Azernews.Az

By Seymur Aliyev

An international jazz festival is underway at the International Mugham Center in the Azerbaijani capital Baku.

Culture and Tourism Minister Abulfas Garayev, who attended the opening ceremony of the Baku International Jazz Festival 2012, highlighted the Azerbaijani government's attention to all areas of culture and art, including jazz.

The jazz festival is being held October 16-25 with the support of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism and the Culture Fund of Azerbaijan. The festival takes place at the Heydar Aliyev Palace, the State Philharmonic Hall, International Mugham Center and Jazz Center.

The festival program includes performances by Azerbaijani and world-famous musicians. These include Mike Stern Band of the United States, Gonzalo Rubalcaba (Cuba-USA), H3O (Sweden), Glenn Miller orchestra, Yiorgos Psihoyios and his trio (Greece), Carmen Souza (Portugal), Kool & the Gang (USA), Esra Dalfidan (Netherlands), Luciano Biondini (Italy) and others. A number of outstanding Azerbaijani jazzmen are also performing, including Tofiq Jabbarov, Emil Afrasiyab, Elchin Shirinov, Afgan Rasoul, Rain Sultanov, Isfar Sarabski, Natiq Shirinov, and Zaur Mirzayev. The festival also features concerts by Azerbaijan's Buta choir and Hajibayov State Symphony Orchestra.

Azeri jazz traditions

Azerbaijan has its own extensive jazz history. Conquering the world, jazz reached Baku. Newspaper archives indicate that bands were performing jazz in Baku restaurants. It's likely that Robert Nobel and his brothers, Ludwig and Alfred, listened to jazz in Baku. Unfortunately, there are no early recordings to determine the professional quality of those performances.

In 1920, the Soviet regime gained control of the region, and soon Soviet doctrine profoundly affected all aspects of life -- even the attitudes toward art and literature. Everything was subject to Communist ideology and centralized control. Nothing escaped its scrutiny, not even music -- including what to sing, what to play and what to listen to. Those decisions were all made at the Kremlin in Moscow, not by local artists.

In 1945, at the end of World War II, Stalin decided to prohibit jazz throughout the Soviet Union, labeling it "music of the capitalists." Jazz had already been banned by Hitler in Germany in 1933 on the grounds that it was "the music of blacks".

In the period of persecution and the prohibition of jazz was born the founder of Azerbaijani jazz Vagif Mustafazadeh. Delving into the past through time, one can note that Mustafazadeh became a bright ray of hope for jazz in the times of musical darkness. He had long been an outcast and was not understood by people whose consciousness had been absorbed by the Soviet ideology.

After Stalin's death in 1953, the prohibition against jazz was gradually lifted. Still, the public was highly suspicious.

As could have been expected, the situation didn't change overnight. For example, in 1957, Vagif was scheduled to give a concert at Music School N1, where his mother taught piano. His program included two or three short jazz compositions. But the concert was never allowed to take place because the music was branded as capitalist.

Therefore, Vagif and other musicians involved with jazz mainly performed in clubs and each other's homes. Classical jazz, including dance music and blues, formed the basis of Vagif's repertoire. Early on, he created some magnificent renditions of the Fox Trot, the Charleston and the One-Step, as well as some memorable pieces from Glenn Miller's "Serenade of the Sunny Valley."

In 1958, he was selected as pianist for the Folk Instruments Orchestra, and they performed several concerts at the Philharmonic together. He continued to play dance jazz in clubs, but it was clear that he was not comfortable. He was in search of something else. He was unsettled and this quest tortured him morally, sometimes, even physically. He couldn't expose his inner world openly to his audience and he was deprived of sharing his feelings with people.

Mustafazadeh managed to make jazz Azerbaijani, create in it something native, something close to Azerbaijani soul. He created a new sound -- his own kind of jazz, a fusion of jazz with a form of indigenous Azerbaijani music, Mugham. Vagif Mustafazadeh's jazz was the first to be built upon the native music of the East. Such a trend was not new. Azerbaijan was used to being "first" when it came to music in the Muslim East. For example, Azerbaijan boasts the first opera, the first female opera singer, the first ballet and the first symphony orchestra.

Mugham jazz is based on the modal forms or scales of mughams, just as a mugham symphonies are symphonies based on mughams. Ordinary jazz is marked by metered rhythm. But mugham jazz does not follow a metered system. Both rhythm and scales are improvised.

"Thought", a great creation by Mustafazadeh, can be listened to for hours. This tune uncovers a man full of sadness, nostalgia, hope and innermost desire. Each note, dissolving in our thoughts, awakens the beauty that we have forgotten and all the feelings the existence of which we would not dare to admit to ourselves.

Mustafazadeh left us in 1979 at the age of 39. He died on stage during his performance in Uzbekistan, as a true man of art.

But his skill was not lost. His beloved daughter, Aziza Mustafazadeh, followed her father's footsteps, delighting listeners with quality and beautiful jazz.

Only jazz can explain the magic nights of Baku, thoughts and feelings arising from the depths of the subconsciousness. Only jazz tunes are able to smoothly fall into one's heart and describe the essence of being.

Jazz is beautiful uncertainty. Listening to it, one gets into the dimension where there is neither time nor space, it's just you and the brilliant notes of the melody fluttering over you. Jazz may create an atmosphere of both solitude and luxury, which is so scarce in our life. The magic of the night, endless city lights, subtle caramel flavor and indescribable emotions perfectly blend with jazz. This is a world in which you may immerse and never want to leave. In jazz we see improvisation, precise rhythms, embodiment of African and European culture, and marvelous harmony of people's musical fantasy.

New jazz generation

Aziza Mustafazadeh is also known as "The Princess of Jazz" or "Jazziza". In 1988, at the age of 18, Aziza's mugham-influenced style helped her win third place together with American Matt Cooper at the Thelonious Monk piano competition in Washington, D.C. Aziza released her debut album, Aziza Mustafa Zadeh, in 1991. Her second album, Always, won her the Phono Academy Prize, a prestigious German music award, and the Echo Prize from Sony. She has since performed in many countries with a plethora of jazz and traditional luminaries and released several more albums, the most recent being Contrasts II, released in 2007.

Another shining example is Isfar Sarabski. In 2009 he won Montre International Jazz festival held in Switzerland. Sarabski has performed at Baku Caspian Jazz and Blues Festival in Azerbaijan several times, participated in the annual Sildajazz festival in Norway, as well as at the International Jazz Festival in Russia. He has also been awarded at Stars of Issyk-kul. In 2012 he received the title of Honorary Artist of Azerbaijan.

Aziza Mustafazadeh and Isfar Sarabski, as well as other new persons in Azerbaijani jazz such as Emil Afrasiyab, Elchin Shirinov, Afgan Rasoul, Ulviyya Rahimova, Diana Hajiyeva, and Zaur Mirzayev are breathing a new life into the abundant Azerbaijani art of jazz.

Of note, the Azerbaijani representative at Eurovision Song Contest 2012 was jazz singer Sabina Babayeva, who ranked 4th among 43 participants at the spectacular show, which was held in Baku.