Meet the Bottleman

What would you say if someone told you that Mozart's 'Eine Kleine Nachtmusik', Vivaldi’s 'La Primavera' or Bach's 'Concerto No 1' could be played on the empty bottles you throw after a party or after a spring cleaning? Well, I couldn’t, but there is a guy that can. His name is Zoran Madžirov. Besides playing his own invention called the Bottlephone, he is an accomplished vibraphonist and percussionist. Sort of a modern troubadour or musical nomad, as he calls himself, he travels Europe and the world for decades now, playing his instrument made of bottles in the squares and streets of the major cities, but also in concert halls, with symphony orchestras and on TV shows.

Coming from an artistic family (his father was a jazz musician and his mother a theater actress) Madžirov grew up listening to the musical greats such as Charlie Parker, Louis Armstrong and Miles Davis, as well as Bach and Mozart. He emerged on the local Macedonian and the larger Balkanian scene as a jazz vibraphonist and experimental musician. In 1987, he founded the group “Les Barons Karamazoff” with Edin Karamazov (guitar, lute) and Sasa Dejanovic (guitar) with whom he released two albums “Historical recordings” and “Pythagoras’ glasses and lute,” and toured Europe extensively.

At the end oh the nineties he released a jazz album called “Home” with some of the best Macedonian jazz musicians at that time, and the beginning of the new millennium saw him with another jazz album in a duet with the Macedonian guitarist Toni Kitanovski, “Live at Skopje Jazz Festival”, released by the prestige Skopje Jazz Festival Records label.

Another impressive album from his catalogue is “Bottling Jazzy” from 2006, released by the Croatian label “Aquarius Records.” It was a venture into glitch music and other contemporary electronic styles, made in duet with the producer and electronic artist Aleksandar Spasoski.

Being a superb and innovative musician who has distilled a variety of Influences from various styles and sounds, in 2010, he produced an album that saw him turn back to his roots. A mix of Macedonian ethnic music, jazz, classical and improvisational music, "Roots On A Roof - Balkano Nuevo" is his most outstanding and personal album to date, again released by SJF Records.

Zoran performed with and was honored by stars such as Sting, Tito Puente, Tina Turner, Harry Belafonte, Scorpions, Tommy Emmanuel and others. Today he is one of the most famous and celebrated jazz musicians to come from Macedonia and the Balkans.