It was a cool sunday morning when we left for the Baku International Jazz Festival, One of our first interactions with the Azerbaijani culture. It was not a disappointment!
Wow, the musicians were amazing. First, however here is some background on why there is a jazz festival in a formerly Soviet controlled area. The festival was started in 2002 as a way to remember Azerbaijan's jazz musicians from the 1950's-60's. These musicians were risking their lives to play their music during the Cold War, even when the Soviets had outlawed jazz music; so being able to play jazz was a sign of access to the West - a sign of being able to overcome the oppressive Soviet Union. This was an amazing cultural experience that had an amazing story behind it!
We spent the day listening to the likes of Terri Lyne Carrington and his quartet, Michel Camilo along with his trio. Some of the local jazz artists came, including Salman Gambarov, and Mirjavid Jafarov. These composers and jazz players had clearly invested a lot into their music and showed a lot of emotion when they were performing. Michel Camilo is my all time favorite,though, because of the crazy pace that he played at. He did the song "Latin Jazz" which captivated the audience. Here is him performing this wonderful song:
There was no food for lunch, so we had to go out, so we ate a quick meal at the
good ol' American fast food chain of Kentucky Fried Chicken. For dinner
this evening we ate a traditional Azerbaijani cuisine; our meal consisted of a Lyulya Kebab, which is lamb, spices,
and herbs around a skewer and cooked, and we also had some lavash (thin sheet
of unleavened bread), Toyuq sorbasi, the traditional form of chicken soup, and
for dessert we had a sherkerbura, a pastry filled with nuts, cinnamon, and
sugar. Our beverage that we drank was Sharbat which is a sweet cold drink made
from fruit juice and is often perfumed with rose water. This meal was
ABSOLUTELY GREAT!!! The dinner we enjoyed really showed what the food culture is like in Azerbaijan, and checked off another item on our list!
We are going to visit the carpet museum tomorrow, so I am going to turn in for the night.
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