NATO's Big Band Performs In Bansko

Jazz doyen Milcho Leviev will be representing Bulgaria "From August 10 to 13, the Tenth International Jazz Festival and 200 jazz musicians will overwhelm Bansko (a winter resort town in western Bulgaria), the festival's Director Dr. Emil Iliev said proudly. The spectators will be enjoying classic, ethno and super avant-garde jazz performances for free at Bansko's central square. The novelty on the bill of the fest's 10th anniversary edition will be a jazz-off session.

The Ricciotti Ensemble, a Dutch 40-member student jazz orchestra will be this year's guest of honour. Their performance will be within the framework of a EU charity project for Bulgaria and Romania. The exceptional Denis Jannah, a jazz singer born in Surinam, who is presently the most popular name of Dutch jazz, will be the soloist of the Big Band of the Bulgarian National Radio at the festival's grand opening.

Other foreign participants will be Papa George Blues Band from Great Britain, Janice Harrington Quartet from the US, Christoph "Boogie Wolf" Steinbach - the piano virtuoso from Austria, the virtuoso percussionist Yehya Khalil and his band from Egypt, and many more. El Macareno and his band of Spanish instrmentalists, singers and dancers will bring along the vibes of flamenco for the first time in the history of the event. Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe International Band (SHAPE International), NATO's official musical representative, will close the one-week jazz fiesta with a performance of some of the 1940's evergreens.