Balchemy
About
Born in cross-cultural capital of the world, the idea behind the project inspired by traditional music roots of Balkan regions together with strong influence of jazz language was originally created by friends and fellow scholars at the New School for Jazz and Contemporary Music in New York City, Filip Novosel and Zan Tetickovic. Ever since they played their first notes together, they felt immediate spontaneous connection and soon started developing this particular style, consistent of extremely rich musical genres, which would be probably most appropriate to call "Balkan - Jazz". The mixture of complex time signatures inspired by folk dances, triumphant and emotional melodies, rich harmony and a fine implication of jazz improvisation aspects brought very soon a great amount of attention from highly demanding New York audience. Their first experiment in this idiom was called "Balkan Jazz Trio" (with Martin Doykin on bass), which received a very promising feedback from the city's audience. Earned result of this response was a weekly residence at the prestigious traditional Balkan restaurant in mid-Manhattan, "Balkanika". From early October to early January, they've performed on a weekly basis some of the most challenging jazz arrangements of folk tunes from Bulgaria, Macedonia, Croatia, Slovenia, Bosnia and Serbia, which Filip and Zan had written especially for this group. In January 2013, they internationally expanded a group to a quintet, inviting another two of their fellow scholars to join the band: Martha Kato on piano and Francesco Geminiani. Their rich connection lies behind the experience of being a foreign musician in the capital of the world-music, studying jazz language and sharing one main point: an ultimate desire of creating new, rich and beautiful music with the respect for history. Their repertoire of performing pieces consists of modern arrangements of old Balkan songs and original compositions written by Zan Tetickovic (winner: 2012 and 2014 ASCAP Young Jazz Composers' Award; 2012 "Jazzon" Masters Composition 1st place award) and Filip Novosel.
Filip Novosel (Croatia) – Tambura, Composition
Zan Tetickovic (Slovenia) – Drums, Composition
Francesco Geminiani (Italy) - Saxophones
Martha Kato (Japan) - Piano
Martin Doykin (Bulgaria) - Bass
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