Baku Summer Jazz Days: grand jazz marathon on Caspian coast
By Laman Ismayilova
For the third time, the Azerbaijani capital will welcome guests and participants of the Baku Summer Jazz Days festival to be held on June 10-15.
Baku Summer Jazz Days is a multi-faceted international project that was created on the initiative of the Premier Art Management Production Center with the support of the Culture Ministry, Trend Life reported.
The festival has already won the sympathy of music lovers.
As part of the festival, concerts will be held at the International Mugham Center and open areas in the city squares for free.
Along with Azerbaijani jazzmen, the event will bring together talented musicians from Russia, Israel, France, Georgia and Switzerland.
The world famous trumpeter Erik Truffaz with his quartet will open the festival on June 10. Truffaz is one of the world's most intelligent and inventive jazzmen. He started to perform when he was only 8 years. From the age of 30 he has been performing with his own team. Among all his concerts, one can hardly find two identical programs or two identical shows. As a composer, he applies electronic sound effects in the process of writing new music, mixing genres from jazz-rock to drum-n-bass. With such a colorful musical palette, he manages to maintain his own recognizable style.
Israeli jazz virtuoso Adam Ben Ezra will delight Baku residents on June 12. Inspired by Bach, Sting, Bobby McFerrin and Chick Corea, the phenomenal contrabassist Ben Ezra decided to compose a completely new music, regardless of the instrument used. He deliberately added new colors to his palette, bringing elements of jazz, Latin and Mediterranean music into his music.
Georgian IRIAO ethnic-jazz band will perform on June 14.The entire repertoire of IRIAO is based on Georgian folk decorated with jazz elements. IRIAO has performed at such major music festivals as the Java Jazz Festival in Indonesia, the Borneo Jazz Festival in Malaysia, the Alfa Jazz Festival in Ukraine, etc.
The evening will be continued by the young, incredibly talented French guitar virtuoso and composer Tom Ibarra with his quintet. Miles Davis, Pat Matini and Weather Report played a great role in the life of the musician.
Ibarra released his debut album in 2015. At the age of 19, Tom performed on the same stage with such jazz musicians as Marcus Miller, Richard Bona, Didier Lockwood and many others. Tom Ibarra is the winner of the 2017 Letter One Rising Stars Jazz Award 2017.
Oleg Lundstrem Jazz Orchestra will give a concert on the Caspian coast on June 15. In 1994, the Guinness Book of Records recognized the Lundstrem band as the oldest continuously existing jazz band. This year the orchestra celebrates its 85th anniversary. The musicians gave more than 10,000 concerts. Oleg Lundstrem Jazz Orchestra is the only big band in the world that performed at the United Nations General Assembly Hall.
Joint performances by foreign guests with Azerbaijani jazzmen will undoubtedly be another surprise in the rich and colorful program of the festival.
This once again confirms the fact that music knows no barriers and boundaries, and musicians from different parts of the world understand each other without words, speaking the language of art.
Tickets can be purchased at all ticket offices of the city, ASAN Service centers, Ganjlik Mall, 28 Mall, and online on www.iticket.az.
Media partners of the event are Trend.az, Day.az, Milli.az.
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Laman Ismayilova is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @Lam_Ismayilova
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