© Photo: А.В.А.

“Tumbaito is a dream come true. I pictured it while I was studying with the Latin department of the Conservatory of Rotterdam and played with big names in the Netherlands. I pictured a big Latin formation back in Bulgaria, my formation. Everyone knows that folk styles around the globe are special, complicated matters that need passion, total devotion and also education. Luckily we have such musicians in Bulgaria. Martin Tashev, trumpet player with the BNR Big Band is a natural talent with voice, created for that style. Another trumpet player – famous Misho Yosifov selected the brass section of the band. Milen Kukosharov is a pianist, Boris Taslev plays the bass and Stefan Kozhuharov is in charge of the percussions and drums. They all devoted themselves to the idea. We started with about six months of lectures in the rehearsal room, when I taught the secrets of Latin music. Our first concert was with the BNR and was broadcast through satellite in several European countries. The feedback was positive. Then gig invitations followed. We started to work on our own album more than 4 years ago with Dark-haired Girl and Day after Day. Then a friend of ours gave us the CD with the original of Ropotamo from the 1960s. We were really touched by the song, we recorded it and thus, in some natural manner, we continued with Bulgarian evergreens, where we recognized the Latin rhythm. So, we opted for a mixed album – our own songs and Latin covers, named after the formation’s name – Tumbaito." 

“We have our own participation as authors in each song,” Kalin Veliov goes on to say. “After the verse and the chorus, Latin music goes to back vocals, choirs, vocal and instrumental improvisations. This is where we place new texts and melody lines of our own. Thus when the original ends the Latin improvisation kicks off. We turned Farewell, Sea /1967/ into a merengue piece. A Dance Lesson turned into the popular in the 1970s for US Latin communities boogaloo rhythm. We have classical salsa – A Girl Asked Me, or salsa romantics – The Pain to the Left. Ropotamo and Impatience – composer Atanas Boyadzhiev’s 1960s pieces are now typical cha-cha.”

© Photo: archive

The Tumbaito album may be taken for a textbook in Latin music. Several world famous songs have been translated into Bulgarian. Joe Dassin’s C’est la vie, Lily from 1960s, for instance. There is a duet of Martin Tashkov with famous American of Puerto Rican origin Frankie Morales. After a joint performance on the stage of Spirit of Burgas he offered his participation in a song from the album. The forthcoming premiere will be in the USA and Bulgaria simultaneously. 

The design of the Tumbaito CD definitely attracts our attention.

“The album turned into an art project, we have included photos either, found in Sofia’s City Library from the era of Fidel Castro and Todor Zhivkov", Kalin Veliov went on to say. "It is a sort of connection between Sofia and Havana. It took us quite some time to prepared the first presentation of the CD. Specially designed multimedia displayed behind us archive videos of the original songs. We had turned the stage itself into a Havana street. The participation of Margret Nikolova was the great surprise, as she sang the Ropotamo song along with Martin. It was emotional. I recorded the event, now I am processing the audio and video parts. It will be all broadcast by the National TV, as a concert. My festive wish is for positive emotions, may we all be smiling, happy and healthy.”

English version: Zhivko Stanchev