Miroslava Katsarova is an artist, whose music world is constantly being charged up with new challenges, set by the singer herself. After the huge success of the Cinema album, dedicated to favorite movie soundtracks now she is ready to present a new and quite different project. It is compiled by favorite pop and rock songs, but in jazz versions. The initial concert will take place on March 29 at Sofia Live Club and the citizens of Plovdiv will be able to hear the show at the Bee Bop Café on April 1. Here is what Miroslava told us on her project:

“I named this concert project The New Standards – with a reference to the 1995 album of Herbie Hancock – The New Standard. The plural however was missing there, since that was the first time when he tried to name the new standards of the time which were turning into a trend. The association is with the so-called jazz standards, offered by Herbie and the other grand names of the 1930s. They all would reach their hands towards pop and rock songs, giving them new jazz versions. Of course, everyone would put in something different, but all inspired by jazz.”

In her new album Miroslava Katsarova has opted for songs of Michael Jackson, Massive Attack, Kings of Leon, Radiohead, Alanis Morissette, John Lennon, Amy Winehouse, Stevie Wonder, Sting, Sixpence None The Richer etc.

The musicians that the singer has worked with this time are Miroslav Turyiski /piano/, Veselin Veselinov – Eko /bass/, Hristo Yotsov /drums/ and Nikolay Karageorgiev /guitar/. Asked why she has selected these particular songs, Miroslava gave the following answer:

“There were many reasons for this choice, but the main thing was that all of them had touched my heart over one or another period of my life. I used to listen to musicians like Joni Mitchell before and I have always listened to Michael Jackson. Massive Attack and Radiohead on the other hand are bands that I have recently rediscovered. I had wanted this project for a long time. Separate pieces had been made over the years, but not brought together and with the special arrangements of pianist Miroslav Turyiski that I have been working with for a long time. The program is quite picturesque in terms of styles. We don’t try to change the genres of the songs, since that would mean to lose their soul. Our task is to stick to our style on one hand, and on the other – to stick to the song’s original, the way people know it.”

What can we expect from the concerts in Sofia on March 29 and April 1?

“I envisage the recording of these two concerts and then I will have to hear them. We will have several other concerts in the summer and autumn. We will continue to record what we do and in the end a good collection could really come up. I feel tempted to tell the secret, but it’s too early to talk about this, as everything is also linked to copyright on the songs we have selected. Now I find it more interesting to see what will happen during the live event.”

English version: Zhivko Stanchev