In 1986 studied with
Clare Fischer at the
Blue Lake Fine Arts Camp in Michigan. He was influenced by the traditional
Balkan music playing in an army orchestra during his
military service in
former Yugoslavia, which would influence all his subsequent work. He moved to Paris in 1988, playing with
Henri Texier,
Michel Portal,
Noël Akchoté, and
Julien Lourau. In 1993, he recorded the debut album with his Bojan Z Quartet, followed by
Yopla!. In 1999, he was engaged in
Koreni (
Roots) with Karim Ziad from
Algeria,
Kudsi Erguner from
Turkey, and
Vlatko Stefanovski from
Macedonia. On
Transpacifik (2003) he started collaborating with
Scott Colley and
Nasheet Waits, and continued on
Xenophonia (2006) with
Ben Perowsky and
Ari Hoenig, as well as Frenchman Remi Vignolo. He often uses the combination of acoustic piano with
Fender Rhodes electric piano, often playing them simultaneously, and recently is claimed to be the inventor of "Xenophone", a hybrid instrument, based on the customized Fender Rhodes electric piano. It can be heard on
Xenophonia. He won the
Victoires du Jazz prize in France in 2007 for
Xenophonia and in 2013 for
Soul Shelter as the Best Albums of the Year. In 2002, Zulfikarpašić was granted the title of ''Chevalier de l'ordre des Arts et des Lettres'' by the French government, and he received the
Prix Django Reinhardt for Musician of the Year from the
Académie du Jazz. In 2005, he was granted the Hans Koller European Jazz Prize as the Best European Jazz Musician. ==Personal life==