Azernews.Az

By Laman Ismayilova

The Third Baku Summer Jazz Days Festival opened its doors to music lovers on June 10.

The world famous trumpeter Erik Truffaz and his quartet presented a unique program on the stage of the International Mugham Center as part of the festival, Trend Life reported.

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 musical style.

Music critics call his work bright and unique. Truffaz is one of the most brilliant European jazzmen, who does not need to be introduced to those who are interested in improvisational music. His original music cannot be attributed to any particular genre. Most of his compositions are imbued with the breath of modernity and the future, nostalgia and vivid emotions.

All these feelings and emotions spread over the enthusiastic audience at the first day of Baku Summer Jazz Days Festival.

At the end, the public did not want to let the quartet go and demanded an encore. The musicians continued with fantastic dance rhythms.

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.

Along with Azerbaijani jazzmen, talented musicians from Russia, Israel, France, Georgia and Switzerland are taking part in the festival.

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 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 music 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 Azernews.az, Trend.az, Day.az, Milli.az.

Laman Ismayilova is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @Lam_Ismayilova

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz