TODAY.AZ / Arts & Entertainment

Keiko Matsui to perform in Baku

16 March 2013 [09:30] - TODAY.AZ
Multiple Awards winning jazz queen Keiko Matsui will light the hearts of her numerous fans at the Heydar Aliyev Palace on March 27-28.

Keiko Matsui released two albums under the MCA label before moving on to White Cat, Countdown, Unity and currently Narada. The 1990s saw Matsui`s albums rising in the charts. Sapphire hit number two on Billboard`s weekly Top Contemporary Jazz Albums chart, and Dream Walk reached number three. Matsui was rated Billboard`s number three Top Contemporary Jazz Artist for 1997 (where she was the only female jazz artist in the top ten), and both Dream Walk and Sapphire appeared in Billboard`s Top Ten Indie Contemporary Jazz Albums for the same year.

Matsui received the Oasis award for Best Female Smooth Jazz Artist of the Year in 1999 and again in 2000. In 2001, Matsui`s first album with Narada, Deep Blue, finally took her to the number one spot on Billboard’s Top Contemporary Jazz Albums chart and held the position for three weeks.

Matsui`s music is powerful and introspective, blending both Western and Eastern musical influences. She has a very spiritual view of composing music, feeling out each composition as though it were, in her words, "coming to me from another space, another dimension," and "catching notes from the silence and then simply placing them together". Matsui sees music as "the great gifts from the human souls from the past, for the children of the future". She believes that music has a power to bring people together and change their lives. "We are connected by music," Matsui wrote, "as the Ocean connects the continents".

A lover of nature, Matsui often makes reference to plants, animals, the elements, and other natural features and phenomena in her song titles. She shows a special fascination with the moon as a number of her compositions refer to the moon in their titles. Matsui`s music shows signs of evolving over the years. Her American debut album A Drop of Water showed a promise of east meets west with a jazz fusion flavour.

Whisper From the Mirror from 2000 showed Matsui leaving the smooth jazz style and moving towards new age with a soundscape sound. A number of her fans had a problem adapting to her new style of music (though she continued to play smooth jazz at her concerts). But many welcomed the change. Over time her post-2000 albums show a more worldbeat flavor to them. Her 2005 release Walls of Akendora, however, is a return to her pre-2000, smooth jazz days.


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