By Azernews

By Laman Ismayilova

Oleg Lundstrem Jazz Orchestra has brilliantly performed on the Caspian coast as part of the 3rd Baku Summer Jazz Days festival.

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.

The concert turned out a great surprise as numerous listeners and guests of the capital attended the concert for free, Trend Life reported. 

The artistic director of the orchestra, a brilliant musician-arranger, pianist, People's Artist of Russia Boris Frumkin, who has led the orchestra for 12 years, praised the Summer Jazz Days in Baku.

"I visited Baku in the 1970s, was coming here with concerts. Baku has changed a lot, but maintained its identity and unique style. Over the past four years we performed here twice, and every time everything was at a very high level. In my youth, we had an ensemble called the Quintet Crescendo. We were fond of national motives and, in particular, we even had a composition about Azerbaijani mugham," said Frumkin.

"We have also faced Azerbaijani culture because we were friends with Azerbaijani musicians, who were all addicted to mugham, distinguished by its originality, mastery and soulfulness. There are a lot of jazz musicians from Baku - Vagif Mustafazade, Vagif Sadikhov, Rafig Babayev and many others. Also, I had friendship with Baku musicians, for example, with participants of the wonderful Gaya jazz quartet," he added.

The Russian musician further stressed the beauty of the Azerbaijani capital.

"It seems that Baku is a fabulous vision: wonderful architecture, amazingly beautiful houses. Baku has always been distinguished by its warm musical audience - it is a city of the richest musical culture. Seaside Boulevard - this is exactly the place which shows all the charm of Baku. The renewed promenade has become unrecognizable – the boulevard is of stunning beauty, " said Frumkin.

For the third time, the Azerbaijani capital welcomed guests and participants of the Baku Summer Jazz Days festival on June 10-15.

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.

The festival brought together talented musicians from Azerbaijan, Russia, Israel, France, Georgia and Switzerland.

Media partners of the event were Azernews.az, Trend.az, Day.az, Milli.az.