Z's ze top
JAZZ PIANIST Bojan Zulfikarpasic - or Bojan Z as he's known - began seeking out the sounds he so distinctively creates when he barely stood tall enough to reach the keyboard of his parents' upright piano in Belgrade, in the former Yugoslavia. 'There was a trick my father used to play on me when I was young,' he says, his whisky voice punctuated with coughs. 'I would reach up and play a note, and my father [whose hands I could not see] would improvise some chords and melodies around it, giving me the impression that it was me who made that music.
'Then when he wasn't there,' Bojan continues, 'I would go back to the piano, certain that I could make the same music. Of course I couldn't, but I kept trying.'
That childlike compulsion to bang out noises that pleased his ear intensified over the years, driving Bojan Z, now 36, to become one of his generation's most acclaimed and innovative jazz pianists, a musician distinguished by his playful fusion of contemporary jazz and multicultural folk.
Since moving to France in 1990, he has earned first prize three times at the Concours de la Defense, a Paris jazz competition. He has also been awarded a Django Reinhardt prize for Musician of the Year by L'Academie du Jazz, as well as a Chevalier de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the French government.
Born into a music-loving home in what is now Serbia-Montenegro, Bojan Z grew up surrounded by Balkan folk music ('I was not a big fan of it, but it was the local noise'), and the latin rhythms of his father's beloved Brazilian record collection. Mix in some modern classical pieces by Ravel and Debussy, and the swing-era recordings of Oscar Peterson and Ella Fitzgerald, and it's easy to understand how these early influences evolved into compositions that combine Old and New World sounds.
'I lived in a parallel world of classical and rock music,' says Bojan Z, who also became a fan of The Beatles after starting piano lessons at age five. 'All this developed on both sides for a while. It was very logical that I would end up in jazz, which is somewhere in-between this music.'
In 1986, he obtained a scholarship to study in the US, but was forced to return home after only three months to complete his military service. Still, the wanderlust had set in. By the time he left the army one year later, Bojan Z felt ready to take on the world. Having studied French as a third foreign language at school, he decided to move to Paris, drawn by the city's lively musical culture, and 'a very sweet French girl'.
'My time in the States showed me clearly that the Belgrade scene was too small for me to learn. I knew I had to move somewhere.'
In Paris, Bojan Z quickly slipped into the swing of the city's jazz scene, surrounding himself with renowned and ethnically diverse people, including top musicians such as Michel Portal and, particularly, Henri Texier, with whom he collaborated on several albums. 'The way they mixed influences from different music was exactly what I was looking for,' says Bojan Z of his mentors. 'They had a way of filtering all kinds of different music and turning it into something of their own. And that was a big influence on me. It's not like some world music where you sample a Serb flute and you put it on some loop machine. That's not the way I like it. I like to get the feel of this music and to mix it with the same warm feel of jazz.'
Bojan Z's eclectic repertoire consists mainly of his own compositions, often infectiously tinged with Yugoslavian folk melodies and rhythms - music he admits he dismissed as 'Serb-Nashville' when he was young, long-haired and listening to The Sex Pistols. Yet, the sounds from his past lingered inside his head and, eventually, trickled down to his fingers.
'This idea of mixing Balkan folk music with jazz interpretation - that's something I started on my first record, developed more in the second record, and with my third, decided to push the idea as far as I could,' he says.
After three albums with his own quartet or a larger group of musicians, Bojan Z decided to go solo. His much-praised 2001 album Solobsession - which he will be performing next Thursday as part of Le French May festival - is an hour-long piano recital replete with virtuoso flourishes and intricate, spirited rhythms inspired by both his Balkan roots and the North African influences of his Parisian peers. Treating his Fazioli piano like a percussion instrument, he trills, tinkles and thumps the keys, and plucks and stills the vibrating strings, using the entire structure as a physical outlet for his energies.
However, Bojan Z insists there's nothing inventive about his relationship with the piano, citing jazz great Keith Jarrett as one of his many influences. In fact, he says most of his inspiration comes from meeting and playing with other musicians.
'The human relations between musicians is very important, especially in jazz,' he says.
Indeed, following his solo projects, Bojan Z will return to the conviviality of the group. For his fifth and latest album, Transpacifik, released in October 2003, he joins a bassist and a drummer in his first recorded attempt at playing as part of a trio. As much as he thrives in the company of other players, however, Bojan Z says it's an unfamiliar audience that ultimately keeps him alert.
'I always love playing for people who don't know my music. That's when you get the most honest reaction,' he says.
Bojan Z, May 6, 8pm, City Hall Theatre, Central, $90, $130 Urbtix. Inquiries: 2734 9009
