It was a difficult affair to organize the concert, but the conductor of big-band Alexander Ablayev managed to find and convince the sponsors - auto center "Mercur" - to support this musical trend. And spectators were glad to meet again the Presidential Big-Band, which became their native for last three years, and guests from different cities of Kazakhstan and Russia.

There was a diversity of genres and styles at the scene. A young nice vocalist from Karaganda Julia Shtykova found new colors at the famous "Dolly" of Fitzgerald, guest from far Petrozavodsk Alexei Lebedev performed a gentle blues, Muscovite Peter Sharipov created an image of a fancy dan at the stage and raised the audience. And the audience was elated, when they firstly saw a young elegant gentleman at the stage - 12-year-old Marat Nigmatov, and then - his four-year-old brother Almaz, who sung jazz too. Of course, the party of the youngest brother was simpler then Marat's one, who learns to play violin at Kazakh State Music Academy, but such an early beginning inspires optimism - Kazakhstani jazz has a future!

Honorable actress of Russia Irina Otiyeva was a high spot of the show, singing four compositions in style of Lundstrem, stunning with her temperament the spectators and the general sponsor of the show Erlan Kuldybayev. Then the prima donna of Russian jazz hurried to fly and it was symbolic: the distant star is like a meteor - she flashed, and she would not fly again soon, but our stars are always here.

Soloist Sail Tatubayev performed after Otiyeva and successfully executed the duty of entertainer, group "JCS" - by the way, single group with its own compositions, and charming Zhanna Sattarova - they are our pride, and also the first jazz pipe Valeri Bannov and patriarch of Kazakhstani jazz Tahir Ibragimov, who also were at the stage.

And the most interesting event was off-stage after the concert: musicians gathered at one room and cheerfully improvised, using a happy opportunity of intercommunication. I asked Zhanna Sattarova, how singers come to jazz and why there are so little jazz vocalists-women in Kazakhstan?

- There are so little jazz singers, because Kazakhstan has not jazz school yet, although next year jazz department and children jazz school will be opened at Almaty Conservatorium. It is good news. But now singers come to jazz spontaneously, as I did it. I have a classical conservatorium education, but I did not listen and love this music.

- Is it necessary to have some special abilities - for example, diapason by 3,5 octave?

- I think not a diapason, but manner is significant for jazz; you should understand what is "swing", feel supersession of minims… And you have to learn, learn and learn for the whole life. I have been learning since my childhood and singing at professional stage for 10 year.

- Whom you can name the best jazz singers-women?

- Today I was listening Julia Shtykova from Karaganda. I think she is very capable. And at the total we have a lot of interesting jazz musicians. For example, there are very strong professional musicians at the group "JCS", and we name Tahir Ibragimov "our father".

- Was it difficult to sing after Otiyeva?

- No, because I didn't think about that. And we shouldn't compare musicians: jazz has a wide pallet and therefore everyone has his own style.

- As we know jazz requires an advanced auditoria. Do you have always packed houses at the concerts?

- I have always packed houses in Almaty. We are in Astana for the first time and its audience is wonderful. Since our very arriving, we were surrounded with warmth and care, and with this warm feeling we came to stage.

And then we saw how the audience was elated by the performance of every participant, as musicians were thankful to the master of the holiday Alexander Ablayev for the invitation and to sponsors and organizers - for support. Irina Otiyeva was right when she said, offended, about the disregard to her beloved genre: "You cannot explain what is caviar to a man, who has never eaten it, and then you cannot love jazz if you have never listened to it". Fortunately, there was television at Congress-Hall and therefore the auditorium of this music' connoisseurs will be widened. Now it is amusing to remember the time, when jazz was declared as "ideologically alien art". Today our jazz can glorify our motherland, but we should create conditions for new generations of musicians and connoisseurs growing up.

By Elena Kuznetsova,
Astana.