Deniss Paškevičs says about Liepāja Jazz Week: “It was a great week filled with quality events. Each master class provided was filled with high-quality knowledge for our students. I am proud of the excellent work of Latvian jazz musicians during the jazz week. Of course, one cannot fail to highlight the unique opportunity to work in an online master class with the legendary jazz musician Dave Liebman from the USA, who has played with Miles Davis for many years in his career. The master class and evening “Jam Session” with my longtime friend and colleague Sebastian, who is not only an outstanding composer and jazz musician, but also hosts one of the biggest jazz festivals in Germany “XJAZZ”, was also great. I am glad that not only jazz, but also interdisciplinary genres were discussed during the master classes, touching on both academic and electronic music. The end of the jazz week was special, where in Jānis Rubiks’ master class working with a big band, I mastered a composition composed by me and arranged by Jānis, which was created especially for the Liepāja Big Band. It was a real pleasure to see the music resonate with the young musicians. ”
“This year we tried to organize Jazz Week in such a way that it would be interesting for all music lovers to follow any master class. For example, for a trumpet player to come up with ideas for new challenges to apply to their instrument, regardless of whether the instrument has been played in the classical or jazz genre so far. In addition, for the first time, online viewers had the opportunity to follow the progress of the master classes. To achieve this, several cameras were organized, which provided high-quality sound and picture. Next year we will continue to work on online quality assurance, so I forecast that the audience for this event will increase. That is our goal, ”adds Rustams Bagirovs, the head of the LMMDV Popular and Jazz Music Education Program.
Jazz Week ran from August 30 to September 7, when anyone interested had the opportunity to participate in online master classes during the week, where they were introduced to the basics, content, performance and improvisation of jazz and popular music.
The leaders of the master classes were well-known jazz music masters in Latvia, Europe and the wider world – David Libman (USA), Sebastians Studnickis (Germany), Deniss Pashkevich (Latvia), Nephi Irizari (Puerto Rico / Latvia), Andris Buikis (Latvia), Rustams Bagirovs (Latvia) ), Evilena Protektore (Latvia) and Jānis Rubiks (Latvia).
