On 26 April at Bulgaria Hall, the diva of jazz Camellia Todorova teams up with leading Bulgarian jazz pianist Jivko Petrov and his trio JP3 for a concert aimed to present a brand new project titled A Song For You. More about it from Jivko Petrov:

“We are going to present jazz standards we have not played so far, as well as Camellia’s favorite songs from the 1980s. Since 2009 we haven’t worked together. So far we have recorded two joint albums – first, Pearls that was released in 2001 and was acoustic – for piano and vocals. Feels Like is the second one that came out in 2008 featuring pop songs that I had rearranged as jazz standards. The music in it was performed by the JP3 trio including myself, as well as Veselin Veselinov-Eko (double bass) and Dimitar Semov (percussion). After so many years we are together again, at Bulgaria Hall. The audience will enjoy works by Toncho Roussev, Alexander Brazitsov, Vili Kazasyan and many others. It is a great honor and responsibility for me to present those works in a new way.”

The concert of Camellia Todorova and Jivko Petrov is on the playbill of the European Music Festival. Camellia Todorova is one of the top Bulgarian jazz singers. So far she has released nine albums and her career on stage has gone on for close to 40 years. She has her distinct style and her voice allows her to sing in different genres – jazz, pop, rock, funk and R&B. Don’t Look at Me Like That, Boy, Whispered Dreams and Violets are among the evergreens in Bulgarian music. Camellia Todorova’s star rose in 1980 when she won the Grand Prix for a singer at the Golden Orpheus Pop Song Competition. She has worked with leading musicians including Ludmil Georgiev, Milcho Leviev, Antony Donchev, Rumen Toskov, Jivko Petrov, Angel Zaberski Jr., Simeon Shterev, Theodosii Spassov and others. She has performed jointly with jazz legends such as Stan Getz and his orchestra and the band of Charles Mingus. Todorova has shared the same stage with Sarah Voon, Miles Davis, Billy Preston, Louie Bellson etc. Camellia Todorova was the first Bulgarian singer who signed a contract with a western production company – Virgin Records. That company released two of her singles – Bursting at the Seams (1985) produced by Roger Taylor from Queen and her version of the classical hit of Aretha Franklin Chain of Fools (1986)

Jivko Petrov has been among Bulgaria’s leading jazz pianists over the past 20 years. He is a famous performer, composer and arranger of music, and has worked with Bulgarian singers including Lili Ivanova, Beloslava Miroslava Katsarova, Hilda Kazasyan, Camellia Todorova … He has had joint piano projects with other pianists – Angel Zaberski Jr., Georgi Cherkin and Ivan Yanakov. One of his most successful projects is his JP3 trio. The trio has already released several albums.

English Daniela Konstantinova

Audio features the following performances:

1. Don’t Look at Me Like That Boy performed by Camellia Todorova

2. Violets performed by Camellia Todorova

3. Alfonsina y el mar, JP3