Bojan Zulfikarpašić

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Bojan Z at Moers Festival, June 2006, Germany

Bojan Zulfikarpašić (Бојан Зулфикарпашић, also using stage name Bojan Z.) (born February 2, 1968 in Belgrade) is a Franco-Serbian jazz pianist. He started playing piano at the age of 5, and as a teenager, he started playing in bands on Belgrade jazz scene, where he received Best Young Jazz Musician of Yugoslavia award in 1989.

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 Noël Akchoté, Julien Lourau, Magic Malik, Marc Buronfosse, Henri Texier 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 world-wide recognition. On "Transpacifik" (2003) he started collaborating with american jazz musicians Scot Colley and Nasheet Waits, and continued on "Xenophonia"(2006.) with Ben Perowsky and Ari Hoenig, as well as frenchman Remi Vignolo.

He's often using the combination of acoustic piano with Fender Rhodes electric piano, often playing them simultaniously, 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 European Jazz Prize as the Best European Jazz Musician (part of "Hans Koller Prize", founded by Austrian music office).