Azernews.Az

By Sabina Idayatova

Long-awaited Baku International Jazz Festival opened by the organization of the Azerbaijani Ministry of Culture and Tourism and Azerbaijani Culture Foundation in the International Mugam Center on October 23.

Minister of Culture and Tourism Abulfaz Garayev, prominent public figures, art and culture personalities, as well as world-famous actor Gerard Depardieu attended the opening ceremony.

Opening the ceremony, event presenter Rahib Azeri said that the festival had turned into a tradition, and it was held for the 11^th time this year.

"The festival concerts will be held at four concert venues - Heydar Aliyev Palace, International Mugham Center, Baku Jazz Center and the Azerbaijani State Song Theatre named after Rashid Behbudov," he said.

And this time festival organizers presented a very interesting program, starting with the famous American saxophonist, two-time Grammy Award nominee Joshua Redman, together with his quartet consisting of pianist Aaron Goldberg, contrabassist Reuben Rogers, and drummer Gregory Hutchinson.

Perhaps the style of Redman is somewhat predictable for the sophisticated jazz audience, but noone remained indifferent to his quartet performance of good old classic jazz in the tradition of the twenties of the last century.

Besides his compositions, Redman also performed classical compositions, particularly his favorite "Chi Chi" by Charlie Parker.

The quartet also performed classical jazz compositions authored by Redman for this ensemble, selected jazz compositions from the lyrical a la ballade musical album named "Walking Shadows", released in 2013, and other new jazz compositions.

American musicians could not remain indifferent to the tumultuous applause of the Baku audience, and performed some part of their composition again, and then disappeared from the stage.

The first day of the 11^th Baku International Jazz Festival featured a very good start.

The Baku International Jazz Festival will be held from October 23 to November 2. Traditionally, the festival features renowned musicians from different countries.

Within the framework of the festival, performances by Kerry Garrett, Avishai Cohen, Bob James, Marcus Miller, David Sanborn and others will be held.

Along with foreign artists, the festival will feature performances of well-known Azerbaijani musicians - Salman Gambarov, Emil Afrasiyab, Mirjavad Jafarov, as well as talented young musicians.

Tickets are available at the city box offices.

Jazz is a highly appreciated music genre in Azerbaijan. Annual international jazz festivals have been held in the capital of Baku since 2002.

At the heart of the festival is Azerbaijani jazz which has its own long history. Conquering the world at the beginning of the 20^th century, jazz as a musical genre reached Baku. Newspaper archives indicate that at that time bands were already performing jazz in Baku restaurants. It is 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 the Soviet doctrine profoundly affected all aspects of daily life - even the attitude toward art and literature. Everything was subject to the 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 Kremlin in Moscow, not by local artists.

In the period of persecution and prohibition of jazz, Vagif Mustafazadeh, the founder of Azerbaijani jazz was born. We can see by delving into the past that Mustafazadeh turned into a bright ray of light for jazz at the time of musical darkness. He had long been an outcast and was not understood by people whose consciousness was dominated by the Soviet ideology.

However, Mustafazadeh managed to create Azerbaijani jazz, giving it a native element and something close to Azerbaijan's soul. He created a new sound - his own kind of jazz, a fusion of jazz with a form of indigenous Azerbaijani music, Mugham.

These days, Aziza Mustafazadeh and Isfar Sarabski, as well as other celebrities like Emil Afrasiyab, Elchin Shirinov, Afgan Rasoul, Ulviyya Rahimova, Diana Hajiyeva, Zaur Mirzayev and Sabina Babayeva are breathing a new life into the rich art of Azerbaijani jazz.