Born in Belgrade in 1968, Bojan Zulfikarpa\u0161i\u0107 began playing the piano at the age of five. With a taste for eclecticism, he pursued classical training at the Conservatory and later received a scholarship to study music in New York. In 1989, shortly after moving to France, he was named Jazz Musician of the Year in his home country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Thus began a rich and varied career, marked by solo and ensemble recordings, as well as numerous collaborations. He played alongside guitarist No\u00ebl Akchot\u00e9, saxophonist Julien Lourau, and flutist Magic Malik in various configurations. Nicknamed Bojan Z, he first gained major recognition when he replaced the pianist in Marc Buronfosse’s quartet and won the La D\u00e9fense Jazz Competition in 1990.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The following year, Bojan Z joined Henri Texier\u2019s Azur Quartet and performed with Michel Portal, where his refined and understated playing stood out. His first album as leader, Bojan Z Quartet<\/em>, was released on Label Bleu in 1993, followed by Yopla!<\/em> in 1995. In 1999, he launched Koreni<\/em>, a project featuring eight musicians, and in 2000, his solo album Solobsession<\/em> earned public acclaim. From then on, Bojan Z became a regular at jazz festivals and an in-demand collaborator.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In 2002, he was named Chevalier of the Order of Arts and Letters and received the Django Reinhardt Prize from the Acad\u00e9mie du Jazz. His next album, Transpacifik<\/em> (2003), marked his first trio recording, with Scott Colley on double bass and Nasheet Waits on drums.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Named Best European Jazz Musician in 2005, Bojan Z released the genre-blending Xenophonia<\/em> in 2006. The album, featuring the use of an instrument he invented \u2014 the “xenophone,” a hybrid of acoustic piano and Fender Rhodes \u2014 earned him his first Victoire du Jazz award. He followed up with Humus<\/em> (2009), a quartet album featuring Sebastian Rochford, Ruth Goller, and Josh Roseman.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In 2012, he returned with Soul Shelter<\/em>, a solo album recorded on two pianos: a Fazioli acoustic and a Fender Rhodes electric. That same year, he received his second Victoire du Jazz award, this time as Musician of the Year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n After a tour captured on the live album Tsscht<\/em> (2013), Bojan Z reunited with Julien Lourau for the Duo<\/em> project (2014). In 2017, a year after releasing Housewarming<\/em> with trombonist Nils Wogram, he was awarded the Grand Prix du Jazz by SACEM. He collaborated with Wogram again in 2018 for Work Smoothly<\/em>. Bojan Z has also appeared on Michel Portal\u2019s albums Dockings<\/em> and Bailador<\/em>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":9966,"template":"","discipline":[103],"class_list":["post-10552","teacher","type-teacher","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","discipline-piano-en"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n