BOLIVIAN JAZZ ... high level emotion and evasion ... An unusual crossbreeding that associates the rhythms and the sounds of traditional Andean music to Jazz grooves, swing and improvisation. By MIGUEL ULISSES Composition, musical arranging, quena, pan pipes, clarinet, saxophones, charango and vocals. Miguel Ulisses is a plural musician with a unique path, his artistic approach is based in the mixture and interchange of traditional Andean music with other musical idioms from around the world. His music associates the sounds and the rhythms of traditional Andean music to those of occidental cultures. RECORDS RELEASED Quena & Orgue 1982 Andean Sky 1988 Living Angels 1992 Bolivian Jazz 2004 Miguel Ulisses Jimenez comes from a family of musicians, he was born in the heart of the Andes, in Oruro, Bolivia. The son of a respected composer, he began studying the piano when he was 7 years old, then he learned to play the charango, the quena, the panpipes and other Andean instruments, when he was 15 years old he started learning the clarinet and the saxophone with the Yugoslavian musician Drazen Stahuljack who introduced him to jazz music. Composing attracted him since an early age. His desire to learn from the masters lead him to the Paris Conservatory, and then to Berklee College of Music in Boston, MA obtaining composition diplomas from both institutions in 1983 and 1989. Along with his academic studies, he explored the traditional music of the Andes, appearing with prestigious Andean music ensembles such as Bolivia Manta/France, Fortaleza/USA, Arawi/Bolivia ... Animated by the vital need to reach the essence of his cultural heritage, between 1992 and 1993, for 18 months he experienced the everyday life of a Quechua community located in the Yampara region of Bolivia. An enthusiastic researcher of traditional and popular musical cultures from Latin America, Miguel lived in Brazil from 1994 to 2000 and explored all the styles of the rich Brazilian music, both, on stage and as a studio musician: forró/ Bicho de Pé, pagode/ Muleke Travesso, MPB/ Irineu. He also composes and arranges for instrumental and vocal ensembles (Andanzas, Inka Sapi /USA). He composes music for the theatre, for chamber ensembles and for the Symphonic Orchestra of La Paz. In 1999 and in 2004 he won the first prices of two renowned Bolivian national composition contests, organised by the Municipality of Cochabamba and by the Oruro Society of Authors and Composers. His new CD "Bolivian Jazz" was recorded with the help of a talented team of musicians from Toulouse, France with whom he has been touring since. He also performs this repertoire with the Thomas Enhco Trio. A born traveller, Miguel Ulisses wishes to carry his music to the four corners of the world. * * *