Born: May 8, 1975 Primary Instrument: Bass, acoustic
After appearing as a sideman in various international line-ups alongside the likes of Mark Murphy, Sheila Jordan and the trumpeter Steve Gut, Vasilic started his own band in 1998. The original idea was to form a jazz quintet with no American songs in the repertoire. In time, the focus of the band's musical approach became more clearly defined, resulting in a fusion of European jazz and improvised music with melodies and rhythms from the vast store of Balkan folk music. Vasilic spent some time collecting the most interesting traditional tunes of his region and began to arrange them for the band. His success has been to blend the feel and tradition of this folk music with the contemporary instrumentation and range of expression of a jazz quintet. For Vasilic Nenad the melodies and rhythms of his native Serbia (and the Balkans beyond!) have always been central to his musical approach. By combining these elements with the elements of contemporary jazz, Vasilic's music has evolved into a European interpretation of world jazz of an outstandingly original style.
