The Quartet Sensitive is a jazz group of renowned Croatian musicians, whose abundant individual work has contributed largely to the Croatian jazz scene. They have worked as a quartet for 6 years. They live and work in Rijeka. A CD entitled 'Afternoon with Jobim' was released 4 years ago, produced by Dallas Records, with 10 compositions by the best Brazilian composer of the 20th century, Antonio Carlos Jobim, in charming rhythm of bossa nova. It was given excellent reviews by critics and public alike. After this they had a number of appearances at jazz festivals in Croatia as well as concerts in Italy, Slovenia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Germany, etc. The band constantly appears on Croatian television either with live performances or video spots. In June 2004 their second CD was released, a logical continuance of the first one, with the greatest Brazilian hits this time sung in its original language of Portuguese. The title 'Discusao' brings two original compositions by M. Troselj as well. There is a number of distinguished Croatian musicians making guest appearances on the CD such as M. Dedic, S. Nestorovic, N. Franges, etc. Despite the wide variety of sound on the CD, as a quartet performing live, without any guests, the band sounds incredibly rich and full, showing free jazz communication between the members, and yet the music flows surprisingly smoothly. By all means the Quartet Sensitive is a unique phenomenon in the area and in spite of the fact that the members are often engaged in different groups, it can be heard and sensed that this formation is their home port.

Meri Troselj

vocals

Meri was born in 1965 in Rijeka where she graduated from music high school. As a composer and a singer of peculiar voice she has appeared at a number of festivals and received a number of awards and recognitions. She composes pieces for children and choirs and writes texts for music. She has made a CD with her original compositions entitled 'Take the Silence'. She works with guitarist Damir Halilic - Hal, also from Rijeka.

Darko Jurkovic - Charlie

guitar

He finished lower music school in Rijeka playing the violin, but as a self-taught guitarist went to the Jazz Academy in Graz where he graduated in 1997. He has played with many jazz greats at a number of festivals in Europe and Brazil. He is also a member of the international 'Europlane Orchestra'. He has received the professional award 'Status' as the best jazz guitar player of Croatia. He performs constantly with foreign musicians throughout Europe. He is a virtuoso guitar player of a rare and fascinating two hand tapping technique and has recorded his own CD entitled 'My Contribution' (M. Dedic, K. Levacic, M. Barakovic).

Mladen Barakovic

bass

He was born on 3rd August 1950 in Zagreb where he received his elementary and secondary music education. His later fields of study were not directly connected to music, but he started playing the bass guitar in rock bands as early as the 1960s in the 'Djecaci' and 'Vizije', led by Kica Slabinac. In the late 60s and throughout the 70s he became involved in music professionally. He was a member of many distinguished groups of that era (the Drazen Boic Band, the YU Jazz Rock Selection, the Supersession Band and later line ups of the 'Time' and Lambert's Shop). He also worked as a studio musician for the former Yugoton and collaborated on theatrical projects and recorded music for a number of films and commercials. In 1985 he started working for the Komedija Theatre in Zagreb. From 1978 he started playing jazz more intensively, and although he took up the contrabass with no formal training, he became very successful in jazz, and it seems there almost are no jazz musicians or groups in Zagreb he hasn't worked with: Bosko Petrovic, the Damir Dicic Trio, the Laci Fidri Quintet, the Hot Club Zagreb, The Big Bands of HRT, HGZ, HV, Jasna Bilusic's Cool Date, Cubismo, Cute, Tamara Obrovac, Lidija Bajuk, etc.) In 1996 he left the Theatre to join the HRT Big Band, of which he is still a member. He is a permanent member of the 'Boilers' Quartet, the 'Boilers All Stars', the Matija Dedic Trio, the Ladislav Fidri Quartet and the Darko Jurkovic Quartet. He has received six Statuses of the HGU's award for the best instrumentalist of the year (three for the contrabass and three for the bass guitar). He has been to New Jersey in the USA seven times. He has performed in Slovenia, Austria, Italy, Germany, (the 'Boilers' were a forerunner to the Benny Golson-Keny Burrell Quintet on their tour), Norway and Great Britain (the 'Boilers' were awarded the best musical event of the season by the English 'Times'). In 2002 he was a member of the EBU Big Band in Budapest. He has also performed in the ex-Yugoslav republics (Skopje, Nis, Valjevo, Novi Sad, Belgrade, Subotica, Podgorica, Sarajevo, Mostar, etc.) He has played with many foreign musicians (Csaba Dezzo, Georgij Garanjin, Kay Winding, Dave Homan, Chugi Varter, Mike Ellis, etc.).

Tonci Grabusic

drums

As a child he had piano and clarinet lessons and is a self-taught drummer. He has been on the Croatian music scene for 20 years. He has played with a number of pop, rock and jazz bands and collaborated on about 20 albums. In the late 80's he played with D. Balasevic and in the 90's frequently played with the Bosko Petrovic All Stars and many other jazz and pop musicians in Croatia. Together with Henry Radanovic and Meri Troselj he has received 2 'Porin' awards for jazz (with the Elvis Stanic Group) and recognition for 20 years of work as a musician from the city of Rijeka. He often plays with Gibonni, Severina, Matija Dedic, etc.