Fairy Tale Trio: Jazz Across the Borders (1998)

Traditional Bulgarian folk music commands an exceptionally rich heritage. Approximately 260,000 folk-songs are archivized in Sophia, 137,000 of which have been musically notated and over 5,000 folk-melodies are documented on tape recordings. One could logically assume that a trio so strongly rooted in the great Bulgarian music tradition would reproduce at least one of these melodies in their repertoire. Astonishingly, the Fairy Tale Trio does not. All of. the themes and pieces improvised upon by the three musicians are original compositions.

Actually the Fairy Tale Trio incorporates in its music many elements common to Bulgarian folklore : the irregular, asymmetrical meters, produced by the combination of different meters; the melodic and rhythmic allusions to the khoro-dance, and the use ofdiminished thirds and sevenths, so reminicent of the blue notes injazz. And yet Bulgarian folklore does not appear here verbatim, but is transformed through the dialogues of this trio into something exciting and new: a modern and contemporary Bulgarian music.

Folklore is not the objective here. It is not manipulated to conform to the needs of jazz. Quite intentionally the Fairy Tale Trio does not revert to known themes of traditional Bulgarian music. They are not allegated to a source of material to improvise upon. Even so, the roots of Bulgarian folk music are omnipresent - as spirit, as allusion, as a point of departure in a stylistic tour horizon, in which many strains and styles stand side by side in equality.

The centrifugal force of the trio lives and breathes from the idea of musical dialogue. Equality as the basis of musical partnership is the fundament of their improvisations. Within this consensus everything is allowed: clashes and frictions as well as convergences; musical excursions above and beyond the limitations of style and hybridization.

The Fairy Tale Trio creates a new, modern Bulgarian music which defies the usual definitions of jazz and folklore. Even the term "imaginary folklore", which nearly describes their style of music, is still insufficient. Most remarkably, the music of the Fairy Tale Trio is infused with the ongoing dialogue between three musicians of extremely varied life experiences.

THE FAIRY TALE TRIO

Theodosii Spassov - Kaval, Vocal
Anatoly Vapirov - Saxophon
Stoyan Yankoulov - Tupan, Percussion

Buy on ClassicsOnline

Part 1 - Part 2 (RS) / Part 1 - Part 2 (HF) flac