Two events in memory of Mircea Tiberian are taking place in Bucharest these days - today at 8 p.m. o'clock, at the Jazzbook club, and tomorrow, on the 5^th of December, at the Eforie Cinema. We will discuss about these two concerts with Nicolas Simion, one of the main protagonists. He will be joined by several jazz artists from Romania and beyond…

Welcome back to Radio România Muzical, Nicolas!

Good afternoon, thank you for having me.

So, there are two concerts. If you could first tell us where they will take place and who are the artists. There will be, basically, two separate segments.

At Jazzbook, we invited Mircea's jazz students to present a program with pieces they are working on at the Music school and possibly some of Mircea's pieces.

Then, in the second part, Antonis Anissegos will be playing the piano, Răzvan Cojanu on the double bass, Sorin Romaneascu on guitar, Gabi Matei on drums and there will be a few duets performed by Nadia Trohin and Toma Dimitriu. We will perform Mircea's pieces in the second part and we want to pay tribute to him, to keep him alive in our memory through his music and everything he did.

And Friday, on the 5^th of December, there will be a film premiere at the Eforie Theatre in Bucharest, made by his friends from Paris, Cornel Gheorghiță, in which Mircea appears in the film, his music has been used as the score and where he was supposed to attend the premiere. Before the movie's premiere, we will perform in a larger lineup with Nadia Trohin, Antonis, Toma Dimitriu, Cojanu, Sorin Romanescu and so on.

The film is called Codobelcul (The Snail)

Exactly.

Are you considering to continue these projects in memory of Micea Tiberian. I would be delighted to see more events like this with Romanian musicians, but please tell us what are you planning in this regard.

Of course! We were in Bistrița just last Friday, on the 28^th of November. Mr. Gavril Țărmure invited us to perform a memorial concert. We played as a trio with Toma Dimitriu and Razvan Cojanu, and on the 28^th of December, at Green Hours, we will hold another Mircea Tiberian memorial concert, featuring his songs, with the participation of several performers from Bucharest.

And the ICR, EUNIC section, promised me that they would perform in the future at the ICR headquarters in Bucharest, with the band that was going on tour in November, with Mircea Tiberian Trio. That is, Chris Dahlgren on double bass, an old collaborator of his and..

Gerald Cleaver on drums.

Exactly, on drums. They were planning to have a concert at the Goethe Institute in Bucharest, then one in Brașov and another one in Bistrița.

At least we will carry out his project, as Mircea wanted it with his people, playing his music and we hope that everything will be okay and that we will also have one or two concerts in Bucharest.

In conclusion, I know it's difficult, but I would like for you to say in a few words what Mircea Tiberian meant to you as a friend and as a musician. You have shared many things in this life, ever since the beginning of your music careers.

I met Mircea in the early 1980s. He had graduated from the Music school and I had just started in 1979 and I would see him in the rooms on the fourth floor, where the wind musicians were, where I also studied… He would come in the afternoon, or during the day, whenever he had time and could find a free rom, and play the piano. He would simply improvise music for his own soul.

We started performing together. Our first appearances were at the Sibiu Festival, if I'm not mistaken, in '82, as a sextet, then, as I said, in '86, we started performing with Opus 4. After a year, we invited Dan Mândrilă, and we perform in a lot of concerts.

And, basically, Mircea, being four years older than me, had much more experience, he had been involved in Jazz music much more, did the arrangements, composed the music. And, somehow, I learned a lot from him, without it being a teacher-student relationship, so to speak, because we were about the same age.

Basically, you were among the first to learn jazz from Mircea Tiberian. Then generations followed in your footsteps.

One of our successes was participating at the East Berlin International Festival in June 1988. It was our last appearance, then I left in October 1988 and we saw each other again in '95.

I invited him to Vienna in '96, we went on tour, we even record a CD at Tutu Records, then I invited him again to record a CD dedicated to Jancsi Korossy, featuring only his music; we recorded it at Arcub in Bucharest in 2014… and many other projects that we did together.

Thank you very much for the interview and for your kind words about Mircea Tiberian.

It's been my pleasure, thank you for having me, and we look forward to seeing you at these two concerts, Thursday at Jazbook and Friday at Eforie Cinema.