Bojan Zulfikarpašić

Early life

He started playing and studying piano at the age of 5 in music school "Kosta Manojlović" in Zemun. As a teenager, he started playing in bands on Belgrade jazz scene, where he received an award as the Best Young Jazz Musician of Yugoslavia award in 1989. Since 1988 Bojan moved to Paris, France, where he developed a successful career as a pianist, composer and producer.

Later life and career

In 1986 studied with Clare Fischer at the Blue Lake Fine Arts Camp in Michigan. He was influenced by the traditional Balkan music playing in an army orchestra during his military service in former Yugoslavia, which would influence all his subsequent work. He moved to Paris in 1988, playing with Henri Texier, Michel Portal, Noël Akchoté, Julien Lourau, Magic Malik, and other renowned French musicians.

In 1993, he recorded the debut album with his Bojan Z Quartet with Label Bleu, followed by Yopla!. In 1999, he was engaged in multi-ethnical project Koreni (Roots) with musicians such as Karim Ziad from Algeria, Kudsi Erguner from Turkey, and Vlatko Stefanovski from Macedonia.

His solo piano album Solobsession (2001) brought him wider worldwide recognition. On Transpacifik (2003) he started collaborating with American jazz musicians Scott Colley and Nasheet Waits, and continued on Xenophonia (2006) with Ben Perowsky and Ari Hoenig, as well as Frenchman Remi Vignolo.

He often uses the combination of acoustic piano with Fender Rhodes electric piano, often playing them simultaneously, and recently is claimed to be the inventor of "Xenophone", a hybrid instrument, based on the customized Fender Rhodes electric piano. It can be heard on Xenophonia.

In 2002 Bojan Zulfikarpašić was granted the title of Chevalier de l'ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the French government and received the Prix Django Reinhardt for Musician of the Year from the French Académie du Jazz, and in 2005 he was granted the Hans Koller European Jazz Prize as the Best European Jazz Musician.

Bojan has won twice the Victoires du Jazz prize in France, in 2007 for "Xenophonia" and in 2013 for "Soul Shelter" as the Best Albums of the Year.

From 2008 on, he started working as a sought after arranger and producer, for exemple with french legendary clarinetist Michel Portal and Amira Medunjanin, bosnian sevdah singer

Personal life

He was born to a Bosniak mother, while his father comes from the prominent Bosniak family Zulfikarpašić, who originate from Foča in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Still considered to be Yugoslav.

Discography

Albums as band leader / solo/duo:

Albums as sideman: