Don Johnson (left) and Valeri Georgiev (right)

In collaboration with several other organizations, SFMS is pleased to present a multicultural "battle of the bands" concert/dance led by Harrisburg jazz/blues musician Don Johnson and Bulgarian kaval player Valeri Georgiev. The two bands are the jazz/blues Don Johnson Project (Harrisburg) and Lyuti Chushki ("Hot Peppers"), a Bulgarian village-style band based in Washington, D.C. The two bands will play alternating sets, sharing the music of both "villages". Dancing is encouraged!

In a retreat sponsored by the "Folk Arts Outreach" program of the Mid-Atlantic Arts Foundation, Don Johnson and Valeri Georgiev will spend three days sharing and exploring their respective musical heritage. Johnson is a southern American jazz and blues musician; Georgiev is a master of the kaval, the end-blown flute of his native Bulgaria. The two musicians will work with noted ethnomusicologist Dr. Kalin Kirilov, also a native Bulgarian and a master musician.

Bulgarian folk music and American jazz/blues are quite different in rhythm and meter, but they play similar roles in their respective communities. In African-American communities and in Balkan villages, the music is improvisational and participatory -- it supports the ambiance of gatherings and strengthens the social fabric.

By trading "guest artist" spots in one another's ensembles, these two musicians are forging new connections between these very different musical traditions. In this concert, listeners will find elements of blues and jazz in the Balkan music, and complex Balkan rhythms flavoring American jazz.

St. Lawrence Club

13 Highland St, Steelton Directions

Concert/Dance: 7:00pm

Doors open at 5:30 pm

• $10 General Admission

• Children 12 & under FREE

• Admission is at the door.
• For more information, call Bart at 717-234-3844
  or email bart.carpenter (at) sfmsfolk.org

Meet the Artists

• Valeri Georgiev
• Lyuti Chushki
• Dr. Kalin Kirilov
• Don Johnson
• Don Johnson Project

About Valeri Georgiev

Valeri Georgiev was born in Nikopol in northern Bulgaria and has played kaval since his youth. He attended the prestigious Philip Kutev Folk High School of Music in Kotel Bulgaria, studying kaval and Bulgarian folklore. He then completed a degree at the Academy of Music, Dance and Fine Arts in Plovdiv, where he was also a member of Zvezdi na Trakia (Stars of Thrace), one of the most well-known folk orchestras in Plovdiv.

After graduation he organized and worked with various ensembles in Russe, North Bulgaria, including the orchestra Horo and the orchestra of the Folk Dance Theater Naiden Kirov. He traveled extensively in the 1990s and performed across Europe; he has also recorded albums with major Bulgarian musicians, including Yanka Rupkina, Kalinka Vulcheva, Kremena Stancheva, Binka Dobreva, Nelina, Gloria, Petar Petrov, Nikolay Vladimirov, Manol Kushlev, Plamen Dimitrov and others. Since emigrating to the U.S. in 2000, he has served as musical director for Lyuti Chushki (based in the Washington D.C. area) and has taught at multiple music camps on the East Coast and in California. He also teaches kaval for the East European Folklife Center and has trained more than 50 students over the past six years.

About Lyuti Chushki Bulgarian Folk Band

Visit Lyuti Chushki’s website »

In the Bulgarian language Lyuti Chushki means "Hot Peppers", and that is the kind of spicy traditional Bulgarian music this band plays. The toe-tapping music, played on traditional instruments from Bulgaria, takes you back to the old country — it is joyful, evocative, compelling and lyrical, in modes and rhythms generally not found in western music.

Lyuti Chushki brings together professional musicians from Bulgaria and American musicians from the Baltimore/Washington area. They have been playing together for festivals, weddings, concerts, and other special events since 1997, all along the East Coast. They have also participated as key supporters in the summer music and dance program founded in in Plovdiv in 2005. Band members are Valeri Georgiev (kaval); Tzvety Weiner (vocals); Len Newman (tambura); Varol Saatcioglu (gaida); Larry Weiner (tupan); and Bruce Sagan (gadulka).

Their instruments include kaval (end-blown flute), gaida (bagpipe), gudulka (bowed stringed instrument with resonating strings), tambura (fretted instrument similar to a guitar) and tupan (large drum). All of these serve to accompany the unique Bulgarian vocal style, which has a beauty all its own.

About Dr. Kalin Kirilov

Dr. Kalin Kirilov received a B.A in Music Education from the Academy of Music and Dance in Plovdiv, Bulgaria, an M.A in Folklore from the University of Oregon, and a Ph.D in Music Theory from the University of Oregon. His dissertation, Harmony in Bulgarian Music, traces the development of harmonic languages in Bulgarian music starting from the earliest examples of triadic harmonizations and concluding with the incorporation of modern jazz harmony. The harmonic vocabulary of Bulgarian music is based on an amalgam of Middle Eastern makams (modes), microtonal structures, pentatonic scales, diatonic modes, mode mixtures, and major and minor collections.

Dr. Kirilov is currently a member of the music faculty at Towson University, Towson MD. Kalin was born in Bulgaria, and began to sing and play the accordion at the age of four. He has received multiple awards as a performer and singer of Bulgarian music. A master of 11 instruments, Kalin has performed extensively in Bulgaria and Western Europe. In 2003 and 2005, he toured the United Stated with Ivo Papazov, founder of the Balkan jazz style and recipient of the 2005 BBC audience award in the world music category.

About Don Johnson

Don Johnson is a self-taught musician from Tidewater Virginia. Born in Chesapeake, VA, in 1957, he began playing guitar at age six and sang in the gospel choir of his church for many years. He played his first paying gig at age 13 and played with a variety of groups in Virginia and Pennsylvania throughout his teens. Like many men of his generation, he joined the U.S. Army at age 17 in 1974 and served for nine years. While stationed in Germany, he formed a blues band that played to much acclaim at U.S. bases and German night clubs.

Although Don's birth roots are in Virginia, he is now deeply rooted in Harrisburg. After leaving the Army, Don was drawn to the blues scene in Harrisburg, where he has lived most of his post-Army life. He has been a fixture in Harrisburg's Allison Hill community for almost 20 years. He was a regular at the weekly blues jam at the Lochiel Hotel and heavily involved in gospel music and blues. He performed with several Harrisburg-based bands until he formed the Don Johnson Project in 2004. Don has also served as music director of a respected Harrisburg-based men's gospel group, The Chosen, since 2002. In 2008 Don's vocals and creative guitar were featured in The Tear Jar: An Original Blues Show, performed at the showcase Whitaker Center in Harrisburg and at the World Café in Philadelphia.

About Don Johnson Project

Don Johnson Project is a quartet of blues musicians who offer a wide variety of original music and cover tunes. They are all full-time musicians and well-known in the African-American community as well as across multiple musical environments in Central Pennsylvania. The four musicians are Don Johnson (guitar, vocals), Trixi Greiner (keyboards, vocals and accordian), LeRoy Flowers (bass) and Doug Hoyle (drums).

The quartet is a two-time winner (2008, 2009) of the Blues Society of Central Pennsylvania's competitions for entry into the annual International Blues Challenges (IBC) in Memphis, TN. The IBC hosted 100 blues bands from across the U.S. in this competitive event, i.e. the Don Johnson project ranks among the top 100 blues bands in the country. The group has performed at multiple music festivals in Central Pennsylvania; at a recent jazz festival, Don was a key member of Dauphin County All Star Jazz band.