KEIKO IS AMAZED AT BAKU

The favourite of millions of fans of contemporary jazz music around the world, promoter of jazz and well-known Japanese pianist Keiko Matsui needs no introduction: she is visiting Baku for the third time, but music lovers are not running out of interest in her. In any case, this love for the southern city and the temperament and warmth of its people is quite mutual. At a meeting with journalists, Keiko spoke enthusiastically about Baku, its architecture, paintings and people... "It is one of my favourite cities in the world. For example, I really liked your Flame Towers complex, they adorn the city very well! During my last visit, I found them under construction," she said. Streets lit up at night, their magic view, buildings in the Old Town - all these did not leave the famous performer indifferent.

Keiko has long known about Bakuvians' love for her: "I keep getting emails and messages on my page on the Facebook social network with a question: When will you visit us?"

Mrs Matsui came to know Azerbaijan in a somewhat specific way: she learned about the existence of the Caspian Sea - Japan produces a yogurt called Caspian. "Later, I met with the Azerbaijani ambassador to Japan. He told me about your country, its rich culture, traditions, history, and I accepted a proposal to come here with a great interest. I think that music connects people around the world. And I'm happy to build a bridge between our two countries," she said.

Matsui's visit to Baku is part of her tour of five countries, including Japan, Russia and Azerbaijan. The tour is timed to coincide with the 25th anniversary of her creative work. "I usually time my concerts with a certain event: for example, they are held for charitable purposes, in order to fight cancer, famine in Africa, as part of some programme, and so on," the pianist said.

The programme of the famous pianist's two-day visit to Baku is full: Keiko has brought her whole group with her and plans to show a real performance to the Baku audience. She intends to perform pieces from her past albums, including her latest album Road released in 2011.

And there will be a big surprise - a performance together with the famous Azerbaijani jazzman Isfar Sarabski. Mrs Matsui admitted that she had never heard his music before and became familiar with it only last night. "I listened to it as a record on a mobile phone, and it struck me: it is unique music in any case," she said. Keiko knows Azerbaijani music very well. She was impressed by the great Vaqif Mustafazada: "He is a musician of genius," she said.

Apart from Isfar Sarabski, Keiko was going to perform together with the Azerbaijan Chamber Orchestra, but this "duet", unfortunately, failed because Mrs Matsui's visit coincided with the International Mugam Festival. But the performer has not lost hope that when she visits again in the future, she stressed, there will definitely be a joint performance.

Keiko Matsui has a lot of future plans in Azerbaijan. For example, she would like to perform prominent Azerbaijani works. And she has an idea to conduct master classes following the example of many famous musicians.

Her current visit to Baku was organized by the Buta Art Centre. Its director Fuad Xatamov said that the main goal of the club is to promote Azerbaijani culture all over the world. "In the future, we plan to invite many other world famous performers to Azerbaijan," he said.

In an interview with R+, Matsui noted that the present state of jazz in the world was dual: "Basically everyone now downloads music from the Internet, where it is in the public domain. This has an impact on the income of performers, as you know, the profits from the sales of CDs significantly drops." But at the same time, the pianist said, there is a growing interest in modern jazz among young people. Among the well-known jazz musicians of our time, Keiko named John Beasley, George Duke, Robert Glasper, Herbie Hancock, Abdullah Ibrahim and Eddie Palmieri. "I will soon see them all, and we will perform together at the Istanbul International Jazz Day," the performer explained.

In respect of her music, Keiko Matsui said that in her career, she uses different directions, including both classic and contemporary jazz, and rock music: "I create something new, I make Keiko's music," the pianist said.

Among her favourite musicians, Keiko named Sting and Rachmaninoff.

About Keiko and her music

Keiko released her first disc in 1987. Climbing the musical Olympus, she received the prestigious Oasis award in 1999 and 2000 as "the best jazz performer". In 2001, her new CD DeepBlue topped the TopBillboard. Despite the fact that Keiko Matsui's music is often presented as jazz, for the most part it is a synthesis of many areas of eastern and western music. "Western" primarily means European. And in this regard, her love for Rachmaninoff and Sting characterizes her work very well. In general, Keiko's music is hardly heavy and difficult for the listener. And this is part of the secret of her popularity, and it is for this reason that her music "goes" well with the movies.

Today's world, overloaded with information, globalized and connected with the Internet, has created an unprecedented number of workers that blend styles and genres of music. And if there are only seven notes (without semitones), and all options for combining them have long been exhausted, the combinations of musical styles are practically inexhaustible. The trouble is that most artists cannot connect different musical directions correctly, with high quality, successfully and naturally.

Keiko succeeded in this.