Theodossii Spassov is this year`s winner of the Toxophoros annual award for contribution to the Bulgarian culture at the Appolonia fest.He plays the kaval/wooden flute/ like no one else because he transformed this originally a soft and mild instrument, into a flexible and powerful dialogue-enabling solo instrument in the context of jazz. With the years Spassov developed his own fingering technique that differs from the traditional Bulgarian style of playing kaval. He also managed to change the timbre of his instrument, at times achieving tone colours similar saxophone or clarinet. He wanted not just to `play` but rather to communicate with the other musicians. Born on March 4, 1961, the famous musician had a relatively late start playing the kaval- at the age of ten. Spassov attended a specialized musical school in which he could learn to play traditional Bulgarian folklore instruments. Later, he continued his studies in Plovdiv at the Art Academy for Music and Dance. Two events inspired the folklore student to play jazz. A fellow student brought him music from Sarah Vaughan, Wayne Shorter, Miles Davis and Charlie Parker and also gave him some original compositions to play. The tenor saxophonist Vesselin Nikolov, Plovdiv`s jazz guru who had lived many years in Poland and had recorded there with Krystof Komeda and Tomasz Stanko, also had influence on him. He took the young musician under his wing and introduced him to his ideas, closely related to the jazz avant-garde. In 1983, Spassov founded the band `Jazz Linia` together with his university colleagues and tried for the first time to play a compilation of Bulgarian music and jazz. `My entire efforts,` explains Spassov, `have been focused on developing a personal musical identity, and to drive improvised Bulgarian music to a point of equality with American jazz... when I began in 1983 to play this style of music many people told me, you are not playing jazz, what you do is folklore. Today, since I`ve had success and international recognition, the same people come to me and say proudly, `We also play ethno-jazz. And then I must answer, `I don`t play ethno-jazz. I play modern Bulgarian music.`

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