Bojan Zulfikarpašić was announced Artist of the Year in France at the Victoires du Jazz ceremony held on Thursday night at the opening of the 35th edition of Jazz in Marciac.
Victoires du Jazz is a French jazz award and Bojan Z was chosen for artist of the Year among two other nominated artists, Ibrahim Maalouf and Pierrick Pedron.
The French Government honored Bojan Z in 2002 with the title of Chevalier de l’ordre des Arts et des Lettres. This special honor is given to artist for their extraordinary contribution to culture and arts. That same year he was also awarded the Prix Django Reinhardt for Musician of the Year given by the French Jazz Academy.
Three years later he got the European Jazz Prize for Europe’s Best Musician, and The Guardian called him a “proofed piano genius” – a dynamic composer, a musician able to combine diverse rhythm into dramatic arrangements full of weight.
Jazz Fest Sarajevo regularly followed his work and introduced this excellent pianist. Except the Jazz Fest stages, the audience in Bosnia-Herzegovina had the chance to listen and watch him at the concerts of the music event Xenophonia.
His first Jazz Fest appearance was a solo concert in 1999, two years later he introduced a duet with Anna Lauvergnac and a world premier of the trio BoZiLo with Julien Lourau and Karim Ziad. At the 8th edition of Jazz Fest Sarajevo in 2003 we saw him on stage with bassist Remy Vignolo and drummer Ben Perowsky who make his Transpacific Trio, and at the 10th Jazz Fest in 2006 his current project Xenophonia (with Remy Vignolo and Ari Hoenig). That same year he also performed with Dhafer Youssef. At the musical happening Xenophonia in 2009 he presented himself for the second time in Sarajevo with a solo concert, a premier performance with Amira Medunjanin and with a quartet made of Eric Vloeimans, Bachar Khalife and Damir Imamović.
Watch his Bojan Z Trio performance at the Victoires du Jazz Award in 2007.