Gergana Velinova’s seventh solo album, Free: A Soulful Journey, reflects an artistic path shaped by multiple musical and cultural traditions. Born in Sofia, Bulgaria, the vocalist, composer, and poet has built a career in Europe, the United States, and Canada. After earning a master’s degree in Jazz and Classical-Contemporary Voice Performance from Boston’s Longy School of Music, she became active in New York City’s jazz community, where she founded Ensemble Gergana and studied with Metropolitan Opera soprano Stefka Evstatieva and contemporary classical vocalist Lucy Shelton. Now based in Canada, where she recently became a citizen, Velinova performs, teaches, and directs the West Vancouver Heritage Choir.
Velinova’s recordings have consistently blended mainstream jazz with influences from Bulgarian folk music, Brazilian music, and contemporary classical traditions. Her discography began with the standards-based Softly (Self Released, 2010), followed by The Thief (Self Released, 2014), an album of original compositions that reached the North American Earshot and CMJ jazz charts. Subsequent releases, including Could It Be (Self Released, 2015) and December Wishing (Self Released, 2015), continued to develop that stylistic range.
Written over five years during the pandemic and the early years of motherhood, Free is her most personal recording. Released by Cellar Music Group and co-produced with pianist and multi-instrumentalist Kristian Alexandrov, the album moves between contemporary jazz, Bulgarian folk-influenced meters, and Bossa Nova without treating any one style as dominant.
A core ensemble of Alexandrov on piano and keyboards, drummer Joel Fountain, and bassists Miles Hill, Mojo Jones, and Peter Slavov perform the ten tracks, with guest appearances by saxophonists Jon Bentley and Cory Weeds, flugelhorn player Vince Mai, vocalist Shannon Gaye, vocalist Gord Maxwell, and violinist Cameron Wilson. The title track, “Free,” opens with a Brazilian-inflected groove that frames Velinova’s wordless improvisation alongside Bentley’s saxophone. “Orange Moon” follows with a restrained ballad setting highlighted by Mai’s muted flugelhorn.
The album’s middle section favors more intimate writing. “If You Knew” reduces the accompaniment to piano and voice, while “Two Hearts” draws on Bossa Nova rhythms. “Keep Walking” adopts a soul-jazz approach featuring Cory Weeds’ tenor saxophone, and “A Star” broadens into jazz-pop with layered backing vocals.
The closing sequence emphasizes the ensemble’s flexibility. “Something More” features an uptempo swing feel, which allows for ample vocal improvisation, and “A Song About Stones” pairs Weeds and Velinova in a conversational exchange over buoyant piano lines. The final two tracks provide a deliberate contrast: “A Lullaby to Myself” is an unaccompanied reflection on motherhood during the pandemic, and “Come a Little Closer” closes the album by combining jazz, chamber music, and operatic vocal technique through the addition of Cameron Wilson’s violin.