“Rumba used to be the main thing played at parties back then. I started to perform jazz later. Right after 9 September 1944 there were different foreign missions in Bulgaria – English, American, etc. Jazz was still not banned. That happened later, when those missions ceased their activities. Jazz became “a decadent style” and saxophone was called “a capitalist instrument”. Despite all this, there were musicians, playing jazz in the 1950s downtown Sofia, Plovdiv Ruse etc. The conductor of the Optimists orchestra Bozhidar Sekelarev signed a contract with the Bulgarian State Circus Theatre. Thus we were able to travel abroad. Lea Ivanova, Snezhka Dobreva and Liana Antonova were soloists back then. We had matinees before the shows with repertoire from the “banned music”. Then I started with the orchestra of Vasko Alipiev in the beer hall of the Bulgaria restaurant. The other hit spot was the Astoria Bar. A large part of the 
visitors were foreigners and there was no control over the repertoire. A casual meeting with great Lea Ivanova made me a part of her band – she needed another saxophone player and she invited me for a contract in Germany. Lea wrote a note on a tramway ticket to the clerk at the Concert Directorate, who was in charge of international passports. It looked unreal, but the ticket did the job and I went abroad.”
Many successful concerts at the Friedrichstadt-Palast followed, where the orchestra of Eddy Kazasyan and Lea Ivanova played as a part of the program. The Almond worked with famous names later on in Germany – the Lindenberg Orchestra, the Horst Kruger Sextet, the one of Claus Lentz… The musician spent a total of 10 years in Germany. Upon his return to Bulgaria, he hit the road again – this time with Poppies – the band, accompanying Lili Ivanova. In Bulgaria the saxophone player is known mostly as a soloist of the BNR Big Band. There are hundreds of plays, recorded with his participation for the archive of our media. Emanuil Manolov used to head Dixie Swing for long years as well – the small orchestra ceased its activities a few years ago. Those had released a CD as well.
On 18 December the colleagues from the Big band and conductor Antoni Donchev shall mark the 80th jubilee of the Almond. The concert is devoted to two other musicians from the orchestra – Gencho Vartovski /70/ and unforgettable Vili Kazasyan, whose 80th jubilee is also marked in December.
English version: Zhivko Stanchev
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