Four years ago, pianist Vasil Spasov created his own funk-fusion formation called Funkallero. In it he invited his friends and well-known jazz musicians from the Bulgarian scene such as Dimitar Liolev (saxophone), Miroslav Ivanov (guitar), Radoslav Slavchev - Riverman (bass) and Georgi Markov (drums). In 2015 they presented their self-titled debut album. Now once again they chose October 1st - International Music Day to promote their second project, entitled Sci-Funk. We learned more about the album from Vasil Spasov - creator of the band and author of the works:
“The whole album is dedicated to Vasko Parmakov, whom we all respected very much both as a person and as a musician. I also wrote a composition dedicated to Bill Evans – “Ballad of Bill”. Let's not forget that the name of our formation comes from his work Funkallero. He has great contribution to jazz music and we pay tribute to his talent in this way. As for the name of our new album Sci-Funk, the literal translation into Bulgarian does not sound very good and when we showed part of the album to the BNR two years ago, we decided that the Bulgarian title will be translated as Theory of Funk. We are a fusion formation and we are looking at music in different ways. Each of us has a different music experience and views jazz in a different way. The works are refined through the individual musical taste and aesthetics of each one, which is why my music sounds this way only in this band. This is our ‘theory of funk.’ This is also the name of the first work of the album Sci-Funk."
The album contains 9 pieces written by Vasil Spasov, but the arrangements include five musicians. In the compositions, listeners can hear both the rhythm of the funky sound and relaxed balladic melodies; In some places there are fast-paced rock elements, as well as relaxing fusion rhythm. The CD cover is the work of Dimitar Traichev.
After Sofia, the album will be presented in different cities across the country, as one of the important stages will be the Plovdiv Jazz Festival on October 31st. Vasil Spasov told us that Funkallero was a festival formation, not a club band. In 2020 the musicians expect to present the new album on festival stages at home and abroad.
