Trifon Trifonov

Trifon Trifonov was born in Katounitza, Bulgaria, near Plovdiv. His grandfather played the violin, his father the clarinet and the mother was an enthusiastic singer. Trifon's brother brought him a cheap saxophone one day and gave him lessons. During the night he started to exercise in the toilet of an old farmhouse while still working in a factory during the day. Trifon decided to leave his job and joined a circus company with his saxophone for five years, touring in many Eastern-European countries. He secretely listened regularly to the American programme "The voice of America", where he heard for the first time in his life American saxophone heroes like Charlie Parker, Lester Young or John Coltrane. Musicians who were completely unknown around that time in Bulgaria. Trifon studied all this music from listening and by heart, although he had never heard before about jazz and its history. After returning to Bulgaria, he settled as a peanut and peppermint farmer, but started a musical career at the same time. From his two following years at the pop-conservatory in Sofia he preserved some of his teacher's jazz notebooks with exercises that he studied. A few years later Trifon became one of the most popular wedding saxophone players in Trakia through learning the Bulgarian folk music from flute, bagpipe and gadulka players. His work also included recordings for Bulgaria's only record company Balkanton. Although Trifon Trifonov tried to interwave jazz elements in the folk music, he did not succeed with this mixture of styles in Bulgaria. One day a flute player came to his village and told him about a Norwegian band, that was seeking a saxophone player who knew both, Bulgarian and Western European music. Trifon auditioned for an hour for Stian Carstensen on the telephone, playing everything from Turkish gypsy music to Paganini and Charlie Parker. Two weeks later he was touring in Norway with Carstensen's band Farmers Market of which he is still a member until today.