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Vasil Hadzimanov was born on June 23rd, 1973, Belgrade,Serbia.
His ideas of mixing Balkan traditional, folk rhythms and melodies with the western, modern musical styles (jazz, funk, world music...) in his own music is completely authentic and a new approach to fusion and jazz music.
Vasil's classical training began at the age of 5, and included attendance at one of the oldest music high schools in South East Europe, Stevan Mokranjac in Belgrade (prof. Ljubinka Hadzi-Jovancic).
It was his interest in jazz, however,... that won him full scholarship to attend the Interlochen Arts Camp for two summers in a row and afforded him the opportunity to study and perform with Milt Jackson, Curtis Fuller, and Bayron Stripling among others.
He moved to Boston in 1992 to study piano and arranging at Berklee College of Music on a scholarship. He graduated in 1995 and his piano teachers were Ray Santisi and Lazslo Gardony.
While at Berklee, he performed with Matt Garrison, Rick Peckham, Leroy Jenkins (in his rap opera "Funky Faust"), George Garzone, Ayib Dieng, and toured nationally with Paskal Bokar's afro-pop band.
In September 1996 Vasil moved to New York, where he continued his work with some of the best young musicians like: David Gilmore, David Binney, Cris Cheek, Marko Djordjevic, Danny Sadownick, Adam Deutch, Antonio Sanchez, Reuben Rogers, Rodney Holmes, "Ultranate"...
At the same time he worked as a music programmer at the "TOMANDANDY" studios (authors of the "Killing Zoe" soundtrack).
Vasil also performed with the following SCG artists: Jovan Maljokovic Balkan Salsa Band (Rothweill Jazz Fest., Montreaux Jazz Fest.), Dusko Gojkovic (European tour), Steve Gut (Segedin Jazz Fest.), Mimo Mitrovic, Bisera Veletanlic, Zafir and Senka Hadzimanov, Rambo Amadeus (ex Yu tour), Elvis Stanic...
After spending a year in the Big Apple he decided to move back to Yugoslavia and finish what he started with his own VASIL HADZIMANOV BAND.
In the year of 2001, Vasil Hadzimanov Band released their first CD and tape under the title "11 reasons for..." published by PGP-RTS. Its first edition sold out in three months. Also for their first release, they won the award Beovision 2002 for the Best Debut Album of The Year 2002.
In the summer of 2002 Vasil Hadzimanov Band joined famous director Goran Paskaljevic and his film crew, in making of a documentary about Belgrade, for the ARTE television. Vasil composed the music and the band fronted by their percussionist Bojan Ivkovic, acted and performed music in the movie.
Vasil's music can also be found on "011 Belgrade", a movie by a young Austrian director Michael Pfeifenberger and a new movie by Rasha Andric "When I Grow Up I Wanna Be A Kangaroo".
In the year of 2003 they released their second CD "Kafanki", again published by PGP-RTS, which they currently promote across Europe. For this one, they won the award Suncane skale 2003 for the Best Instrumental Album of The Year 2003.
On 19th of November 2003 VH Band performed on the "Enter Music Festival" in Belgrade sharing the stage with the great Joe Zawinul and his Zawinul Syndicate. After hearing the band perform live, Zawinul himself invited Vasil and his mates to perform in his new club in Vienna, called "Joe's Birdland", in the spring of 2005.
In June 2004 VH Band were invited by the violin virtuoso Nigel Kennedy to perform with him on his big Belgrade concert. This was quite an experience for both parties involved, as well as for the audience...
In the summer of 2005, the band represented the sounds of the Balkan music on Expo 2005 Aichi, Japan. The concert was a huge success and it was attended by over 3000 people, a record-breaking number of spectators in EXPO-DOME hall until that night.
In November 2005. VHBand are scheduled to perform in Paris, taking part in the traditional Jazz Festival of Cultural Centers in France, "Jazzycolors".
In 2007 Vasil Hadzimanov Band released their third album intitled "3"
and in 2009 they released their fourth album "Života mi" which they currently promote all over Europe.
The band's permanent line-up is comprised of variety of renowned Serbian musicans of younger generation: Vlada Samardzić on electric bass, Srđan Johnny' Dunkić on drums, Bojan Ivković on various percussions as well as vocals and scat.
Aside from a quartet core of the collective, there's a number of guest musicans with whom VASIL HADZIMANOV BAND is collaborating frequently, such are Brankica Vasić, Teodosii Spasov, Antonio Kitanovski and Orhan Maslo.
Often cited as a Balkan-focused variant of Zawinul's music - such a tag is not untrue, but it's doing injustice the band's variety of styles and it's unique chemistry, which is developing it's own identification on the world's jazz fusion map: beside already mentioned Balkan music varieties and jazz fusion, the band is dabbing with electronics, swing, experimental musical forms, funk, soul, African music, rock, folk, country and improvisational & free jazz.
Tags: Balkan Serbia Jazz Vasil Hadžimanov Jazz
