Born in a music loving family in Belgrade in 1968, Bojan Zulfikarpasic starts playing the piano at the age of 5. "In my country, music is a very widespread activity, and since working days finish quite early, family and friends would gather at my parent's house as early as 3 o'clock in the afternoon to socialize and play music until late at night. I used to go to sleep listening to these Yugoslavian folksongs. Then I discovered Bach, Ravel and Debussy through my teachers, The Beatles -- thanks to a friend -- and Brazilian music with my father. I played these tunes by ear, trying to find the right chords, which already amounts to a jazz attitude". As a teenager, while continuing his lessons in music school, he starts playing in bands and becomes known musician on the Belgrade jazz and rock scene (resulting in 1989 in receiving the award for Best Young Jazz Musician of Yugoslavia).

In 1986 he receives a scholarship to study three months with Clare Fischer at the Blue Lake Fine Arts Camp in Michigan in the USA. Then, after his military service in former Yugoslavia, where in the army orchestra he discovers the richness of traditional Balkan music, he moves to Paris in 1988, to become in a few years time an unavoidable name in French jazz. He applies for the CIM, a school of reference for many young artists, where he quickly settles in and starts working with other musicians. With guitarist Noël Akchoté he plays all the Parisian bars and clubs, both as a duo and in quintet formation.

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