Anatoly Vapirov
Bulharsko
Informace je zde pouze anglicky.
Anatoly Vapirov
Bulgaria
"Jazz will only stay alive, if every jazz musician reflects his own cultural
roots - even the folklore."
Especially through his work in the jazz Avantgarde of the former Soviet Union
Anatoly Vapirov (24. November 1947) is known to friends of improvising music. He
was the leading saxophonist and one of the most important composers of
Leningrad's contemporary jazz scene.
Due to family reasons - his father and his wife are Bulgarian- in 1985 he
moved to Varna in Bulgaria. Since 1992 he has been leading the Varna jazz
Festival, which presented a sophisticated program and became an important axis
for encounter between jazz musicians from East and West Europe . "In the
beginning I was inviting musicians, because I wanted to play with them myself,"
says Anatoly. "Meanwhile some kind of musical workshop has developed; a
laboratory, where musicians from East and West can meet."
In 1974 - still in Soviet times - with the "Bulgarian Rondo" for saxophone
and orchestra Vapirov already referred to his Bulgarian roots. As early as the
mid-seventies and in opposition to many free-jazz-hardliners, Vapirov included
the entire range of classical music, chamber-music, jazz and folklore within his
expressive style.
He composed a Concerto for a jazz quartett, mezzosoprano and choir ("Slav
Mystery," 1977) as well as a piece for bass, piano, saxophone and string
quartett, that reflects the music of Alban Berg ("Lines of Destiny," 1980). His
borderline frankness would expose itself likewise in projects with symphony
orchestras and Sibirian folklore ensembles.
In the "Fairy Tale Trio" Anatoly plays the soprano saxophone exclusively. The
musician, who is also known as a brilliant clarinettist and tenor saxophone
player, doesn't blow his trio collegues off the stage. The sound of the soprano
saxophone merges most sufficiently with Spassov's kaval.
"I have grown older and maybe a little wiser," he explains. "Good music doesn't
come out of unrestricted strenghth and expressivity only, but also out of deep
probing."
At the end of our conversation I asked him: "You are driving your car and you
pass two hitch-hikers. One of them is John Coltrane and the other is Albert
Ayler. But you've got only one seat. Which one do you pick up?" Vapirov: "This
seat is already taken. Since 1967. By John Coltrane."