THE BBC WORLD MUSIC AWARD!
Ivo Papasov won the Audience Award at the BBC Awards for World Music. On the ceremony at the The Sage, Gateshead on March 5 the Award was presented to him by Joe Boyd.
The Audience Award represents the public’s own choice from the nominated artists. Listeners to BBC Radio 3, visitors to the Radio 3 website, plus the World Service in English and 12 other language services invited votes on air and through their own websites; it is the one award for which the winner is made known only on the night of the Pool Winners’ Concert.
Ivo not only won the award with a big majority; he has also reached the highest number of votes in the history of the award for the past years. The award is not only important because it is a recognition of music lovers from all over the world but also because he won competing with such world famous musicians like Khaled, Youssou N'Dour and Bjork.
Ivo Papasov has received congratulations from all over the world. They were from fans, friends and colleagues. Especially important is the letter of the Prime Minister of the Republic of Bulgaria, Mr. Simeon Saxe-Coburg-Gotha.
Ivo’s reply: „The award belongs to all Bulgarians! This is your award!“
We want to express our sincere thanks to all the people who voted for Ivo.
(KM KORENI 04)
LEGENDARY VIRTUOSO CLARINETIST!
As a creator of contemporary Balkan music, he long ago became part of global culture.
Thirty years ago, in 1974, long before Balkan music was discovered on the major music scene, Papazov started his revolution with his Trakija Band. At the time he could hardly have known that he was creating a new movement, later known as wedding band music, a mix of Bulgarian and Balkan folk with contemporary elements. His work changed the face of Bulgarian and world music and developed it in new directions.
No wonder his fans around the world call him the King of Wedding Band Music. In deference to his amazing talent, Bulgarians call him the Aga (the Master). And Papazov really is part of the best moments of their lives. His music resounds not only at major concert venues, but also at the important days of their lives, their weddings and family celebrations.
Ivo Papazov is now 52 with a brilliant musical career behind his back. He appears on innumerable productions and albums. Two of his albums were produced by Joe Boyd (who produced Pink Floyd, REM and others). Global media of the calibre of The Guardian, the The Washington Post and The New York Times write about him in superlative terms. Flattery for Ivo Papazov has come from world-famous musicians like David Sanborn and Frank Zappa and famous and respected experts and connoisseurs like Simon Broughton and Timothy Rice.
Ivo Papazov works with world-renowned musicians like Milcho Leviev, Peter Ralchev, Teodosii Spasov, Antoni Donchev, Johnny Griffin, Hector Zazou, Okay Temiz, Glen Velez, Kepa Junkera, Arild Andersen, Kalman Balogh, Iva Bitova, Sergei Starostin; he plays at festivals in Paris, Salzburg, Tilburg, Krakow, Budapest, the Sodra Teatern in Stockholm, the Brooklyn Academy of Music in New York, the Moers Festival, TFF Rudolstadt, Schloss Elmau, the Palais des Beaux-Arts in Brussels, Ronnie Scott’s in London, etc., etc.
His new album Fairground is a source of what we all love so much: a tender, lyrical and crazily exuberant mix of bright sounds, beautiful melodies improvisations in half-tones and rhythms, so lovingly created that it draws from our hearts what we cherish most.
Here Ivo plays with his wife – the singer Maria Karafizieva - and his old friends from the Trakija Band: Nesho Neshev on accordion, Vasil Denev on keyboards and Salif Ali on drums. But shades of modern Bulgarian music also appear in the form of master musicians like Stoyan Yankulov on tupan drum and percussion, Ateshhan Husseinov on guitar, Vasil Parmakov on piano, Ivo Zvezdomirov and Stefan Marinov on bass.
The album layout is in style with Ibryama’s music. Along with the disc itself, wonderfully and poetically annotated by musicologist Gencho Gaytandzhiev, the special box contains special gifts for friends of Ivo Papazov’s music, like a big poster of the Aga himself and his musicians. Everything apart from the disc is refreshingly devoid of plastic. There can hardly be such a stylishly presented product on the Bulgarian music market.
THE BEAUTY OF HIS MELODIES GIVES HIM THE FORCE TO CHANGE US.
ENJOY IT!
REVIEWS
(KM KORENI 03)
Gergana Dimitrova, Sofia Kovacheva, Evelina Spasova and Daniela Stoichkova are the women who form the vocal quartet "Eva". Their names are related to the worldwide famous choir "Le mystere des voix bulgares". They are certainly some of the best Bulgarian voices and the beauty and purity of their singing proves it. It is not by chance that their album is called "Harmonies". Everything in it portrays that: the acapella singing, which is polyphonic and requires a great technique, the way the four voices become one for an instant and the next you have the feeling that they are a whole choir; the way the songs are interwoven, and altogether the feeling of the album.
Folklore songs from different regions of Bulgaria are included in the album. Some of the new arrangements are especially made for the formation. The recording of the album is accomplished without any additional sound and technical effects. The idea of the live recording is to bring the singers' pure and genuine talent out, to emphasize their exceptional singing technique as well as the raw and earthly but at the same time having elating effect Bulgarian folklore.
It is a real pleasure to listen to "Harmonies" - the album by Eva Quartet and their conductor Milen Ivanov. This music reaches beyond the mind - its beauty and richness are hard to be perceived by the mind, they are meant only for the senses.
REVIEWS
(KM KORENI 02)
A group of four talented musicians - a vocal-tamboura quartet, successors of the tradition to play music the way it has been passed on from one generation to another. These songs relate essentially to the most lyrical part of our lives - the time of the first love, of the shared or unshared confessions and heartaches. This is why they are played to accompany the most cherished family rituals: engagements, weddings and christenings, where guests even from farther villages gather for a fabulous celebrations.
REVIEWS
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As a well-known gypsy story goes, when allotting musicians to each country, God forgot all about Bulgaria. An angel asked: "What about dropping one down there?", to which God replied: "Shut up, you silly! We're takin'em from down there!"
Although not very popular throughout the world, Bulgarian gypsy music has something of the universal nature of time. The musical repertoire of Balkan gypsies is unique in its variety and it's played with an inimitable feeling of freedom and imagination, sensuality and talent. It unites time and space within the multi-coloured canvas of world music and thus builds up a symbolic dialogue between different cultures.
This CD presents the music from the film "Gypsy Summer - Tales of Surviving" (1998), directed by Milan Ognianov. The film is a journey through the life of gypsies - "the children of fire and love", as named by Anita Christy, gypsy singer and guide in the camera rovings on the road in Bulgaria. The songs are a powerful reverberation of the misery and the joyfulness of the gypsy people who have always been persecuted and have come to find their ethnical identity and their strength to survive within the space of music.
This musical "gypsy summer" represents a colourful bunch of firy music, joining musicians of different ages (5 to 75) coming from different corners of Bulgaria, as well as combining various genres and styles (from Anita Christy's European ballad and romance to a more Balkan and Oriental mood in the music of the Karandila Gypsy Brass Orchestra). Anita's duende, the vibrations of her deep and sensual voice might well rival with the sweet sound of the not-so-popular-in-Bulgaria cymbal, played by Milan Aivazov (aged 75). Similarly, Ventzislav Takev's "golden violin" meets the lively rhythms of the Karandila Gypsy Brass Orchestra from Sliven, headed by trumpet player Angel Tichaliev, descendant of a famous family of musicians. The result is a sparkling mix of Balkan fusion, Oriental kucek and overseas jazz, which takes you to another dimension - that of the ever-bustling gypsy funfair…
REVIEWS