Marko Jelača (Ex-Yugoslavia)
drums
Marko was born in 1978 in Ruma, Serbia, ex-Yugoslavia. His musical pursuit began at the age of 13 by enrolling in classical percussion studies. In the years to come he discovered hand percussion and started moving towards modern music and jazz. At the age of 19 he moved to Belgrade and began playing in a variety of bands of diverse styles, such as Blues, Jazz, Funk, Latin-Jazz and western African music, which reflected in over 600 shows with a Belgrade based West African group named So Sabi.
At the time he started to study Jazz at the Stankovic Music School in Belgrade and participated in a Serbian Youth Big Band as the drummer, interpreting a wide repertoire from Benny Goodman and Glenn Miller to Count Basie, Duke Ellington to Quincy Jones and Sammy Nestico as well as contemporary composers based in Serbia, like Ivan Ilic and Marko Djordjevic.
In 2005 he moved to Barcelona and began his studies at the prestigious Liceu Conservatory in the department for Jazz and modern music and graduated with honors in 2009. During that time he investigated his origins in the band Los Moussakis, playing traditional folkloric music from the Balkan, rich in amalgam rhythms.
In 2007 his path crossed with Austrian saxophone player, Muriel Grossmann, where he discovered a new approach to music, going from contemporary Jazz to Avant-guard to free Jazz, recording 3 albums and having numerous performances. In 2008 the Muriel Grossmann Quartet shared the stage with one of the greats of jazz, Joachim Kuehn, which enriched his way in approaching music.
Nowadays he still resides in Barcelona taking part in many different musical projects, such as: Los Moussakis, Balkan Colors (duo with Dušan Jevtović, Serbian and Macedonian folkloric music), Gokhan Surer Quartet (Anatolian psychedelic progressive fusion), RCJ (free impro trio), Adry Fernandez P.U.N.K, Shungo (afro-equatorial fusion) among others. He is an active participant in Barcelona’s growing free improvisation scene, sharing the stage with some of the best musicians in Europe.
He also shares his knowledge through giving private drum lessons and plans on making a workshop duo with a great Barcelona drummer Vasco Trilla on subjects such as complex and amalgam rhythms and the art of free improvisation, with the goal of expanding our musical expression abilities.