akaga. We ended the concert with the current band. When we first met and founded the group we were seventeen or eighteen year-old boys. All of us had graduated classical music schools. In my view, this was very important, because our music education taught is to be disciplined and follow the rules. Our first album included instrumental pieces only, but I realize now that it still sounds modern and topical.

AKAGA - Do you remember those days

Kristian Alexandrov (percussions) arrived from Vancouver (Canada) especially for the concert. Yasen Velchev (piano) also joined his former band for the concert. Kalin Velyov (percussions), Ognyan Veskov (guitar), Tsvetan Nedyalkov (guitar) and Emil Taslev (percussions) were also invited to join the music show. One of Akaga’s founders Georgi Kornazov (slide-trombone) who has been among France’s most-acclaimed jazz musicians in the past 25 years was unable to join the concert.

Akaga band has performed at a series of music festivals in Bulgaria and abroad through the years, including the popular Montreux Jazz Festival in Switzerland. The band also held concerts in Bolshoi Theatre in Russia together with the Sophia Philharmonic Orchestra and The Mystery of the Bulgarian Voices Choir.

The band has not changed any of its members in the past 11 years. The musicians who are currently part of the popular Bulgarian band are Krassimir Kurtev (bass guitar, vocals), Ivo Kazasov (trumpet, vocals), Georgi Velev (trumpet, vocals), Krasimir Kirilov-Dzhodo (trombone, vocals), Dimitar Mitev-Dundee (percussions), Petar Glavanov (guitar), Kalin Petrov (piano).

English version: Kostadin Atanasov