PROFILE – DANIEL BULATKIN

Promising Czech keyboardist works on his career from location Rotterdam.

It pays to wander off Main Street and take side streets and alleys. I was not familiar with Daniel Bulatkin but visited a performance of his organ trio at café De Twee Spieghels in Leiden, The Netherlands – this was where Ben Webster played the last show of his life. A funky soul jazz set, tinged with some hip modern jazz burners.

In conversation, the Czech keyboard player modestly stated that he still feels himself to be a “beginner on the Hammond organ”, regarding Larry Goldings and Brian Charette (who provided him with tips) as the modern B3 giants.

It turned out that young Bulatkin, who studies at Codarts in Rotterdam and cooperated with saxophonist Tineke Postma and drummer Gary Husband among others, has ambitiously been exploring different terrains. The New Beginning (2020) from his former band B/Y Organism with guitarist and multi-instrumentalist Kyrill Yakovlev (duduk! balalaika!) is a wildly diverse and layered world fusion album. Bulatkin plays piano, synth, Fender Rhodes and Hammond organ. His convincing and challenging organ lines bring to mind the aural canvases that were laid out long ago by the likes of Joe Zawinul and Doug Carn.

Bulatkin currently leads the Daniel Bulatkin Cinematic Ensemble, which combines jazz and strings. Furthermore, he produced and played piano and keyboard on American singer Allison Wheeler’s Winterspring. (2022) A highly recommended album that links strong compositions and solo statements to a – partly overdubbed – voice and delivery that puts Sandy Denny, Kate Bush, Blossom Dearie and Joni Mitchell in one original brand new bag. Beautiful album.

So you can see that versatile Daniel Bulatkin has been involved in a number of high-level affairs. Very talented cat.