Biography >


Born in a university town Novi Sad, Serbia, Yugoslavia, entirely self-taught, Branco began playing guitar at the age of 15, showing a discerning ear by listening to Deep Purple and a domestic rock band Smak, and he very soon found a love of jazz and classical music, listening to Joe Pass, Charlie Parker, Antonio Carlos Jobim, Vivaldi, Albinoni... Soon, Branco was being featured at the largest festival "The Days of Jazz in Novi Sad".

At 18 he prolifically started composing sensuous music with Sunny dispositions and gathered 100’s of tunes. Branco’s inspiration are the Sun and the natural world, enthralling traditional folk music of his homeland, jazz and classical music. The interest in his original compositions led to recordings for Radio and TV Novi Sad. Following this Branco formed his Sad Nova Trio whose success led to numerous concerts and broadcasts on TV.

As an avid reader and follower of the Sherlock Holmes series (actor Jeremy Brett and his amazing English!), Branco began to hanker after a different life and wider musical opportunities. In the early nineties he set off to England with little more than his guitar and have since become a fixture on the London and UK music scene, actively composing and performing solo, in various duos and with his new trio featuring bassist Leslee Booth and percussionist Buster Birch.

After Branco’s very first London solo-gig in 1993, at then Peter Ind's Tenor Clef jazz-club, he performed at many top venues such as Arts Centres: The National Theatre, Royal Albert Hall-Ignite, Norwich, Colchester, Cardiff, Windsor, Eastbourne; Festivals: London Jazz Festival, City Of London, Ealing Jazz Festival, Oxford Jazz Festival, Int. Guitar Festival of GB Wirral, Ards Int. Guitar Festival of N. Ireland, Dillington Classical Guitar Festival, Deal Arts Festival; Rural Touring in Devon, and an endless list of clubs such as: Pizza Express Jazz Club in London, The Stables Theatre Milton Keynes, POSK; an High-Places as: The Landmark Hotel-London, Royal Commonwealth Club, Royal Automobile Club...

Branco also appeared on Sky TV Arts World, BBC Radio 3's In Tune, Resonance FM and SOAS Radio World In London by DJ Ritu, and was regularly featured as a favourite on Sarah Ward's show on Jazz FM.

Currently, Branco is performing solo-guitar recitals, often described as "one man ensemble".

Branco is a qualified teacher of Goldsmiths College, where he taught the guitar for 13 years, and the jazz guitar at City Lit College London, for 10 years, in his unique, passionate and enthusiastic way by passing that enthusiasm and love for the guitar to his students thus enabling them to really play the instrument.

Branco is also a keen ukulele player and teacher, a natural world photographer, a movie maker, a guitar-tech, art-work designer, recordist and producer, and a big aficionado of the genius of electricity, Serbian born Nikola Tesla.

Nine critically acclaimed albums, a live DVD and two music books have been released on Branco’s Sun Recordings label: the total of 103 tunes, of those 78 originals.

Endorsement: Branco plays and endorses his super-custom Brancovarious acoustic guitars, AER amps and Audio-Technica microphones.