The Bulgarian Fantastic Five – Theodosii Spassov Folk Project band
I called the concert a “Musical fairy Tale”. I named them “The Fantastic Five”.
Theodosii Spassov who is well known Kaval genius in the Jazz World decides to invite Traditional Bulgarian Folk music players on a tour in the U.S. in the spring of 2009. Their fourth destination of the tour was Dallas, Texas where they played in front of exalted audience on April 18, 2009. Dallas as a city does not witness a lot of Eastern European cultural events and every little whiff from this side of the Globe converts to an amazing happening. Hughes-Trigg Student’s Center at SMU hosted their amazing performance.
The concert started like a jam session between five traditional Bulgarian instruments – Kaval (Sheppard’s’ flute), Gadulka (Bulgarian bowed string instrument), Bagpipe, Two Side Drum and Guitar. The musicians took the audience on a trip of emotions. People wept from joy. Memories from good times living in Bulgaria started racing and creating vivid pictures in my head. The two time standing ovations force me to say no more. But there was more.
The velvet voice of Theodosii, singing lyrics from the founder of the Symbolist movement in Bulgaria Peyo Yavorov, brought many of us to tears. One of the musical pieces he played described a dialogue between him and his new born son. In this piece there was not a single side or a hole on his Kaval that was not played on. The Bagpipe player Ivan Georgiev took us to the mountains in Bulgaria. Most of us went back in time remembering the careless childhood looking at the blue skies and running bare feet on the green grass with morning dew. Gadulka playfully reminded beautiful female body. Being in the hands of Peyo Peev it looked like dancing Goddess. Genadiy Rashkov and his drum were the two best friends ready to face any musical challenge coming from the rest of the band. Listening the guitar solo, played by Petar Milanov, proved his curiosity of how the instrument is made and where else in the instrument he can get sound from.
A fifteen year old girl, daughter of a dancer, whose musical preferences are far from Traditional Folklore, shares with her mom after the concert “It was obvious all of the musicians liked what they were doing. And they were doing it for us, mom. It’s kinda cool.”
All of us were magnified by what Theodosii Spassov Folk Project Band delivered. These five fantastic musicians played on their instruments from the bottom of their hearts.
I hope we made them happy, because they made us forget we are creatures on this Earth which cannot fly.
