Jazz Articles

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Plamen Karadonev: Crossing Lines

by Michael P. Gladstone
May 26, 2008

Plamen Karadonev is a very likeable new pianist on the Boston scene. Originally from Bulgaria, he likes to combine his native folk and classical music with American jazz on his stimulating debut, Crossing Lines.

The album is not without surprises, including the partial presence of Boston's George Garzone who gives a lesson or two on the way to bring tenor saxophone into play, as well as former Phil Woods trombonist Hal Crook, who brings along the electrified trom-o-tizer. ...

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Plamen Karadonev: Crossing Lines

by Jeff Dayton-Johnson
April 26, 2008

Pianist and accordionist Plamen Karadonev has been down more than a few musical roads in his comparatively young life--playing folk music on television and radio in his native Bulgaria, studying classical music in Sofia, studying jazz at Berklee, gigging around Boston--and many of these meanderings are echoed in the varied music presented on Crossing Lines, his début recording.Three particularly strong moments serve to chart the territory represented on this record. First, there are the “outside" tracks, among which ...

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Plamen Karadonev: Crossing Lines

by Jerry D'Souza
March 17, 2008

Plamen Karadonev is a multifaceted artist who began playing accordion when he was five, in his native Bulgaria. At first he was interested in Bulgarian folk music, but expanded his horizons to play the piano, listen to jazz and meld it with his native folk music when he was in his teens. A scholarship to Berklee took him to the United States, where he began playing with several jazz musicians. The experience honed his skills as a pianist, evidence of ...

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Plamen Karadonev: Crossing Lines

by Budd Kopman
February 28, 2008

Crossing Lines, the debut recording by pianist Plamen Karadonev (who also plays accordion), is a marvelous and continually surprising creation. While the music is mainstream at its base, it continually veers into complex harmonies and dramatic structures, bringing excitement and a delicious sense of danger.What might appear as a sudden supernova, Karadonev, who is now thirty, began his musical career twenty years ago in Bulgaria, melding folk, classical and jazz musics into his personal style. Arriving at the ...