The JazzBook Club in Bucharest is celebrating 11 years since its foundation this spring. Of course, the event will be marked by a series of concerts, called JazzBook XI Anniversary. The concerts will take place on the stage of the club located in the Cotroceni district, between April 1st-8th. It starts at 8 p.m. every evening. More details, in the interview with Darius Rus- founder of the JazzBook club- conducted by Viorel Grecu:

Let's talk briefly about the program of the eight evenings.

We chose to start on April 1 with a group of young people, students or graduates of the Conservatory at the Jazz Department, a group of young people called Luna Maar. They have their own compositions. We chose to start with this series of concerts. Next day, April 2nd, is the project of Liviu Negru, who is a very popular jazz guitarist. And, the third evening will be a solo concert, held by Sorin Romanescu. On April 4th, it will be a jam session with most of the musicians present in Bucharest from the jazz scene. Starting from Wednesday, on the 5th, it will be Mircea Tiberian with a rhythmic section and with even more surprise guests. On Thursday, April 6th, Nicolas Simion will be accompanied by the trio called Ploiești Jazz Trio. On the 7th there will be a concert- very dear to us- with Raul Kușak, one of the musicians who performed here very often, and it will be with an instrument that I love very much, the Hammond organ. There will be a quartet, with Claudiu Purcărin, who is one of the musicians who played here from the first night, on the opening night, 11 years ago, with Luis Palomino, a very popular saxophonist, and with Hanno Hofer. We will end the series with one of the dearest musicians with whom we have shared many moments both in concert and in the studio, Bucharest Jazz Orchestra through Sebastian Burneci who has always been by our side.

They wrote history with JazzBook. They basically recorded their debut album here.

Exactly. I recorded their first album with them here, Stories from Bucharest. The April 8 concert will be a repeat of that concert I held 7 years ago now.

How difficult is it to have a jazz club in Bucharest and, above all, how did you get through the pandemic period, terrible for this kind of activity?

In short, hard, like everyone else. Even now, after this period, we are eager to continue what we started 11 years ago and we will continue to do so, for sure. It's difficult, but it's beautiful.

How do you feel the difference between the jazz scene in Bucharest 11 years ago and now? What has changed between then and now, since the JazzBook came out?

I started 11 years ago without knowing much about the jazz scene back then. I imagined that there is a need for such a stage and because many of the music lovers want to go and have the opportunity to participate in a concert that does not happen very often or maybe it is not in the attention of the places that usually organize concerts. And then, I felt the need to develop a scene in this direction. This is what I feel even now, that it is needed further and because there are not many who do this, but also because we like it very much.